The Town Hall Archives

Gandalf · Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2003 7:26 pm Post subject: Bizare but true!

Okay all you Canadians, listen up! About two years ago, I found out that Canada had "brought home the constitution", or they had broken completely with Great Brittain. The only thing this really acomplished was that they are no longer under the Queen (who has little to no real power). I happened to find out about this at a place where there was a former Canadian and an Austrailian. The Austrailian thought that Canada was nuts for doing it but the former Canadian was very excited. She said she was happy not to be under the Queen anymore (woopdedoo..). They kind of got into a argument and the Austrailian brought up that Canada was still allowed into the Commonwealth Games (which I had never heard of before) and I brought up that the Queen was still on the Canadian money. I asked the Canadian woman if, when the Queen dies, she thinks they'll re-print all their money with King Charles' (?) picture like England, Ireland, Australia, etc. will. I was really surprised when she said that they had better! I asked why on earth she wanted the queen or king of another country on her money and she just said she did. Further more, she said everyone in Canada loves the queen and are strict royalists (not her exact wording I don't think). I'm REALLY confused, if the only thing that "bringing home the constitution" did was get Canada out from under the queen, why the attitude? Why the money? Why are they/you still allowed in the "commonwealth games"? Why even get out of the commonwealth?????

Gandalf · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 8:44 am Post subject:

I just wanted to bump this up cause I still would appreciate an answer.

Ferder- · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 2:51 pm Post subject:

To my knowledge Canada has not disconected with Great Britian. It sounds more like some stupid rumor or hoax. Then again, I don't keep up with politics much. Even still, I highly dought if this is true

Gandalf · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 5:05 pm Post subject:

Now I'm even more confused.... *sigh* One way to answer this question, Do you people up there have Scripture classes in your schools? All commonwealth schools are required to have Scripure classes (though Australia at least doesn't have enough teachers to teach them). As liberal as Canada is I wouldn't think they would chose to have Scripture classes so this should answer the question.

Ferder- · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 11:04 am Post subject:

I'm homeschooled, but I am pretty sure that schools here don't have Scripture Classes. What you heard may still be right. My Dad thought he had heard something like it but my mom isn't sure.
The Queen recently visited Canada, if that means anything.

Jared · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 11:35 am Post subject:

Canada is still a part of the commonwealth.

It still has the queen as its head and a queen-appointed governor as in-country head. Most decisions, though, are passed off to the parliament and prime minister. The crown rarely gets involved in any matters concerning Canada.

Gandalf · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:41 pm Post subject:

The crown rarely gets involved with matters of Great Brittain period...

Perhaps this sounds a bit mean, but shouldn't you Canadians know what form of government you have??? Whether you're under the Queen or not does affect that (on paper only). Also, don't you vote on your parlament? I usually try to be as informed as possible when I go to vote...

extraneous interference · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 6:25 pm Post subject: repatriation

When P.E.T. repatriated the constitution, he did not cut all ties with Great Britain. Up till 1982, the Canadian Constitution was the British North America Act, just a regular bill passed in London. What Trudeau did was to make the BNA act a Canadian bill, the Canada Act. So that just means that Britain no longer has the power to make us a colony. it's just a Canadian pride thing.

Gandalf · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 6:45 pm Post subject:

Oh... I see. My next theory was that you had suceded (sp?) from the Commonwealth but Elizabeth II was still your queen. So I'm a little confused, was I wrong about the whole Scripture class? Does Canada still have it (possibly not enough teachers to go around like Australia)? Or was that part of the constitution that they brought home and changed?

extraneous interference · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2003 3:35 pm Post subject: scripture class

yeah, i don't know. I haven't heard of scripture classes. Education, in Canada, is under the provincial jurisdiction. In Ontario, I think the rule is that no religious classes are to be taught, except for optional religion classes during recess or after school... but don't quote me on that

an interesting fact about Canada and the queen:
if Britain were to abolish the monarchy (which would only take a regular bill through parliament) the Queen would still remain Queen of Canada. there hasn't been a new monarch since Trudeau repatriated the constitution so I don't know for sure how this would work, but I think that Canada can pick it's own monarch. If we wanted Prince Charles as our monarch we could crown him king, but because of tradition, i don't think we'll vary from the British selection. Oh, and for Canada to abolish the monarchy would require an amendment to the Constitution, requiring 7 out of the 10 provinces' (representing over 50% of the population) support, this will not happen in the foreseeable future because of the great expense involved with changing all the road signs, or monuments, etc. it's not really worth it, and the monarchy offers cheap entertainment....