Red Ensign Standard XXII

Just as Walsingham provided us with The Tipping Point (a classic stroke of brilliance) on the first Monarchist issue of the Standard, Walsingham now gives us Tipping Point - Part II, a follow-up analysis on the state of Canadian politics and unity that is not for the weak of mind.

This was intended as a Victoria Day Standard, but is quickly becoming a Memorial Day one instead. Out of respect for Temujin from West Coast Chaos though, who is hosting Standard no. 23 from our most Britannic province next week, the home province of the Monarchist, I won't go there, except to say that Canadian business leaders have argued in the past that Victoria Day would be better placed if it coincided with America's Memorial Day, which occurs one week later. Just as The Monarchist says hooey on changing the name, we say hooey on changing the date. Hey, while we're at it, why don't we change our July 1st holiday to coincide with America's July 4th; that way we might better coordinate trading activity on the North American market. They're all for history it seems, just so long as it doesn't prove too bloody inconvenient, and get in the way of economic continental integration. The Monarchist is all for business, free trade and profit, but we are also for heeding history and paying a little respect to our forefathers who crafted a society so that we might profit in the first place. Victoria Day should not be compromised, period.



That's not to say it hasn't evolved over the years as a national holiday. Although faithfully observed in Upper Canada since 1845, in the 1890's it became popularly known as Empire Day (and low and behold one ensigner actually called it thus: Rhetoricking with Myself mentioned it here) and stayed that way for half a century until 1947, when it was officially changed to Commonwealth Day. In 1977, it reverted back to Victoria Day, which has been a national holiday in Canada since 1901, the year the Empress passed away. One of the great institutions bequeathed to Britain and the Empire by Queen Victoria was that of the Victoria Cross. As Queen Victoria herself pointed out, it was not an Order, such as the Garter or the Bath. It offered no knighthood, bore no religious significance and contained no ranks within itself. It was intended solely as a decoration "to be highly prized and eagerly sought after by the officers and men of our naval and military services". Pensions were granted to all holders of the Victoria Cross below commissioned rank, and an expulsion clause allowed for a recipient's name to be erased from the official register in certain wholly discreditable circumstances, and his pension cancelled. Following the Great War, King George V felt so strongly that the decoration should never be forfeited that in a letter to his Private Secretary, Lord Stamfordham, on 26 July 1920, forcibly wrote:

"The King feels so strongly that, no matter the crime committed by anyone on whom the VC has been conferred, the decoration should not be forfeited. Even where a VC to be sentenced to be hanged for murder, he should be allowed to wear his VC on the gallows".

The Canadian Red Ensign emanates from the Victorian era as well. If we held a competition on who flies the most inspiring Red Ensign, it would have to be, hands down, Dust my Broom. I don't think we're courting too much controversey here by stating that it's the very flag that was flown at the Battle of Vimy Ridge and now sits in the Imperial War Museum. Just look at its faded, tattered honour:



Mind you, if there is one symbol of the old country that is even more magnificent than this, it is sitting at the top righthand corner of this blog. It's the Royal Coat of Arms of Canada, circa 1921. I dare say it is the fiercest piece of heraldica ever devised in the British Empire, conceived as it was at its very height, when Britain held "dominion over palm and pine" over a quarter of this world. So long as I live, it will never be struck from its special place of worship.

Once again here we are hosting the Red Ensign Standard, which will attempt to emulate what the Foggers from London did last time around, only arrange the links according to subject, not blog. That being said, I don't know what got into The Monarchist the first time around, without so much as a single link to any of our kin. Silly us: It's not an opportunity for self-promotion; it's an opportunity to showcase the Brigade. It's a linkfest, not a me-fest. Boy, did we learn our lesson. In that spirit then, let's start off with the new arrivals to our spirited gang of patriots.

ON NEWCOMERS

We welcome with open arms to the Red Ensign brigade, Ryan at Blue Perspective (joined May 13), Aaron at Grandinite (joined May 13) and most recently, Anna (Canadi-anna) at Canadianna's Place (joined May 21).

