The Monarchist 2.0

Gentlemen followers of the Monarchist blog, please note that The Monarchist has moved. You are following an old version, the new version is here.

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Daniel Hannan, a British Member of the European Parliament, decimates Prime Minister Brown here for presiding over Britain's rapid economic decline. It is enjoyable not just because of the blistering attacks and gifted delivery, but because it reminds me of why Britain was once great.

For on full display here is that wonderful Tory tradition of English Parliamentary debate, that natural ability to cut and thrust through your political opponent until he is reduced to an inadequate heap - the body language says it all, as Gordon Brown diminishes into a rather uncomfortably brave smile. Tories of yore did not just participate in debates, they reveled in them - it was their one and only vocation. Although a self-proclaimed Whig, Mr. Hannan here is putting on a show worthy of an old fashioned Tory. My my, what wonderful, wonderful stuff.

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IT NEVER WOULD HAVE OCCURRED TO ME that the Commonwealth was born in 1949. In fact, it would have never occurred to me that the Commonwealth was even born at all, merely a long evolution that had its origins with the British Empire, which eventually transpired into a free association of independent Commonwealth states. But if I had to choose a date, it most certainly would not have been the London Declaration of April 26, 1949.

The term 'Commonwealth of Nations' was invented by Lord Rosebery on a trip to Australia in 1884. The first meeting of colonial heads of government was held back as far as 1887 and there were many that followed, including the all-important imperial conference of 1926 that resulted in the infamous Balfour Declaration, whose pronouncements were formalised by the Statute of Westminster in 1931.

Indeed, the Statute of Westminster was until very recently considered the real beginning of the modern Commonwealth, because for the first time each country was legally recognised as equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. It was a truly transformative development.

On the pages of the Commonwealth Secretariat you will even find that Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand "joined" in 1931. (Interestingly they are mute on when the United Kingdom "joined".) Certainly, the significance of 1931 cannot be overstated. The Imperial Commonwealth at that point stood for independence, equality, unity, allegiance, patriotism and free association of its members.

1949 is noteworthy only as a weakening of those things. The dropping of the British pedigree, the end of our united allegiance to the King, the loss of our common patrimony, all in order to make way for the newfound Republic of India, who would not countenance associate membership. The London Declaration was the moment the British Crown Commonwealth became de-Britished, unCrowned and Common-poorer, in that the wealth we had in common became much less so.

1949 was the point in time when our monarchy was demoted to the status of symbol in order to make way for republicanism. We were no longer required to recognize the King as our sovereign, only as the symbolic "Head of the Commonwealth". As a result, Commonwealth republics now outnumber Commonwealth realms, but even more apparent than republicanism, was the ever increasing political need to turn the page and erase from historical memory our so-called "colonial legacy". Her Majesty herself on coronation day in 1952 gave an indication of this desire:

"The Commonwealth bears no resemblance to the empires of the past. It is an entirely new conception built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty, and the desire for freedom and peace."

The spirit of that international fellowship technically still lives on, but nobody gets excited about the Commonwealth anymore. The popular fraternity - our pan-Britannic patriotism - has evaporated forever. Admittedly, our cultural loyalty may have gradually withered anyways, and certainly culture and identity are increasingly complex notions in the 21st century. But if defending the British Monarchy or an "English Queen" on the basis of national identity now seems like an increasingly remote possibility as we head further into the cosmopolitan mire, that path was firmly set in motion back in 1949.

Sixty years of celebration. Yippee and hooray.

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A rather long time ago, our Prime Minister here in Canada, the 'Right Honourable' Stephen Harper made a comment about Canada's war in Afghanistan. He said, if my memory holds, that Afghanistan had had an insurgency more or less forever, and that final victory for our forces there was impossible.

