Say what you will about the King’s reading of the Throne Speech in the Senate chamber in Ottawa yesterday, his measured tones did manage to leave the impression that grownups are in charge in Ottawa once again.
The mere appearance of King Charles III – by the grace of God, King of Canada, as we used to say – isn’t going to save us from the anti-Canadian ravages of entities like Donald Trump, the easily manipulated American public, separatist-enabling Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, and the risible and mysteriously financed Republican Party of Alberta, of course.
That’s a nasty job we Canadians are going to have to take on all by ourselves.
Still there was something about His Majesty’s calm voice on my car radio yesterday morning that was unexpectedly reassuring, even moving at times, suggesting that a guy who spent 73 years training for the awkward position of being head of state to a passel of constitutional monarchies whose interests are unlikely to align precisely at any given time actually figured out how to do his job.
Not every septuagenarian can say that, as post-Boomer generations tirelessly remind us on social media.
Not that the King writes the Throne Speech, in Ottawa or Westminster, of course.
But if you don’t like it, you’ll have to blame the Prime Minister and his communications boffins for what it had to say, and most of how what it said was framed, which I’m sure a lot of Alberta “Conservatives” were privately grinding their teeth about last night wherever their covens gather, somewhere in Calgary, probably.
Sensing that the King has made some new Canadian friends on this visit, a talent he seems to have inherited from his late mother, Elizabeth, the Conservative hive mind will now be trying to work up some talking points that will insult the real authors of the King’s speech without insulting the King.
They will mostly understand that the new popularity of the suddenly dignified King Charles – something he never quite attained as a mere prince – is a potential wedge issue for the Carney Liberals to exploit now that the Canadian conservative movement is increasingly MAGA and republican.
On a personal note, having come of age in the 1970s when Conservatives still believed in conserving things they saw to be of value and thus tended to love the monarchy, it is disorienting to realize that so many modern “conservatives” reject the institution as an impediment to their MAGA values and pine to be part of the disintegrating republic to the south.
The immediate problem such Conservatives face, though, is that as Throne Speeches go, this was a pretty good one – ultimately the source of the impression that the Liberal government of Mark Carney may be able to do something Canadians decided neither his predecessor Justin Trudeau nor his MAGAfied Conservative challenger Pierre Poilievre could do. To wit: run the country like a grownup surrounded by other adults.
Now, it’s quite possible that Mr., Carney will not be able to deliver on the promises King Charles made on his behalf yesterday. The whole thing could come unstrung in a week or a year. Who knows? But that’s an issue for another day.
As an artifact of Westminster style democracy – whose theoretical purpose is to outline the government’s agenda for the next session of Parliament – this Speech from the Throne has to been seen as a success. Even if one paid no attention to what the King was saying, it left the impression that, despite the great challenges Canadians face, we could just thread the needle and placate our crazy neighbour while asserting our own sovereignty and place in the world.
As political literature, it was a far more polished document than the whiny drivel that passed for the United Conservative Party’s most recent Throne Speech here in Alberta, which instead of hope, assigned blame to a variety of scapegoats.
From the Carney Government’s perspective, the speech and the King’s presence also managed to annoy the right people – people, that is, who a lot of Canadian voters have good reason not to like very much, not least among them U.S. President Donald Trump.
Something, at any rate, seems to have provoked Mr. Trump to start rambling about the 51st state again and claiming that we could have his unworkable Golden Dome scheme, which sounds like a reincarnation of the failed Reagan-era Strategic Defence Initiative, for free if we just sign up to be part of crumbling colossus to the south.
And if the gossip columns of the British gutter press are to be believed, Prime Minister Keir Starmer also opposed the King’s trip to Canada on the grounds the symbolism might interfere with his effort to grovel to Mr. Trump.
Naturally, here in Alberta yesterday’s speech will infuriate the radical, separatist, republican and extremist wing of the UCP’s base, people who are incapable of minding what they say. They will view the King’s speech as a betrayal and a personal slight. The results should be apparent on social media within hours.
Finally, Mr. Poilievre, running for a safe seat in the MAGA wilderness of Battle River-Crowfoot, will be afraid to speak up for Canada without equivocation and qualification for fear of riling up his separatist constituents.
All this will be grist for Mr. Carney’s mill.
As I wrote last February, the days are long gone when you could count on a king to get up in his stirrups and yell at the lads, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, or close the wall up with our English dead!”
Still, just by showing up and reading a speech without a hitch, King Charles has done Canada a service I hadn’t expected him to do.
Keeping in mind that we may need to ask him back again. God Save the King!
Danielle Smith wasn’t too happy with this throne speech. The Corrupt Care scandal is getting under her skin.