Ryan J. King is a prolific blogger taking political science at the University of Western Ontario who, judging from his current photograph, very nearly resembles that late Victorian romantic and great defender of freedom, Sir Winston Churchill. Not only am I a Churchillian worshipper, The Monarchist would kill to have a last name like his: King. Welcome to the fold, Ryan, and we look forward to more of your blue perspective.

To call Aaron, who hails from Edmonton, a prolific blogger as well would be a rather ridiculous understatement. The man manages something like six blogs: There's Non-corporate Blogs, Alberta Blogs, Econometrix, Critter Crossings, Media Punsteer and, of course, Grandinite. And they're all busy!! How ever does he do it? Quite obviously, he's a hardworking Albertan, that's why.

Canadianna from Toronto may have a soft spot for Kennedy hair; I've never seen a photo of the Honourable Stephen Harper with hair so perfectly groomed as the one on her blog, right up there in the top righthand corner, reserved in a special place of honour. I detect a strong commitment and loyalty to her blogging -- an act of betrayal would quite simply be incomprehensible to her. She's a real trooper and fiercely devoted one lady truth squad.

ON MONARCHY

With Her Majesty The Queen in town, it's been an extraordinary period of blogging for the monarchy. Given the diversity of the RES brigade, I've been pleasantly surprised that there exists not one in our blogroll (so far as I can tell) who has been openly republican in their stance (If I am mistaken about this, kindly reveal yourself to me now so that I can ridicule you in front of the group). All kidding aside though, let's get into it, shall we:

Quotulatiousness, the quoter of quotes, quotes Mark Steyn on our deprived understanding of Victoria Day and the significance of still paying tribute to the "old gal". Q was thinking my thoughts precisely when I wrote on the issue last week.

Linda from multiple-scrolling "A Chick named Marzi" properly laces into Prince Harry (as opposed to the mass international hysteria that befitted it) here for his unroyal shenanigans, particularly in reference to his bewildering desert rat Nazi impersonation of one of General Rommel's Afrikan Corps. Whether or not you believe he was sent to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst for sensitivity training, sensitive he now is to the details of discipline and deportment. "Cadet Wales" is bound to come out of there, as Walsingham and I can both testify, a military leader respectful of setting an example few in life ever need to fathom. That is why, as Andrew Coyne put it a couple of years back, which I happily concur here, I'm all in favour of repatriating the monarchy with the cry, "God for Harry, Canada and St. Jude!"

Rue at Abraca-Pocus! delights in that other royal performer, the King of Rock and Roll. The King may be dead, but Rue is so profoundly moved by the Elvisness of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, that she readily proclaims the King is alive and well with "Long live the King!"

Angry at the very popular "Angry in the Great White North" muses on the affect the Queen's visitcould have on the Canadian political situation of last period. He wonders with the Queen in Canada, does the Governor-General, in effect, become Her Majesty's Executive Assistant. As the Dominion Chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada put it, "I don't know where people are getting this hoary idea". The GG never loses her authority to represent the Crown in Canada, even when the Crown is in Canada.

BumfOnline assists The Monarchist in saluting the monarchy big time here. Thanks, Bumf. (See also: ON POLITICS)

Keith at Minority of One is a monarchist of a narrow sort: He believes in the sovereignty of the individual, the King and I, where the King is him. We thank him for his endorsement of the tipping point.

Shiny Happy Gulag quotes Kipling's "A Servant When He Reigneth" Kipling, one of the great poet writers from the Victorian era.

I really appreciated this post from Paul at Ravishing Light. In honour of Victoria Day he calls to mind the Victoria Tower, the original centrepiece structure on Parliament Hill before the Peace Tower.

Peter at Rempelia Prime says the Queen can wait in regards to Her Majesty supposedly getting in the way of Canadian politics. Memo to Peter: The Queen of Canada need not wait for anyone. She's the Queen. Politicians can wait to see her though. That, I would agree with.

