IF BARBADOS CAN DITCH HRH

That’s only half the headline by a feisty Bob Hepburn’s column in the Option Section of the recent Toronto Daily Star. The rest goes like this: …WHAT’S STOPPING CANADA?

Bravo Bob! God only knows how many Canadians feel like you and I – the majority – in wanting to get rid of the burden of carrying on with Queen Elizabeth 2 as the Queen of Canada. Especially when she’s giving up the job very soon. What will Canada have? A new head of state, that’s what. Presumably a ‘king’!

“The time has come,” a Governor General said recently, “to fully leave our colonial past behind.”

This, not from our Canadian Head of State, but Governor General Sandra Mason of Barbados. She went on, “This is the ultimate statement of confidence in who we are and what we are capable of achieving.”

A sidebar to Bob Hepburn’s column: “It is unthinkable Canada, a multicultural country that champions diversity, is still beholden to a queen or king living in England.”

Before you start jumping up and down in frustration or anger, Hepburn had more to say. “Barbados will become the latest in a long line of countries ending formal ties with Britain. Indeed, 16 countries have done just that since Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953.

Hepburn tells us, “Diehard monarchists and constitutionalists in Canada will argue that it’s imperative we have the Queen as our head of state or we will become a republic just like the U.S. where the president also is the head of state.”

My reply: “For the better!”

Hepburn has it right when asking, “Should Canada sever ties with the British monarchy? If a simple majority votes yes, then the formal process to do just that can begin.”

Author’s comment: My family left Ireland in 1834, I can only imagine for a better/different life in Canada. They set up camp in Woodbridge, Ontario. England, if you look back at history, was never it seemed, enamored with Northern Ireland, any more than with Scotland. Or Canada?

If you can believe it under the monarchy system no Canadian will ever be next head of state, nor will any Catholic, according to Bob Hepburn, Jew, Muslim or anyone from countless other ethnic and religious backgrounds. Amen.