Let's turn back the clock to the mid 20th century. 1940, to be precise. France had fallen before the dark tides of Nazi aggression, Russia had a pact of non-aggression with Germany, Japan had yet to awake the sleeping giant at Pearl Harbour. Berlin, Rome and Tokyo now turned their gaze towards Britain and her Commonwealth, the last bastion of liberty and reason in Europe. The Battle of Britain, the turning point of the Second World War, was about to begin. It was, by far, the darkest days of the War. Britain, Canada, Australia, South Africa, India and New Zealand together faced odds far greater than what we face today from the challenge of Islamic Extremism. But then entered Winston Churchill, the last great British lion. Or perhaps bulldog would be the more accurate descriptor, considering his reputation and appearance. An heir, in direct lineage, to Sir John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, and the first great hero of the United Kingdom. Churchill, despite all the logic in suing for peace, would not back down, would not talk to the fascists, would not compromise with murderers and madmen. Despite all the tides of evil that rose up to oppress the British Isles and it's Empire, the forces of civilization and reason won through and secured the supremacy of the Rule of Law and Parliaments in Europe. Fascism was overthrown by the alliance of the Russians and the English-speaking peoples of Britain, the Commonwealth and America. Peace was restored. Our freedom was earned. Our civilization was preserved.

And now, the feckless Stephen Harper, a man facing odds far less daunting than Churchill (though our opponents are no less brutal or barbaric), speaks already of defeat. In this post-Vietnam era, the people have forgotten that it takes time, effort and much heartbreak to win a war against a determined enemy. The people of the United States, ever since Vietnam, have had this little irking fear in the back of their minds. A fear that any war that lasts longer than the average flight time of a Tomahawk cruise missile will degenerate into a slogging, shellshocking, Vietnam-esque mess. And this fear has spread across the English-speaking world. All the way into the halls of power, it seems. Our armed forces, our country, we cannot afford to have a PM speak of defeat. At least not in public! Not only does this undermine Mr. Harper's political position, it undermines the morale of our troops currently in Afghanistan. And more importantly, it undermines our war effort as a whole. I've no doubt that the Taliban could, given a little effort, access CBC news broadcasts. And if they hear that leader of the Canadians, one of their most hated group of enemies I'm sure, is talking about how the Canadians can't win... Well what can they do but be elated? Strike with greater boldness, greater confidence, greater audacity.

In my life, i've learned that if you are always saying to yourself "I can't do well at this", whatever 'this' may be, you make a self-fulfilling prophecy for yourself. A student who goes into a test expecting to do badly will usually do badly. If you say you won't win this race, then you probably won't win. What then will happen when the Prime Minister says his country will lose their war? It follows that victory becomes impossible for the country.

And considering the opponent we face, we can't let that happen.

God save our Queen and Heaven bless the Maple Leaf Forever
Gladstone,

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Four more soldiers fighting with the Royal Canadian Regiment and the Royal Canadian Dragoons were killed in Afghanistan on Friday, and eight others were seriously injured. Canada has now lost 116 soldiers and one diplomat in that war-torn country, including several hundred non-fatal combat casualties.

My bud from military college, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Misener, acting commander of 2 Mechanized Brigade Group, CFB Petawawa, addresses the media on March 21, 2009, on the subject of the deaths of four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

This sacrifice is proportionately greater than either the Americans or the British, and in real numbers significantly more so than all of Europe combined. But like anything Canada ever does, it gets greeted by the media and the world with a collective international yawn. Or worse, the subject of trash entertainment by Republican chickenhawkes on Fox News, who shamelessly chide Canada's military men as frigid wimps, whilst demonstrating their own macho credentials without ever serving a day in their life. To hell with neocon sissies.

I know a lot of men who are serving in theatre because I trained with them over 20 years ago. They are now in positions of command, like LCol. Misener above who has been rotating in and out of Afghanistan since 2002. Does he look like a wimp to you? He's as professional as they come, not a warmongering television idiot, but a field commander on the front lines who has to carefully measure his every word with manly restraint, unlike the belligerent fools on Fox who laugh at him.

It is fashionable among many so-called conservatives in the United States to think of Canada as a joke of a country. It's a view that began to take shape ever since Pierre Trudeau famously declared Canada a mouse next to the American elephant, affected by every twitch, every grunt. In one fell swoop, the historical image of Canada as a British Lion was gone forever. Liberals perferred to think of Canada as a mouse not a lion. And so a mouse in the image of many we became.

