King Harry of Canada

My friend, Barb, posted a most interesting article on fb from Psychology Today entitled, "Tribal Weddings and Democratic Stability".


The author, Robin Fox, believes that we humans are not "wholly rational creatures" and even the most "atheistic and ruthlessly secular" among us realize we need our rituals and tribal customs.

The author, being American, was primarily focused on the way the Brits accomplish these things, i.e., very well, with the Monarch being more or less eternal, versus the American method which is less successful but has its moments - think of the American reverence for their flag, their founders etc.


I was immediately struck by the fact that in Canada we have neither.


We don't have our own royal family and our country wasn't born and formed out of endless vats of blood, fields of bleached bones and wonderful gallows quotes such as, "Give me liberty or give me death!"


"Fuddle duddle" or even the historical "How much for that beaver pelt?"  don't exactly send shivers of national pride up and down your spine.


We experience our tribal rituals vicariously through the British and our national attitude to our own history is simply that everyone has always done what they had to do and it is no big deal.



Now I have to tell you that I have no great love for the British royal family.

I do however think a constitutional monarchy is a very effective method of government for the same reasons Ms Fox gives:

The monarch provides the fixed centre of legitimate authority that is unchallengeable, and thus leaves the politicians free to be politicians and vulnerable to challenge.



Canada, we need a monarch.

We need one that comes with all of the monarchic trappings: the history, the scandals, the wardrobe.



We need Good King Harry.



I propose that we offer Prince Harry the Kingship of Canada.

It would free us from the British Royal line while still keeping our connections.

No hurt feelings!

 (Okay, maybe a few noses out of joint in Quebec but that's the norm and besides their ancestors got rid of their king so there's no French prince or princess available.)


Join me in my crusade to bring our King home!

You can actually choose who you would like to be our monarch by voting in the poll in the uper right hand corner of this blog.

You can vote for as many of them as you like. 

Write in suggestions are welcome in the comments below. 


Long live King Harry of Canada!



p.s.  Sorry there aren't any links here.  My linker programme isn't working at the mo.

Ottawa, We Have a Problem

True Canadian Grit

Image via Wikipedia

I saw True Grit this week.


The main characters in the movie didn't have a lot of patience for other people. In fact most folks who crossed their paths ended up shot deader than doornails for one reason or another.

It wasn't a 'My way or the highway' mentality, it was more like, 'My way or the graveyard'.



Could True Grit have been set in Canada?



Hmmm.



We don't have the same history of a wild and lawless west.

Oh we had the same conditions, settlers, outraged Indian tribes, criminal types, rebellions, alcohol, etc., but we also had the North-West Mounted Police, (later renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police).

We were still very connected to Britain in the nineteenth century and the Mounties went west and north with a psychological leg up.

The whole British Empire was backing them.




If True Grit had been set in Canada, it would have been a story of one handsome, rugged Mountie, his dog team, a few wolves and a bizzillion miles of snow.



Mattie, (the fourteen year old heroine in the American version) wouldn't have had to hire someone to find her father's killer.

The Mountie would have done it for free, (or at least as part of his job), 'cause that's what Mounties do best.


There wouldn't have been any shooting.

The Mountie would have reasoned with the man who killed Mattie's father and the murderer would have complied with the law.



How exciting is that?





If you think I am exaggerating read the history of the Yukon Gold Rush.


The gold seekers who travelled to the Yukon via the west coast were extremely relieved to leave behind the danger and lawlessness of Alaska and reach the safety of the Canadian border where a few Mounties used "commonsense, tact and fearlessness," (The Last Grand Adventure, William Bronson), rather than brutish behaviour to defend Canada and keep order.





So if you wonder why we are often accused of being nice, peaceful, slightly boring people - blame a cop.



And be thankful.

Related articles

• Movie Review Friday: True Grit (sierraclub.typepad.com)

I'm a Canadian And So Is My Hat

I was quite interested to read that the English, who are expecting an influx of Olympic tourists at some point in the future, are being trained to identify a Canadian standing in a crowd of Americans.

That's quite a feat.

I continued to be impressed right up until I read that their method of determining nationality is to scan our bodies for little Canadian flag pins.

Jeesh.

Canada, we've gotta ditch those things.

Identical twins who don't like being mistaken for each other don't wear minuscule pins that nobody can see, then complain that no one can tell them apart. They opt for a major difference in wardrobe.

If we want to be identified as Canadians then we need to look Canadian.

Personally, I'm rather partial to those red rubber maple leaf hats that you see on television during times of great national pride, like whenever we beat the American Olympic hockey team. They should be issued with our passports.

They can be made to fit over turbans, niqabs, police riot gear helmets and your grandmother's new perm. Sort of a one size fits all rubber toque. 

Some of you may remember the year the Heritage Minister, Sheila Copps, mailed a Canadian flag to everybody in the country.  There was a bit of a national melt down over the cost, but I'll bet somebody in the Liberal party still has the mailing list she compiled.  Rather than wait for people to apply for passports, maybe we should all be issued our red rubber maple leaf hats right now.

After all, you never know when the Americans will want to play hockey.

In the case of a national emergency you can also make your own hat. 
This one cost me $0.62.

*

It Just Isn't Canadian

Image by nosha via Flickr

A Canadian has always been a person who agreed with the opinion of the last person with whom she or he spoke. That gave rise to our well-deserved reputation as being a particularly polite group of people. Everybody liked us. If we had personal opinions, we kept them to ourselves until the rest of the world went home.

That isn't to say there weren't Canadians with opinions. That's why God gave us Rick Mercer and Christie Blatchford, after all.

The problem is, thanks to easy access to facebook, twitter and blogger, every single Canadian  has an opinion on everything now. Which might be okay except we don't agree on anything and nobody knows how to compromise because most of us have never had opinions before.

Take the outpouring of vitriolic comments about the G20 fiasco in Toronto. Like a dog with a bone, we just keep shaking it. But we aren't getting anywhere. Nothing new is being said. Not one mind is being changed. It just goes on and on.

I tell you, this business of having opinions, well, it just isn't Canadian.

I think we should quit talking about it, let the civilian-led police inquiry happen and then see where we are.

That's my opinion.

Not that I expect anyone to agree.