Never was keen on the current King. However, he did a decent job of reading the Throne Speech. He looked dignified, in control. I’m glad they had him come and do the King thing. Yes, the adults are in charge again. I’ve always been under the impression anything regarding the King’s schedule had to be planned well in advance of the event. It was surprising how quickly this visit was organized. It was clear he was arriving quickly. He had a number of events scheduled which made him look much younger than the lump to the south. He and his wife did a good job. Sent a strong message to the lump. He and Carney made a good impression. They could take that act on the road and bring the Queen with them. Reading the speech in French and English worked well. The King and Queen looked like they were working at their job and the number of events, yes they were working. Trump just tends to lumber about with a silly truckers cap on, which any one can purchase from his on line store. Like who does that. Its so tacky. That is one thing you can say about the King and Queen and Carney, there was nothing tacky about their “act”. Don’t think it would hurt to have them come for a few days again. Just zipping in and out, doing their royal job, looking professional and elegant.
Who does that?
Why, Devin Dreeshan does that.
I am pleased that you received our King’s attendance and speech so well.
I am British and regularly listened to the Queen’s speech for many years and now the King’s speech.
You should know, if you don’t already, and most people don’t. Particularly Americans. That the ceremonial “speech” at the opening of a parliamentary session is delivered by the monarch, but is written by the government. So it is not actually the “King’s speech” in any shape or form. He is simply the mouthpiece.
Brian: I have spent many years pondering the best way to safely and peacefully manage the transition of power in a democracy, which in the Westminster system requires a neutral arbiter in the event of ties, close calls and minority Parliaments. My conclusion in my 74th year is that despite the superficial unfairness of relying on a royal line, the most effective system has proved to be a hereditary monarchy trained for national service. It’s not perfect for a lot of obvious reasons, but it’s certainly better than the system outlined in the American Constitution, in which the head of government is also the head of state, or the inherently partisan solution in use in most Parliamentary republics. So call me a reluctant supporter of constitutional democracy, because I just can’t think of anything better. There is both an advantage and a disadvantage to having a monarch who is also the monarch of another country, with which Canada’s interests at the moment are clearly no aligned. King Charles, it appears, rather to my surprise, has the grace and the skill to bridge that gap. DJC
If ever there was a clearer case of the American corporate and indy media manipulating Trump onto ever greater paranoia and narcissism–I haven’t seen it.
Many were screeching pro or con, how King Charles snubbed, insulted or otherwise took verbal potshots at Trump. What actually happened was…not one word was mentioned in the Throne Speech about any other country other than Canada and the UK. The USA was ignored. As a nation of squabbling toddlers wailing to be the centre of attention–including the head toddler–that of course, could not stand.
So, of course, Trump had to bring all the attention back to himself. As someone who has watched his never-ending need to be the centre of the world stage Trump promptly undermined Carney, the Canadian government and the King by claiming that Canada was discussing paying for HIS “golden dome” project in a headline-grabbing bid to be a Reality TV Star, again. The Golden Dome Drama. Another Star Wars fiasco, writ large.
This happens every time important or interesting world news knocks Trump off the headlines.
It’s the same screeching need for attention that Danielle Smith, shares.
I’ve started boiling down political drama to: Ignoring what any politician says on social media or to the press and focusing only on *what gets done* before my head starts rotating like the kid in the exorcist and I have to chase my rolling eyeballs across the floor and scoop them up before the cat uses them for mousing practise.
I am agnostic in regards to royalty: someday, when Canada is ‘mature’, we’ll dump the monarchy like a snake sheds its skin … in the meantime we have more important things to do.
I do approve of Carney’s current ‘use’ of our King to reinforce his point that ‘some things are not for sale’.
Always best in any democracy to keep the “power” and the “glory” separate. Look what happens when they aren’t!
Barry
Hurrah for King Charles! I’ve always thought he was one of the better Royals. At least he has a sense of humour. I remember watching a video of then Prince Charles visiting a small island in the Pacific and maintaining that ‘stiff upper lip’ while fighting back tears of laughter as the band played – not God Save the Queen, but rather the theme from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It did occur to me that the Alberta Education Minister going all MAGA on Monday about graphic novels might have been a failed attempt to upstage the arrival of the monarch – and the Carney government throne speech. While the distraction didn’t succeed, it did manage to pull the spotlight away from PP. Again.
I’m glad someone else has noticed the sudden surge in donations to the Republican Party of Alberta. Almost all of the donations have been the maximum allowed – $10,000. Four members of one family donated ten grand each. That’s a lot of cash. Well, we had a kamikaze leadership candidate years ago. Has there ever been a kamikaze party?
While the throne speech was presented with all the pageantry that the occasion demanded, it appeared to be another tired exercise in communicating to only one person, the mango Mussolini, Donald J. Trump.