But Canada doesn't need to demonstrate its fortitude to the world, only its soberness. Canada cannot afford to be a gung ho, kick ass nation, nor should it desire such a reputation. It almost came apart at the seams during both world wars, when conscription riots in French Canada threatened the political survival of the country. Yet it still sent hundreds of thousands of men overseas to save Europe from itself. Over 100,000 Canadians perished as a result. The decision by Canada to stay out of Vietnam and Iraq has probably been more or less right. It's decision to tough it out in Afghanistan has also probably been more or less right. The desire to go to war for macho reasons is a profoundly unconservative attitude, and nearly all Canadians rightly perish the thought.

Update from American Vets: Ouch

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The Eaton's chain was a legendary Canadian retailer, it's famous catalogue an icon to generations of customers. A family firm, one of the reasons for its demise in the late 1990s, the Eaton's were staunch monarchists who celebrated every major event in the life of the Royal Family. Their prominent downtown locations were often festooned with Union Jacks and other paraphernalia of Anglo-Canadian patriotism. Below is a selection of photographs, taken from the Archive of the province of Ontario, of Eaton's stores through out the company 130 year history:

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The SOE

Although SOE agents were inevitably reliant on Resistance forces to be effective, few of the accounts in Forgotten Voices give any sense of the local people who were involved, or of the extent to which SOE actually controlled them. The SOE circuit organizer Ben Cowburn is one of the few to attempt to explain why SOE had such an aura with the Resistance. He emphasizes the importance of radio, of concrete proof of contact with London – he could get the BBC to broadcast a phrase given by his Resistance contact, and even more important, summon up RAF supply drops. This, he convincingly argues, was a real “manifestation of power: this thing had come through, it had roared through the German defences and everything, and it was they that had ordered it. And you were somebody from then on”.

Just a bunch of chaps trying to save the world from evil. Just a spot of bother on the continent.

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Es ist kein Schwert das schärfer schiert,
Als wenn ein Baur zum Herren wird.

(There is no sword that cuts sharper,
Than if a peasant becomes master.)

– Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus

This past month, we marked Presidents' Day, and it was also the bicentenary of the birth of the “log cabin President.” The newly inaugurated POTUS is struggling to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln.

The myth of Lincoln as the “Great Emancipator” lives on in spite of the efforts of Professor DiLorenzo through The Real Lincoln and Lincoln Unmasked. The war was not about slavery initially. It was about the right to secede.

Now, let's leave the argument over why the South seceded, and let's assume that it was due to the slavery institution being threatened by the North and the federal government, e.g., through the weakening of the institution a ban on slavery in new territories would give. Let's also suppose that Lincoln did have an agenda of abolishing slavery, but he could not openly be an outright abolitionist due to the risks that would give to his political career. Let's also presume that the Emancipation Proclamation, which did not apply to territories under Union jurisdiction, not only was strategically designed to avoid intervention by the British Empire, but also strategically designed for domestic purposes – to abolish slavery whilst not provoking those in the North who opposed abolition. If we make these assumptions, slavery was abolished as a result of the war. We don't even have to make these assumptions. Slavery was abolished nonetheless.

With or without these assumptions, however, there still is a major problem, to say the least. These facts remain:

The rest of the West ended slavery peacefully.
Lincoln violated the U.S. Constitution big time.
The right for the States to secede was in effect abolished, removing an effective check on the federal government.
The more aristocratically oriented Southern culture was demolished.
The more decentralized system was replaced by a central state run from Washington, D.C.
A behemoth to run around the world “making it safe for democracy” was created.
Life, liberty, and property were destroyed.

It is praised that a boy born in a log cabin can grow up to be President. Likewise, it is praised that a boy abandoned by his Kenyan father can grow up to be President.

Across the Big Pond, Peter Tatchell praised the inauguration of the first black POTUS. He says about his own country:

If [Britons enthusiastic about the inauguration] were consistent they would join the call for a democratically elected and accountable head of state, open to British people of all races, classes and faiths or beliefs.

Oh yes, everyone's right to be our Overlord; that concept that has given us so much progress.

What about caring for liberty instead of the right to rise to the top irrespective of class, race, gender, or whatever classification you can think of?