ON POLITICS

Walsingham summarizes the politics brilliantly for us: "We have witnessed a parliamentary government of the British Crown and tradition, faced with a protracted and clear demonstration of a loss of majority confidence, refuse to adhere to the most fundamental tenets of responsible government by submitting itself to an immediate and declared confidence vote. We have watched that government instead suspend democracy until its bribes and enticements to the characterless could bear fruit. We have watched a blonde Judas cross the floor, oblivious of how ephemeral her new friendships will prove; casting the will of her constituents - and with it, the core mechanism by which the will of the people is translated into the reality of parliamentary power - into the dust; for obvious, crass and fleeting personal gain. And we have watched the chief architect of this farce declare, with a straight face, that he had secured the renewed confidence of the House and assured the future of a united Canada"

Babble On: Damian Brooks from Babbling Brooks declares for us that politics is hell, but manages to keep his chin up: "No matter what happens with Parrish's appendix, or Cadman's vote, or The Wicked Witch of Aurora's ice-cold knives, the sun will rise tomorrow. And we'll still be living in the only country I'd ever want to call home. We'll get it figured out, you'll see." Brooks then seeks therapy the very next day by taking in the latest Star Wars thriller, and then writing a lengthy post on it. Babble off.

BumfOnline registers his disgust here, here and here. As well as here and here.

Sometimes pictures are better than words when it comes to politics. Check out this ugly one of Paul and Belinda from Rebecca at doxology. Doesn't it do justice to them both? It represents, without any doubt, the perfect human convergence of bribery and betrayal.

John the Mad gets mad here, here and here. John, once a Liberal, is a Liberal no more. I was intrigued by this Magna Carta post, which of course, would have a been a good candidate for the monarchy section as well.

The three most prolific political bloggers in the Red Ensign group would have to be Stephen Taylor, the host of Blogging Tories, Angry from AGWN and Ben at the Tiger in Winter, although by the sounds of things, we'll be hearing less of politics from the Tiger in the future. Stephen will never give us less. The guy lives and breathes the stuff. For him, it's better than crack.

We've heard a lot about people reaching their tipping point regarding our government, but have people seen Tipper's point regarding the government. Tipper from tipperography has made it her future duty to move to Newmarket-Aurora from Indianna, to put Belinda out of her misery. Maybe her vote will prove to be the tipping point there. (SEE ALSO: ON LIFE)

Alan at OCCAM'S CARBUNCLE is of a disposition that is naturally befriending. He sounds like he could be everybody's great buddy. We appreciate his regularly offered lexicon and his tipping point critique: "view from the precipice", not to mention the comments they generated

Kateland at Last Amazon reflects on the horror and the sadness (notice how I said horror and not whore. Yes, we do pride ourselves on civility here at the Monarchist)

Absinthe & Cookies from California (apparently grew up close to where the Monarchist did...I wonder if that's her centre top?) was moved to muse about the end of Canada. She links to an American, who posts his own thoughts on the matter.

ON WAR

As in the defenders of peace. Given that Walsingham and I were both military men ourselves, we do appreciate and respect the interest some have in pursuing a career in the profession of arms. There are plenty of great sites to be visited on the Net, the most audacious and meticulous one I've seen is at REGIMENTS.ORG. This is a fantastic effort looking at the sheer dedication behind it.

There is more military activity over at Castle Argghhh! than there is at Canada's DND. Check out his Memorial Day (upon recent request) and this vintage muzzle-loading cannon: Apparently, it's a Rodman that was in use just post American Civil War.

DirtCashr over at Anthroblogogy gives us some great photos of the B-17 and B-24, which presumably he took near his home in Northern California.

Andrew at Bound by Gravity pays tribute to the Americans who pay tribute to the fallen Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

James at Hammer into Anvil laments that General Romeo Delairre has been bought off by the Liberals as well, and concurrs with Lewis MacKenzie's assessment that Delairre is watering down what actually needs to be done to properly fight the genocide in Sudan as a result.

Victor Wong at the Phantom Observer gives us a fantastic tour of the new War Museum in Ottawa. I mean, it's like we don't even have to visit it's so good.

ON LIFE

Tipper gives us the 15 facts of life. No, not those facts of life, these ones.

Alan at GenX at 40 calls himself a Generation Xer at the ripe age of 40. But we all know that a 40 year old was born in 1965, the tail end of the Baby Boomers. Alan, it would appear, is desperately holding onto his youth. I do like his photography; take a look at Gotham City.