Charles III Rex can read a phone book with extraordinary eloquence, and at a level of diction that would certainly give most Americans an aneurysm, this latter-day ‘King’s Speech’ pumped up the troops, but did little to dispel the disaster that is still unfolding.
Like it or not, Queen Danielle has every intention of burning down everything, and calling herself the victim at every opportunity. Regardless of how well-thought and effective PM Carney’s proposals will be, Smith will rally her troglodyte base to grunt their opposition as they knuckle drag themselves to another to TBA drool fest.
If the adults are in the room, it’s the usual suspects who have their fingers in the ears and shouting “NAH NAH NAH!” as they burn everything down.
This why idiots shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
I have to wonder just how much Mr. Carney and partisans realize that the Excited States is, as you say, a falling giant. Of course we should have been gaining allies throughout the world long ago instead of tying our hands behind our knees with over 75% of our export livelihoods going south of the undefended border. That might even include China now – Oh the horror!! Having to choose the dictatorships to consort with does actually require more than monetary considerations – things like, gasp, morals!! Nothing is so good as perfection, but then, we live in a most imperfect world.
If one were to scan the dystopian novels and movies of the last fifty years or so, the one thing that becomes apparent is that, at some point, the Excited States will splinter and collapse. This has been a long time coming, and likely could have happened much earlier in US history were it not for some outside event that prevented the collapse from happening. The US, from its inception, has failed economically several times, but each time it was saved. It was saved by wars — the Mexican War and the American Civil War — that prevented the collapse by, either, assuring territorial expansion, or the obliteration of the dominant economic and social system. The American Civil assured two things: the destruction of Antebellum America and the subjugation of its social hierarchy. With the Reconstruction, wealthy white guys from the North and South cut the appropriate deals and assured that the traitors to the Union received amnesty. Considerable wealth was transferred and another crisis was averted. The Great Depression and the rise of the New Deal saved America, briefly. But it was the onset of the WW2 that gave America in one big chance for the brass ring that assured its place as a global superpower. At this time, America is in repose and declining fast. There are no more great wars to fight, because there are too many powers equal to the US. The US may decide that conquering Canada is an option, and the expansion and annexation of Canada may give the US some respite, but the decline will continue. Internal divides in America will grow deeper and Americans turns on each other, as they always have. Civil wars of varying sizes will break out across the US, and new lesser nations will be carved out of the lumbering morass of the Great Union. Movies like “Damnation Alley”, “The Hunger Games”, “The Road”, and “The Handmaids’ Tale” warned of the collapse. Now, we to watch it happen in real time.
Wonderful to read this whilst “O Canada” echoed from a loudspeaker across the nearby school ground to start the school day on a beautiful spring morning. Right here in the Premiers riding the command centre of the Black Hat coven.
What a day for the history books. Excellent!
I’m not sure if I might be a closet-monarchist? Or, maybe just because my generation grew up saluting the Union Jack every morning and singing “God Save the Queen. Or because Liz II was on our coins and bills. Or because my school was named after the Prince (now King)?
But, there was something about watching Charles speak in our Parliament- the decorum, the civility. The grace. Not just the words, which he did a good job of, I agree. He had his wits about him, and didn’t make a wrong turn as far as I could tell. It was reassuring, and
after the crass incivility and adolescent anger that has become normalized in right wing conservative political discourse, to hear and see this calm in the all the craziness. And it seemed to me
that he, and PM Carney, were very aware of this and it was all part of Carney calling in a favour of the King. There certainly seemed to be comfortable familiarity between them.
And then .. there was Margaret, omg. Double-cheek- kissing the Regent? No wonder Justin had his sneakers on, to make a quick escape and whisk her out of there before she made anymore faux pas!
I felt a bit sad, watching King Charles waving good-bye from the door of the airplane. It was like when you’re older, after seeing a long-lost relative at a funeral or a wedding, knowing you will probably never see each other again.
Who knew I was a blushing fan-girl and Royal-watcher. The fascinator probably gave me away. I guess I should take it off now.
Margaret has known Charles for some fifty years, so that was no faux pas.
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fxxpuofqchzm91.jpg
This is a country that has been predicted by the OECD to experience the least growth in productivity of any developed country for the next forty years. The economy has been structured to depend on immigration and real estate speculation. The lackeys of the military industrial complex are fired up to have Canadian taxpayers fund an enormous corporate welfare scheme in the name of keeping the Russian tankers from sunbathing on the banks of the Seine, when the Russians are in year four of fighting 100km from the 2013 borders with the failed Ukrainian CIA project. The cities have homeless junkie populations in the thousands. But we can take comfort in the words of a guy who literally has his toothbrush loaded for him.
