Queen's Diamond Jubilee: The Royalty's changing role in Canadian society

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Official celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee take place in Britain over the long weekend of June 1-4. In the next 30 days, the National Post will count down to that date and beyond with a special series looking at Her Majesty’s 60 Glorious Years. We will be highlighting the work of some of our best journalists who have written about the Queen, her role in Canada and society, and the future of the monarchy. We will also have quizzes and special features about people and places connected to Royalty. Last November, Regina Silva Robinson, a member of the Monarchist League of Canada since 1976, wrote about the changing role of the Royal Family.

The smiling face, the waving of the gloved hand and the ever present hat are all familiar images to most Canadians. In 2012, the woman behind those famous trademarks, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor Mountbatten, better known to the world as Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will mark her 60th year on the throne — a remarkable feat that has been eclipsed only by Queen Victoria’s 63year reign.

To some Canadians, the monarchy is an anachronism to be dispensed with; while to others (myself included) it is the very fabric that holds our nation together, historically and emotionally. How does a 85-year-old great-grandmother inspire such divergence of opinions? Moreover, how has she maintained her credibility as a trusted advisor, head of state, head of the Commonwealth, head of the Church, fount of all honour, not to mention being the head of a family — the Royal Family? Simply stated, she just gets on with it.

She was not meant to be Queen. Indeed, when she was born in 1926, she was third in line to the throne, of her grandfather, George V — and there was every expectation that her dashing and young-looking uncle, the-then Prince of Wales, would marry and have his own children, firmly displacing her father and herself in the line of succession. Yet 10 years later, the abdication of Edward VIII from the throne to marry a twice-divorced American woman would eventually lead Elizabeth to the throne and impress upon her mind forever the importance of fulfilling one’s duty as Sovereign to the best of her ability. The slipshod manner in which her uncle had carried out his responsibilities as King left a shadow on the throne that carried over into the following two reigns.

As Queen of 16 countries in the 53-member Commonwealth, she undertakes a schedule that would be daunting to most people 40 or 50 years her junior. Indeed, Elizabeth could be a walking advertisement for efficient time-management skills. Each year, she undertakes approximately 300 engagements throughout Britain, including perennial ceremonies such as Trooping the Colour, and the Garter and Thistle Services, along with receiving ambassadors, holding investitures, weekly meetings with the prime minister, holding privy council meetings, attending events to do with her presidency or patronage of the 300 or so organizations that she is affiliated with, fulfilling her duties as head of the Church (Defender of the Faith), along with undertaking state visits and hosting other heads of state and government.

While welcoming a more open monarchy in which the public could relate to the Royal Family as persons in their own right, she also has witnessed an unprecedented media intrusion into her family’s private lives. She has with much aplomb, grace, sensibility and understanding withstood the resultant blips. Indeed, she has always maintained her dignity even the face of an intruder into her bedroom and when shot at (six blanks — though unknown at the time) during the Trooping the Colour.

As our sovereign in Canada, she has the right to “encourage, warn and advise” her ministers, and they in turn can ask for an audience with her to discuss any issue which falls within the constitutional scope of her role. Who better to seek counsel from? She doesn’t have anything to lose or gain in advising her ministers. She has already attained the highest position there is.

Prime ministers and presidents come and go. The monarchy remains. The sovereign is and remains non-partisan, therefore above party and faction. The loyalty of our Armed Forces and the government is vested in the crown, not to a political party.

In other words, it is vested in the people, for that is who Elizabeth II is, she is the personification of all that is best in Canadian life.

As Canadians, we get extremely good value for our money, in that we pay approximately $1.50 per year, per person, for the monarchy; the money being spent not on the royal family as some think, but for the upkeep of the representatives of the Crown, both federally and provincially.

Newspapers around the world have made much of the fact that proposals to amend the succession and marriage laws as they pertain to the Royal Family are now being considered. However, to set the record straight, Elizabeth II has during her 60-year reign adapted quite well to changes, indeed she has been in the forefront of initiating changes herself, firmly believing that the monarchy must do so in order to be relevant. The matter of introducing succession laws to enable offspring to ascend to the throne regardless of gender or birth order has been of a matter of concern for some time, and was initially brought up by the sovereign herself, when Prince William was born in 1982. Why this has been delayed for so long is anyone’s guess. Furthermore, several members of the Royal Family already have either married Roman Catholics or converted to that faith since the 1970s. These were all undertaken with both The Queen’s approval and blessings.

The new proposals are not only welcome, but timely. We can look forward to a monarchy adapting itself to more modern views, while still maintaining the traditions and heritage that have served us so well.