The “login cabin President” grew up to be a tyrant. Napoleon came with his ambitions and put Europe through hell, not to speak of a mere corporal from Austria with a moustache. Obama has a Civil Rights agenda, where combating employment discrimination is central. Is Obama a group representative using his power to tell everyone else how they shall treat his kind? Never mind property rights?

Peter Tatchell also says:

The current monarchical system of determining our head of state is premised on the assumption that the most ignorant, stupid, immoral white Windsor first-born is more entitled to be our head of state than the best-informed, wisest and most moral black or Asian Briton.

The democratically elected politicians are well-informed, wise, and moral? And a democratically elected head of state will be? Of course! And pigs will fly!

Plato told us:

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

What now is the case is that we get a contest between those who have the highest ambitions of governing.

On that Tuesday back in November, Americans had the choice between McCain and Obama. Isn't it great that you get to choose your own Overlord?

A “stimulus” package has just passed through Congress. The concept is tantamount to my refurbishing my bathroom if I get laid off to get my personal economy going. Wisdom amongst those who are elected by the masses?

Fact is that interest rates should be set up, not down. However, most people are in debt, and they don't like interest rates going up. The politicos are taking care of their reelection, and they prefer injection of more alcohol to accepting the hard hangover. Allowing the hard medicine of liquidation of debt would make the masses of debtors upset. The politicos who want their votes would not risk that.

It was about the same in Versailles 90 years ago. There had been a war between peoples, and the people, who had suffered the war, wanted “someone” to pay. The politicos gave the people what they wanted good and hard. So there could be no peaceful peace, as the aristocrats had arranged about a century earlier.

That's the concept of modern democracy in a nutshell. Isn't it grand?

The democratic century has given us lots of intervention, domestic and foreign. The politicos interfere in our lives, homes, and businesses to an unprecedented level. The economy is managed, which gives us booms and busts. The omnipotent democratic government seems to have no limits.

But I guess that's OK when anyone, of whatever class, race, gender, etc., born in a log cabin or a mansion, can grow up to be President.

Originally published at the Intellectual Conservative.

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A leading college at Cambridge University has renamed its controversial colonial-themed Empire Ball after accusations that it was "distasteful".

Unveiling_War_Memorial_Royal_Visit_Ottawa_1939_MargaretFultonFrame

The King & Queen unveil the War Memorial, Ottawa, 1939 by Margaret Fulton Frame
The £136-a-head Emmanuel College ball was advertised as a celebration of "the Victorian commonwealth and all of its decadences".

Cool: Students were urged to "Party like it's 1899" and organisers promised a trip through the Indian Raj, Australia, the West Indies and 19th century Hong Kong.

Yawn: But anti-fascist groups said the theme was "distasteful and insensitive" because of the British Empire's historical association with slavery, repression and exploitation.

Sigh: The ball Committee, led by two extremely weak-kneed and politically correct presidents, Richard Hilton and Jenny Unwin, dutifully announced the word 'Empire' would thus be removed from all promotional material.

In any event, Padre Benton speaks, and so do I.

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Re: the anonymous Obama administration dufus who said: "There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment."

As an unapologetic, full-throated Anglophile I find those comments idiotic, offensive, ahistorical, and in a certain sense anti-American.* I'm of course appalled.

But it's worth focusing on one aspect of this sentiment: It's idiocy. According to the liberal-realist school, some countries matter more than other countries because they are powerful and have the ability to adversely affect our national interest. According to the liberal-internationalist school, allies matter more than non-allies because grand international coalitions are the best way to do the wonderful things want to do on the world stage. So, China matters because it's a rising hegemon. Burkino Faso matters . . . eh, not so much. "Europe" matters because they are allies on security, global warming, human rights, etc. Well, Britain just happens to be our most important, reliable, and powerful ally.

So even if you take the pragmatist's razor to our shared history, culture, and all other romantic attachments to Great Britain, the bulldog still matters — a lot. In other words, to say that Britain isn't any more special than the other 190 countries in the world, you actually have to dislike Britain to the point where you're willing to suspend what are supposed to be your guiding principles and objectives about foreign policy.

