"...it can be hard to take stock of just how lucky we are, as Canadians, and how well served Canada is by its institutions and system of government. The credit for this country’s legacy of stable government, freedom, democracy, justice and the rule of law rests chiefly with the Crown, but we rarely hear this acknowledged by our politicians or the chattering classes.
...Republicans like to argue that hereditary rule is an outdated concept, and often make it sound as though we are always at the mercy of a foreign monarch. However, although the Queen does reside across the Atlantic, she is not a foreign Queen. She is the Queen of Canada. And neither she nor her forebearers have ruled anything for well over a century. They are figureheads. But they are figureheads who are tightly woven into the fabric of our constitution and our history. And it would behoove us to recognize just how much we’ve gained from that history.
...Canada has a constitution that is “similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom.” From this, we inherited the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, and the tradition of a sovereign who always defers to the wishes of the people’s elected representatives, but is there nonetheless as a final defence against heinous abuses of government power.
...We gained the concept of the rule of law, which holds that no one is above the law — not even a prime minister or a king. We have benefited from a system of courts and a common law that serves as the basis of our legal system outside Quebec, and which protected Canadians’ basic human rights — including the right to free speech, freedom of religion and due process — well before they were codified in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
...None of this was inevitable. To see how history could have played out differently, just look at South America, where the Spanish did not pass on values like democracy and the rule of law. As a result, many countries have suffered from weak civil institutions, have been oppressed by brutal dictatorships and transfers of power have often come about through bloody coups, rather than peaceful elections.
...But getting rid of the monarchy would entail sweeping constitutional reforms that would require tremendous effort and huge expense, with very little benefit. It would also necessitate a historic agreement between Canada’s increasingly disparate regions and nationalities that could very easily tear the country apart.
Far better to stick with a system that has proven remarkably stable and successful for over 150 years, and a Queen who has served us extremely well for nearly 70. Long may she reign..."
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