Our mission is to advocate for the replacement of the non-resident British monarch as Canada’s Head of State with a democratically-selected, resident Canadian.
As the experience of other Commonwealth countries has shown, the most straightforward way of politely ending the role of the British monarchy in Canada is to make (a perhaps suitably renamed) office of governor general the head of state in theory as well as practice, through a constitutional amendment.
But could we continue to have this new “all Canadian” governor general (or president, if you like) ultimately selected as he or she is now — by the prime minister of Canada? Or do we need a more democratically reformed and directly or indirectly elected office of head of state, as has been established in such similar “Westminster” parliamentary democracies as Ireland, India, and Trinidad and Tobago?
In part one of these policy discussions, on February 26, we finally focused on the importance of a democratically reformed and democratically legitimate head of state. (We also noted the parallel interest of how heads of state are currently selected in such non-“Westminster” but related parliamentary democracies as Germany, Italy, and Iceland.)
In part two we’ll be concentrating on whether we oppose the concept of monarchy everywhere, or just the British monarchy in Canada. Come and join the discussion, as RN/RC puts meat on the bones of the strong post-monarchy vision of the country it wants to advocate for. (Which will finally give a more exact answer to the question : If we’re going to grow beyond the British monarchy in Canada, what will we replace it with?) Everyone and anyone interested is welcome to attend and contribute on April 30 at Metro Hall in Toronto. Vive le Canada libre.