* Just to be clear, what I mean by anti-American isn't a knee-jerk attack on anyone's patriotism. Rather, I simply mean that if you think the country that gave us our system of laws, our democratic tradition, our dominant culture, much of our greatest literature, and even our language is no more special than any backwater country which immiserates or brutalizes its people, then you must not think very much of America's culture, traditions, etc. either.

— Jonah Goldberg

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Not a posthumous VC, but two George Medals basically equates to the same thing.

THE QUEEN HAS AWARDED A SECOND GEORGE MEDAL to a bomb disposal expert killed in Afghanistan last year. This is the first time a second George Medal, known as a Bar, has been awarded in 26 years. Warrant Officer 2nd Class Gary O'Donnell, 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment Royal Logistic Corps, was killed defusing an improvised explosive device in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on 10 September 2008.

The posthumous award to Warrant Officer O'Donnell, who died whilst attempting to disarm an improvised explosive device, was announced in the presence of his widow Mrs Toni O'Donnell. The George Medal is awarded for acts of great bravery.

WO2 O'Donnell, who at the time of his death already held the George Medal for his work defusing bombs in Iraq, was recommended for the further honour in recognition of his remarkable actions in two separate incidents, in May and July 2008.

On both occasions WO2 O'Donnell - who during his last tour in Afghanistan disposed of more than 50 IEDs - placed himself in immense personal danger in order to protect his comrades.

Commonwealth Note: The George Cross and Medal are no longer awarded to Canadians and Australians. The Queen of both countries replaced the George Cross with the Cross of Valour back in the 1970s, though still retaining the honour as the highest civil decoration, second in order of precedence only to the Victoria Cross. Both the Victoria Cross and the Cross of Valour/George Cross are awarded for acts of great bravery, however in order to qualify for the Victoria Cross, military personnel (or civilans operating under military command), must demonstrate conspicuous acts of bravery in the presence of the enemy.

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Curious images of Nazi hegemony are probably not the ideal photo opportunity for a British prince on Commonwealth day. I mean, what's next: Goosesteps and pickelhaubes on Remembrance Day? Gestapo tea, anyone? Goering aftershave?

The Prince of Wales inspects the Guard of Honour at the Presidential Palace in Santiago, Chile, on the second day of an overseas tour to Chile, Brazil and Ecuador, 9 March 2009. His Royal Highness is accompanied by The Duchess of Cornwall on the tour, which is being carried out at the request of the British Government and which focuses on environmental issues and the Government's climate change priorities.
© Press Association

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News to swell loyal hearts from the happy plot at the bottom of the Earth.

The Queen receives the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Hon. John Key MP, at Buckingham Palace, 25 November 2008.

This is huge. It is being reported that New Zealand is to restore the rank of Sir and Dame to its honours system nine years after it abolished titles in favour of Republican-style distinctions.

If we called Prime Minister John Key a limousine liberal in the recent past, we do at this moment take it all back. I mean, wow. What a glorious turn of events. Hallelujah for rare political miracles. By George, he did it!

Come on Australia and Canada, do the right thing, and follow New Zealand's lead. If a foreigner like Ted Kennedy is allowed to accept the honour of a knighthood from the Queen, it is only our ancient God-given right as Her Majesty's own subjects to be permitted the same.

Why the fall of Helengrad was a good thing. Happy Commonwealth Day indeed.

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Royal Bank of Canada: 2008 Profit = $5 billion

Royal Bank of Scotland: 2008 Loss = £24.1 billion

Whether measured by market value, balance sheet strength or profitability, Canada's banks are rising to the top. Since the credit crunch began in the summer of 2007, the Big Five banks with a combined asset value in excess of $2.5 trillion - the Royal Bank of Canada, the Toronto-Dominion Bank, the Bank of Noval Scotia, the Bank of Montreal and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce have booked a total of $18.9-billion in profits.

In roughly the same period, the five biggest U.S. banks have lost more than $37-billion (U.S.). One, Wachovia Corp., was forced to sell out to avoid failing. Another, Citigroup Inc., long the world's largest bank, may have to be nationalized and this week became a penny stock.

The picture is even more bleak in Britain. The Royal Bank of Scotland alone lost a staggering £24.1 billion this year, as much as the top five U.S. bank losses put together. I fear for the future of Britain, I really do. What that country had more so than any other country was a mighty financial services industry - London had even boastfully topped New York as the financial centre of the world.

