What Courtesy Demands

CONSERVATIVES IN THIS COUNTRY were once instinctively monarchists - certainly conservatives and classical liberals should be - and the recent decision of the Harper government not to invite the Queen to Quebec's 400th anniversary celebration rankles. Famously Her Majesty's last visit to the provincial capital provoked rioting in 1964, a sharp contrast to the triumphal greeting received by Charles de Gaulle three years later. Given the Queen's many visits since to other parts of what was once known as the "elder Dominion," the blame for not extending an invitation lies only in small part with the current federal government.

The 1964 riots were a sign of deep cultural immaturity among the Quebecois, not simply among the rioters, who were separatists, but the wider population that refused to condemn them. That immaturity surfaced again during de Gaulle's visit. The incongruity of a province that effectively absented itself from the Second World War, with many honourable exceptions, hailing a man who would have become a footnote in history if not for the efforts of mostly English speaking Canadians, was of course lost. Few historians have observed the importance of the Crown in saving Western Civilization in 1940. The common narrative of Churchill standing firm misses the intangible but vital role played by the monarchy, one he readily admitted.

As a unifying symbol it crossed divisions of class and region within the United Kingdom, but just as importantly it helped to hold the Empire together. Quebec's isolationism in both world wars was not unique, it mirrored that of the United States. The exception was English speaking Canada, loyal to Crown and Empire they didn't think, to borrow Chamberlain's notorious phrase, that Britain was a far away country. The Empire, what Disraeli early on in his career called the "milestones" around the neck of Britain, proved the margin of survival in both world wars. Mr. Harper has shown considerable courage in continuing Canada's support for the rebuilding of Afghanistan. He needs to show courage again by inviting the Queen to celebrate the founding of Quebec this summer.

It will also be an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that the new Quebec has outgrown the adolescent fits of the Quiet Revolution, that its people can in the main appreciate and evaluate their history, which includes the Crown. Sir George-Étienne Cartier, the leading Francophone Father of Canadian Confederation, observed that the defeat of his ancestors at the Plains of Abraham was really a blessing in disguise. It saved the Quebecois from the horrors of the French Revolution and allowed them rights and privileges they never would have had as Americans or French colonials, and a security they could never have enjoyed as an independent state.