Alright you canadians

[pohibaba]

Any of the commonwealth countries have the queen as their ceremonial head if I recall correctly.

Commonwealth of Nations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You'll see on the side that the head of the Commonwealth is Queen Elizibeth.

I think they can choose to have Queen Elizabeth as the head of their state:

Under the formula of the London Declaration, Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth, a title that is currently annexed to that of British monarchy.[38] However, when the monarch dies, the successor to the crown does not automatically become Head of the Commonwealth.[39] The position is symbolic: representing the free association of independent members.[38] Some members of the Commonwealth, known as Commonwealth realms, also recognise the Queen as their head of state. However, the majority of members are republics, and a handful of others are indigenous monarchies.

Do those of you who live in a commonwealth country support the idea of having a monarch? If given the option, would you vote to remove the Queen as the head of your state?

[chillin]

Canada are the best country in Earth, giving we the beautiful matt gordon to advertise colognes aren't commercials.

[aduidarnenye]

Do those of you who live in a commonwealth country support the idea of having a monarch? If given the option, would you vote to remove the Queen as the head of your state?

There's no reason to vote her out as Queen, or even to have a vote. She doesn't do much of anything good nor much of anything bad. She's just there, a tradition, much like a national anthem or flag.

[Demosthenes11]

Canada is like America's attic. You forget it's up there, but occasionally go just to bring some of the wierd shit down.

loooool
and it's where the family keeps the creepy weird child they don't want company to see

[Epical]

loooool
and it's where the family keeps the creepy weird child they don't want company to see

Could say the same thing about the basement. =( I was just in the US and there are some ugly ass people down there. =P

[Demosthenes11]

Could say the same thing about the basement. =( I was just in the US and there are some ugly ass people down there. =P

f u we are big beautiful and proud

I'm skinny enough to make up for the rest of america though...

[Lordwafik]

Do those of you who live in a commonwealth country support the idea of having a monarch? If given the option, would you vote to remove the Queen as the head of your state?

If you meant the country as a whole, yes as her face is printed on all coins as the "head", and on the 5 dollar note

Hueg money picture

Spoiler: show

http://z.about.com/d/coins/1/0/u/1/-...oney_coins.jpg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...edowl_f-1-.jpg
Fun fact : Australia has cast out the 1 and 2 cent coins as obsolete, we round our money to the nearest 5 cents.

Me personally, I don't care really. It's nice to have royalty just as a community thing. Not every country can say they have current royalty, even if the royalty means nothing at all in terms of the country's rule, it's living history basically.

Australia did have a vote a few years back, they wanted to try and make us separate from the commonwealth and have no queen, which would mean we'd have a system with a president and all, but that fell flat on it's face because more people voted to keep the monarchy than to oust them (obviously). I don't see a reason to lose them unless they are doing something detrimental.

how has nobody said lolcanada yet

something something last laugh something

[sephir]

So many wrong answers here.

Case and point:
" The Queen is still Canada's official head of state in name only. She appoints the Governor General, but I'm fairly sure that she is actually "advised" by Canada (the Prime Minister maybe) on who to choose. "

The queen does not appoint the Governor General the Prime Minister does. She represents the queen as our head of state, but only has the power to sign legislation (no veto power), call elections (only when PM, or opposition asks for it), certify elections and a few other small tasks.

Heres another wrong statement.

"The Queen is still our Head of state

Queen > Governor General > Prime Miniter

But the Queen and her rep have very little to do with the decision making in our country. "

The Queen has No decision making in our country. None. She may be our head of state but her signing duties belong to our governor general, who as said above is appointed by our PM.

[Ksandra]

So many wrong answers here.

Case and point:
" The Queen is still Canada's official head of state in name only. She appoints the Governor General, but I'm fairly sure that she is actually "advised" by Canada (the Prime Minister maybe) on who to choose. "

The queen does not appoint the Governor General the Prime Minister does. She represents the queen as our head of state, but only has the power to sign legislation (no veto power), call elections (only when PM, or opposition asks for it), certify elections and a few other small tasks.

Heres another wrong statement.

"The Queen is still our Head of state

Queen > Governor General > Prime Miniter

But the Queen and her rep have very little to do with the decision making in our country. "

The Queen has No decision making in our country. None. She may be our head of state but her signing duties belong to our governor general, who as said above is appointed by our PM.

according to some stuff I read when looking it up, she doesn't have the final say, BUT she does give out her advice for some laws. (I guess she gave a lot of good input when Canada rewrote the constitution in the 80s).

From what it sounds like (and of course feel free to correct me since I am lolamerican) she is like the commonwealth's mother. She keeps in touch on what's going on with her children, and gives educated advice to them, but they don't have to listen if they don't want to.

She also seems like she actually knows a lot of the politics of her countries and takes her position seriously even though she is really just a figurehead.


Curious question, when she passes will people want Prince Charles as their new monarch? Or do you think most of the commonwealth is just going to break from the British family? He doesn't seem like he presents himself well like Elizabeth does.


(btw any info you tell is so interesting to me, I've been on a kick reading Philip Greggory's books about the English Kings/Queens, so this is fun stuff)

[Blarg]

I would definitely choose to vote her out. I hate the idea of there even being a queen representing the idea that you can be born into greatness and being given power for that very reason.

[Skjie]

So many wrong answers here.