So now what? Unlike Canada, it does not have an abundance of natural resources to guarantee its prosperity, as Britain imports most everything. If its financial system collapses, what does it have to fall back on? I'm very disappointed by this nasty turn of events, as I was preparing my family for the big move to London. Unfortunately we will now be putting off our plans for the long unforeseeable future.

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Recently, I was walking in a park near my home, enjoying the brisk air of a Canadian winter, and the exquisite beauty of a snow-covered landscape. It was evening and the setting sun stained the white snow with shades of crimson and gold. There wasn't a sound to be had, all was quiet and beautiful, truly serene. But then I did hear something, sounds like shouting and struggling. Naturally concerned, I followed the sounds to behind a small grove of trees, where I saw another young man attempting to force himself upon a young woman, who was against a fence. She naturally took objection to this, and was struggling to push him away, but with his greater strength and size he was easily winning the struggle. I consider myself to be a gentleman, and a gentleman could not stand by and allow this to happen. Moving quickly, I set a hand on the man's shoulder and pulled him away.

"Sir, I don't believe the lady wants your company this evening," I said. The young man shouted a curse word, then drew back and struck me across the jaw, whereupon I struck him back and sent him sprawling onto the cold snowy ground. He looked up at me with anger, pain, and perhaps more than a bit of drunkenness in his eyes, decided that it was not worth the effort, and scrambled off. I then turned to the young woman to see if she was alright.

"Are you okay, miss?" I asked. She did not answer me. Instead she drew a can of pepperspray from her purse and sprayed me with it, shouting "CREEP!" loudly. She then quickly and sharply raised her knee into my reproductive organs, and ran off, leaving me doubled over from the pain which was, i'm sure you know, quite excrutiating.

I sit at my desk today, pondering what that young lady, scared and possibly traumatized as she may have been, was thinking when she inflicted such pain on her rescuer. Perhaps in the confusion she mistook me for the other young man, we were roughly the same height and build, both light brown hair, blue eyes. Perhaps she was a 'liberated powerful modern woman' and a hardline feminist, for whom being rescued was just as bad as being sexually assaulted. Perhaps she was just crazy. But the fact remains that this was not an unusual occurance, I am often punished or scolded or reproached for trying to be a gentleman in this ungentlemanly world.

For example, at my ex workplace I arrived by bus, at the same time as a lady who also worked there. I usually hold the door for her, it's just good manners. This had gone on for about five weeks, and though she never thanked me, being a gentleman was reward enough for me. I was then approached by my boss and told to stop holding the door for her, because she was perceiving me as a sexist who was mocking her, as holding the door for her did not imply my good manners, but that she was too weak to open the door for herself.

Another time, I was out for a walk in the evening, when I saw a group of three young ladies dressed rather... provocatively, being harassed by five or six young men who seemed rather intoxicated. Naturally, I rushed to the young ladies aid and, with a few blows exchanged, saw the young men off and on their way home. But I obviously overstepped my boundaries when I commented that if the young ladies wouldn't dress like the harlots those young men usually associated with, then those young men would no longer bother them. They then launched a tirade about, if they had 'it' they were going to flaunt 'it' and that was their right, no matter what trouble it would get them into.

It's sometimes hard to be a gentleman in today's world. I am snickered at when people learn I listen to Bach, Handel and Tchaikovsky. In a recent writing course I took, I was openly discouraged from sharing a passage of Kipling for a required reading we were supposed to conduct, due to Kipling supposedly being 'racist, imperialist and chauvinistic'. I am mocked for wearing a properly-fitted suit rather than the "style" of the modern young man, which is either excessively baggy or disturbingly skin-tight based on your social group. My military aspirations, my desire to serve Her Majesty as an officer of the Royal Canadian Army (and it will always be the RCA to me), my personal dream of defending God, Queen and Country, that is made ridicule most of all by my peers.

But still I stay the course. We must all stay the course, or else all those distasteful elements of society that we so oppose will have won at last. We are outnumbered, outmanuevered, outgunned perhaps, but I know that I at least will hold the faith. I hope you all hold that faith as well. As long as I live, I shall remain a gentleman and well dressed.

