Monarchy ensures the Separation of Government and State -- FCS Discussion Forum

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Subject: Monarchy ensures the Separation of Government and State

Author:
Michael J. Smith (Canada)

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Date Posted: 15:31:27 01/12/05 Wed
In reply to: Brent (Canada) 's message, "My 2 cents" on 13:37:49 01/11/05 Tue

People talk a great deal in my country and in the United States about the separation of Church and State. While this may be true in reality, we should remember that Her Majesty still officially heads up the Church. We should also remember that very few people in the Commonwealth object to the popular sentiment God Save the Queen.

The real issue in my mind is to preserve and defend the idea that in our shared political system the Government is not the State, that Government could never and should never serve as the constitutional embodiment of the People. Unfortunately, that is only nominally the case now. Diefenbaker was our last true monarchist prime minister; since 1963 we've had a long string of monarchical PMs, who more and more think of themselves as the State, who themselves appoint our "Head of State" and "Commander-in-Chief", someone we call the Governor General. The only deference paid by our Head of Government now is to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who I'm sure sees herself (that's right, she's a she) as the consitutional protector of the people.

Believe me, Her Majesty has fallen a long way down the list. That is because our Sovereign, our constitutional Head of State has been easy prey over the years to a long line of usurpers (PMs), pretenders (GGs) and Lord Protectors (Justices).

At least Tony Blair is upfront about what he wants to do with the remaining constitutional powers of the Queen: Send them to Europe. The rest of us live in a world of pretend.

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