Case and point:
" The Queen is still Canada's official head of state in name only. She appoints the Governor General, but I'm fairly sure that she is actually "advised" by Canada (the Prime Minister maybe) on who to choose. "

The queen does not appoint the Governor General the Prime Minister does. She represents the queen as our head of state, but only has the power to sign legislation (no veto power), call elections (only when PM, or opposition asks for it), certify elections and a few other small tasks.

Heres another wrong statement.

"The Queen is still our Head of state

Queen > Governor General > Prime Miniter

But the Queen and her rep have very little to do with the decision making in our country. "

The Queen has No decision making in our country. None. She may be our head of state but her signing duties belong to our governor general, who as said above is appointed by our PM.

You are wrong on both counts, actually. The Queen does appoint the Governor General, but she always takes the recommendation of the Prime Minister. It is within her right to choose someone else, it is however such a massively poor idea, that it would never happen.

Again, the Queen does have final say on every decision by Parliament through the GG, but never exercises that power as it would be against tradition. This is why, for instance, there was the massive issue in December when Harper asked Jean to dissolve Parliament and people were not sure if she would allow it or not.

Please take the time to do more studying before shooting off that people are wrong. Especially when more than one person is saying the same thing.

Also: For the record, the Queen is a true pimp. She is always on top of the latest technology and is by far one of the most stable and devoted leaders of the free world. Very few people have done more selfless acts for their country than Elizabeth.

[Alathar]

So many wrong answers here.

Case and point:
" The Queen is still Canada's official head of state in name only. She appoints the Governor General, but I'm fairly sure that she is actually "advised" by Canada (the Prime Minister maybe) on who to choose. "

The queen does not appoint the Governor General the Prime Minister does. She represents the queen as our head of state, but only has the power to sign legislation (no veto power), call elections (only when PM, or opposition asks for it), certify elections and a few other small tasks.

Heres another wrong statement.

"The Queen is still our Head of state

Queen > Governor General > Prime Miniter

But the Queen and her rep have very little to do with the decision making in our country. "

The Queen has No decision making in our country. None. She may be our head of state but her signing duties belong to our governor general, who as said above is appointed by our PM.

Your corrections are either incorrect or incomplete.

The Canadian monarch appoints the Governor General on the advice of her Canadian Prime Minister.

Ultimately, the Queen appoints the Governor General, however, this is on the recommendation of the PM (I don't think there's a documented case of her refusing his advice).

Secondly, the Governor General has some input into affairs, but it is limited. Her signature is required for any new bills to be put into law. She may refuse to sign it and therefore the law would fail to pass (essentially veto power). However, this has never happened and if it were to happen, it is likely that this formality would be removed.

It possible that the Queen could exert some influence through the Governor General if she so chose, but I really don't think she cares. The Queen's main interest in Canada is the odd tour every decade or two which mostly involves a parade with hand-waving .

[Skjie]

It possible that the Queen could exert some influence through the Governor General if she so chose, but I really don't think she cares. The Queen's main interest in Canada is the odd tour every decade or two which mostly involves a parade with hand-waving .

RE: The Canada Act of 1982

The Queen actually put a lot of her own time and energy into the creation of this Act and the patriation of Canada's constitution.

[Kuya]

Sounds like we have a loyalist in our midsts.

[sephir]

Although the Queen does appoint the GG, in reality its the Prime Minister who selects her for the job. The Queen can pick someone else, but she very well knows that she may be removed from her head of state position within Canada and the Prime Ministers selection would be final.

It is the Prime Ministers pick on who becomes GG, regardless of the formality.

As for decision making power, she has no power at all. She can fight it sure, but she would never win as parliament can go around her entirely if they so choose.

What your saying is the technical version, but in reality its the PM who decides who will fill the job and if legislation passes through the house and senate what laws will come into effect regardless of what the Queen says.

So no, im not wrong im just saying the reality of the situation

[Skjie]

No, you're saying what you want to. The reality is that the Queen acts on the Prime Minister's recommendation, though there is nothing to prevent her from ignoring it.

Please tell me where in the constitution it says that Parliament can go around the Queen, because I guess I missed that bit. For example, the will of Parliament was for a coalition government to form in December, which did not happen because the Queen (through the GG) denied that request.

[Linliel]

I think part of the reason the republic vote went splat here was because they didn't really put forward a particularly good alternative. People didn't much like the alternative and figured "if it ain't broke why fix it" so kept the monarchy.

[Xenophobe]

It is the Prime Ministers pick on who becomes GG, regardless of the formality.


So no, im not wrong im just saying the reality of the situation

You are right in the fact that the Queen will never chose another GG, but you are wrong that the PM appoints them, that technicality is law.

The Queen still rules Canada through the GG by law, whatever way you spin it this is still a fact.

So Queen > GG > PM is the correct answer!

[Elesirdur]

Yes, Charles will become King of Canada if/when he inherits the throne, as will he become the King of all the Commonwealth countries that recognize the monarch of the United Kingdom as its sovereign.

[Skjie]

Yes, Charles will become King of Canada if/when he inherits the throne, as will he become the King of all the Commonwealth countries that recognize the monarch of the United Kingdom as its sovereign.

Really I'm expecting William. I don't think Charles really even wants to be king, and William has been raised since birth to take the role, Charles hasn't been.