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The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery leave London's Green Park after firing a Royal salute of 41 rounds to mark the anniversary of The Queen's accession to the throne in 1952, 6 February 2009.
© Press Association

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On a cold morning in February, the vision of flying a powered aircraft for the first time in Canada and the British Empire came to be when the Silver Dart took to the air above the frozen waters of Baddeck Bay in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

This inaugural Canadian aviation feat on February 23rd, 1909 was the result of innovative thinking, entrepreneurial spirit, unrelenting determination and a talented team of experts who had a common vision. When world-renowned and accomplished inventor Alexander Graham Bell decided to turn his gaze toward the skies and find a way for man to fly, it was based on a lifelong fascination with flight.

Read more at the Flight of the Silver Dart Centennial Celebration

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Of all the hidden agendas the Conservative government in Ottawa has been suspected of harbouring, republicanism seems the least likely. In the past, the Tories were considered the federal party most inclined to support Canada's national institutions, from the military to the monarchy. Yet as Globe reporter Michael Valpy revealed on Saturday, the Harper government has rebuffed efforts to have the Prince of Wales visit Canada. The same, of course, applies to the Queen. Both have dined at the White House much more recently than they have last set foot in Canada. It does give rise to the thought that this particular hidden agenda might be genuine.

The Canadian government in fact has shown much less enthusiasm for visits by Canada's current head of state and her heir apparent than has the republic to the south. The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the Mayor of Quebec City, and the province of Nova Scotia have all asked Ottawa to invite the Queen in recent years, and all were turned down by Canadian Heritage. The Globe on Saturday reported that the Prince of Wales, and various organizations he is associated with, have also been seeking permission to undertake a visit, and once again the requests have been shelved. The situation is such that the Liberal era of Jean Chrétien is now remembered by loyalists as a golden age for the Canadian Crown.

Yet Mr. Harper is not a republican. In his foreword to a book, Crown of Maples, published in 2008 by the federal government, Mr. Harper writes, "The Canadian Crown is central to our uniquely Canadian identity." He goes on to advocate "an even greater awareness and appreciation of this Canadian institution and its ongoing importance to so many aspects of our country's daily life and collective identity." His allegiance, then, need not be questioned. Only his strange way of showing it. If Canada is to remain a monarchy, and there are reasonable people on both sides of that particular debate, then it should welcome the Queen and the Prince of Wales.

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The vanishing future monarch.

He's constitutionally Canada's next head of state. A top aide says he's keen to deepen his relationship with the country. He wants to visit, get to know people. He's arranged meetings with key Canadian philanthropic and community leaders with the aim of cementing connections with his own charitable interests.

So where is he? Find the Prince of Wales. Find Charles Philip Arthur George.

He hasn't been here for eight years.

He wanted to come to Canada four years ago – to introduce his new wife on her first royal tour – but the federal government told him it likely wasn't a good idea because there might be an election campaign when he arrived. So he bypassed Canada and took Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, to the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Sure, he does hang out with all the cool kids, but he'd love to swing by your place too. Just waiting by the phone, humming "Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week." Perhaps in the style of a Handel oratorio. Minority governments are hell on everyone's schedule, but surely a quick trip to Ottawa or Toronto could have been arranged? The Queen visited Alberta and Saskatchewan in 2005 to celebrates those two provinces' centenary. Since then Prince Edward (twice), Prince Andrew (three times) and Princess Anne have all shown up and exchanged dignified pleasantries with their ex-colonial subjects. Is the future George VII - his rumoured styling upon ascension - just not worth the price of admission? Perhaps I'm just paranoid, but methinks certain republican elements in the Canadian government are perfectly willing to have the people of Canada forget who their future sovereign is.

The monarchy drags up all sorts of unpleasant memories for the country's governing elite. Terrible images of British overlordship when armies of Redcoated terrorists imposed the rule of law, free speech and property rights on their unruly Canadian subjects. Not the kind of things you'd want to talk about infront of the electorate. Who knows they might remember that principles of anglo-saxon jurisprudence don't fit well with secularized inquisitions like the Human Rights Commissions.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

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