Murphy, I tend to agree with you about the bone-headed direction of military purchasing that we don’t need. Aircraft? What? Are we planning strafe-bombing cities, somewhere? Engaging in sky dogfights? Bought from a country that can just shut off future needed parts acquisitions and shut down the onboard computer systems during an update? Can no one in the armed forces be taught to program Linux systems?
As a small population in a large country, what we *actually* need are missiles, drones, arctic monitoring, white-hat hackers using insurrection-trained armed forces with civil defense plans because our biggest problem lies south of us–not across the world. If we wind up in a defensive battle on our own soil, that’s what we need. We don’t need to fly across the world and fight someone else’s battles. We’re France and the USA is Germany in this scenario. We need to make it so costly to hold territory here that any invader will just give up in a decade and go home. It’s the old saw, “An invader has to win outright. A guerrilla army only has to survive.”
Spending money for the sake of offensive warfare when we are a small population is wasteful.
Does nobody in power read history or Sun Tzu any more?
B: Sun Who? (Joke.) DJC
DJC…the Chinese guy who knew “The Art Of” things a thousand years before Mango Mussolini was born.
That guy. :p
B: Rest easy, I know. It was a little joke, with the point that a lot of folks don’t know about that Chinese guy, or that Prussian guy either. DJC
Constitutional monarchs – and by extension their vice-regal representatives – have important uses. While His Majesty’s throne speech was indeed symbolic pageantry, his authority is very real. We have only to look south. Under our constitutional monarchy, the “Donvict” would have been barred from running for office. I wonder if any one has told him that?
In this province, a vice-regal “I don’t think so” made Trashcan Dani promptly amend her Sovereignty Act. And then there’s the smackdown Lt. Gov. Bowen delivered to Bible Bill Aberhart.
So, constitutional fire extinguishers, a useful democratic precaution.
I am a Monarchist. And King Charles is an incredible person, I have all his books. What he has gone through and what he has done for this planet is amazing. I don’t believe he gets enough credit.
My hat is off to the King for coming here and supporting us and I am pleased that our Prime Minister invited him.
Yes, this was a different speech from the throne, but that that was intentional. No doubt our new PM observed all the pomp while working in the UK and realized it has a purpose or could be useful for the right occasion and this was one of them.
I am not a big fan of throne speeches with their often vague goals and lofty, over stated idealism. I prefer more practical measures and action. I feel it must be hard to remain regal while reading off a laundry list of politicians promises, but the King managed to do his best. I suppose he and his predecessors have had plenty of practice.
However, the King’s presence also underlined the seriousness of it all and also provided a break with the recent past. Our previous PM, while personally quite cordial to our monarchs, seemed to have some ambivalence about it. Despite his flair for the theatrical he would have probably not had embraced such a regal address as enthusiastically.
While this governments throne speech seemed more focused than many others, I felt the best parts of the speech were the King’s more personal remarks. There is a reminder there that despite the troubles we face, we are not alone. Also, while the monarchy may seem like an anachronism these days, it is clear that a monarchy based on restraint is still better than an imperialistic ruler who aspires to be a king, with no restraint.
Yes, this may make things more tricky for the UK’s PM, who is trying hard to have good relations with the US. Although many have tried to get on the good side of the US President and it has not always worked as well for them as hoped. However, the relationship between the us, our PM and the King of Canada is a direct one and he was here in that role and he did that job well.
Lastly, as for the golden dome, which seems to be the US President’s latest attempt to entice us, he is like a salesman who tried to sell something to us before telling us the price. Surely an experienced salesman should realize that a price that is too high can be a deal breaker. I feel that there will be less enthusiasm for it in Canada now.
I’m sure King Charles did a swell job but just for kicks I wonder what the throne speech would have sounded like if it was sung by the Sex Pistols. Food for thought.
As a republican I find the attention they receive to be excessive and I find them to be more and more irrelevant. The fact is that they are even more irrelevant to Gen Z and Millennials and that will determine whether then have a future.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
Just to add my 2 cents worth. Glad that the King was here to read the throne speech. A constitutional monarchy is much better than the U S system in which almost no one in Congress or the Senate can agree on anything, and it sounds as if it has always been a bartering game between the 2 parties to have any legislation passed.
A more neutral monarchy who can mention a suggestion or 2 informally seems a much better system.
I personally like what I have seen of King Charles. I heard the speech while in the car yesterday, and he sounded very good and seemed to be sincere in his personal remarks.
Overall, good impression of a head of state who supports Canada and can say so with tact, calmness and respect. A great addition to national cohesiveness.
The King said fuck off Trump, in a way few others could have said it and the words published!
I remember making that argument decades ago, that it works better to have the head of state differentiated from the political leader. US treats their president too much like a king.