Sue at Turning 30 and a half is also making a statement about her age. As in, she will always be "turning" 35. Unless, that is, she plans on changing the name of her blog, on each and every tormenting birthday henceforth. One wonders: why does she beat herself up over it? Oh dear, maybe she's in love, or something.

Speaking of love, Benjamin Bach at Skeet Skeet Skeet apears to be in love love love. Ben is quickly becoming the Red Ensign's new Ghost of a Flea.

ON LIBERTY

This one belongs exclusively to Jay Jardine at Freedom to Serfdom, the arch -- no, make that -- anarcho-libertarian. This gentleman is somewhere between anarchy and libertarianism (not sure which one is closer to his political philosophy), but I spent a good ten minutes pissing my way through "Elections BC Can Take a Giant Bite of My Ass", which for me symbolizes that, in fact, pretty much all authority can take a giant bite of his ass. Jay would love to see the government go the way of the monarchy: something nice to look at, but stay the hell out of my way. The Monarchist thoroughly appreciates the calibre of his defiance.

ON ANGER

Raging Kraut - As the name implies. This lover of Bismarck and Bavaria has the temperament of, well, a raging Kraut. Bismarck was the greatest of kingmakers, so we have to assume that the Raging Kraut is, like us, a staunch monarchist. With the close of a season that never was, RK laments the lack of hockey this year, and the NHL playoffs. RK loves hockey, especially the violence part.

Raging Ranter - Darryl from Raging Ranter rages incessantly on the dumbasses in Canadian politics. One dumbass he shows no mercy for is, you guessed it, the new Minister of Complex Files. He presents dumbass exhibit one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.... you get the picture (that last one was particularly not very pretty).

Just between us Girls has a May 14 article on that angry Harper guy. Just between us girls, you're really making the Monarchist angry not having working permalinks that I can post to this article on anger.

This made me angry, before Jason at Musing crafted an excellent response to fight this piece of Newfounland bribery. But that initial letter that Jason received pressuring him to support it, speaks to everything that is wrong with this country.

In a long moment of spite, Curt from North Western Winds creates a really evil and scary looking depiction of the Liberal Party of Canada. The poster quite literally gives me the creeps.

Chris at Myrick shows how couthless we can get when we get really angry. Let's just say, I'm not going to repeat it here.

canadiancomment did their best to control their anger over the vile hate spewing from British MP, George Galloway, at the recent US Senate hearings for the UN Oil for Food program

Angry in the Great White North - Nuff said.

ON LOW VOLUME

When I say low volume, I'm talking like one short post, maybe two. As it turns out, we're talking one Red Ensigner, maybe two who fit that bill:

We find out that the Green Baron is getting married, which probably explains why he's on low activity, trying to sort out his life between New York and New Orleans.

And then there's Trudeaupia, a great snag of a blog name if there ever was one, who gives us three great quotes to ponder:

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. -- P.J. O'Rourke

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. -- Thomas Jefferson

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. -- Ronald Reagan

Oh, and John at Hyphothesis gives us a hypothesis that quite frankly I can't get my head around. Can you?

Meatriarchy was on holiday for most of the period, but he did manage to open our minds to this oddball little rodent.

ON FORBIDDEN FRUIT

clicking on ESR-Musings was forbidden for some reason


ON HIATUS

The following Red Ensigners were totally unplugged throughout this edition of the Standard (May 9 to May 23):

All AgitProp, all the time - Still frozen in Montreal.
Blue Tory - Singing the blues, may be back Tomory.
Candepundit - No Cande from this Pundit.
ChrisCam - ChrisCame and then ChrisWent, nothing since has been sent.
Musings of a Canadian Slacker - No musing, just slacking.
Right Jab - No righting or jabbing of late.
Striving against Opposition - Opposing against Striving.
The Unwinding Road - The long, very long unwinding road back.

ON DEPARTURES

We say goodbye to Nathan from Soeul, who graced us (he's a monarchist too) with his continuous updates from South Korea for the better part of the Red Ensign's existence. Thankfully, Nathan is not leaving the blogosphere, so he will never be too far away. He leaves behind Red Ensign Standard XIV, a giant linkfest if there ever was one. Thank you Nathan and God bless.