Happy Canada Day! Who's the Old Bat? #2

Call it lazy, but I'm repeating last year's Canada day post. Kinda like watching the same movie every Christmas. If you've read it before, click over here for something else to cheer about.

The fireworks are set, the beer is chilling and hopefully the snow isn't flying. As you get ready to celebrate your national day and possibly take part in that truly Canadian tradition of pondering, "What does it mean to be Canadian?" A good question, and one that should be reflected upon often and critically at that. A question that can have many answers, depending on who you are, but one that doesn't have this one answer: British

Yes, Canada was a colony and historically has links to the U.K, but if the British want to revel in a modern day, absurd, anachronism such as a monarchy, it is their choice. One that actually costs them around 150 million pounds a year. Why on earth would a country as racially integrated as Canada want to continue with such an elitist system defies logic. A country that welcomes anyone under the pretext of being equal is in fact ruled by a privileged family that lives in another country and thus the newly arrived immigrant nor their offspring, nor someone born in Canada can ever aspire to be head of state in their country. A fine welcome indeed.

What is not often thought of though is the real and ultimate threat that the link to a foreign power having a foreign queen can actually lead Canada into. We only have to look back to the Iraq war for a case in point. A turning point in the history of Canada where they were able to say no to their strong neighbours to the south and refuse to participate in an illegal war. The irony in their decision though was that their head of state, the Queen of England, actually gave her blessing to the illegal war and later bungled occupation. If the world ever gets around to trying injustice in international court, will Canadians be forced to stand trial for the decision of a foreign leader?

Monarchist apologists often use the lame excuse that if the monarchy is done away with, then there will be nothing left to distinguish Canada from its neighbour to the south. An argument like this doesn't even merit a response as it is so utterly insulting, a semi-socialized medical system would be a far better argument, or perhaps the country's non-bellicose past.

Which leaves us with the last gasp comment by feeble-minded monarchists who pine for the days of white-rule and colonial ways. Somehow, they state, a Queen can protect the country from evil-doing Prime Ministers. The mass protests in the U.K before the Iraqi war aside, how is it that an unelected head of state can protect a country from a supposedly democratically elected Prime Minister? The conundrum confounds really.

So enjoy the fireworks and for the moment we'll forget the travesty of your current Prime Minister combined with possibly one of the world's greatest environmental disasters and drink a toast to the forthcoming Canadian, Australian and Kiwi republics!

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