God save Mrs. Queen, in a manner of speaking

I have no problem with the Queen. In fact, I think she’s wonderful. She’s steadfast, dignified, sporadically ‘amused’, tough when she needs to be, and very much what anybody would want a Queen to be. She’s a pip.

With her current ‘grandmotherly’ bearing, we tend to call her ‘Mrs. Queen’ around this household; granting the honorific by dint of her matriarchal bearing that is sort of like the ideal ‘mother-in-law’ who holds sway due to her very ‘presence’; a strong and reliable presence.

And, we’re tight, me’n the Queen. I’ve actually seen her in the flesh on three occasions. The first time was when I was a little cub scout and she passed by on parade with that guy she’s married to. She was pretty young, too, at that time. The second time she passed by locally on parade and was still with that same guy. The last occasion was about 12-years ago when she paid another call and I was assigned to cover her visitation for my newspaper. I still have reams of photos I took of her that day, some of them quite close up since I had ‘official’ status. She was very nicely dressed and I was amazed at her absolute non-sweatiness on a day in which the temperature was about 85 Fahrenheit. Tough broad, she.

So, yes I like the Queen a lot. I also admire her and think she’s ideal for her job.

As for the rest of the brood -- all the assorted either flaky, or dreary, or drunken, or preternaturally horny Mountbatten-Windsor-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Hanover lot – not so much. They seem to be boring and uninspiring and obviously did not learn much at Mama’s knee. “Don’t be touching the skirt, Charles, you little wretch! You have Marmite on your hands – at least I hope it’s Marmite -- and this is pure silk!”

All that said, about my love for the Queen and all, I should mention that there has been a little folderol around here lately about the Queen’s picture – or lack thereof – on the ships of the BC Ferries fleet. It seems that some of them were going missing. This was distressing to the members of that wonderful antediluvian body known as the Monarchist League of Canada (who would have the Queen directly rule Canada by sovereign decree and divine right it they had their way) who assailed the obviously systematic removal of the pictures as being disloyal, unpatriotic, disrespectful, and a symbol of incipient ‘Americanization’ of Canada. The latter point based, no doubt, on the fact that the CEO of the fleet is a Yank.

What nonsense at many levels, I say. In the first place, Canada is as independent a nation as is the US, and like other nations we only pay fealty to our corporate interests, not to a nice foreign lady. Yes, legally the Queen is Queen of Canada. But, that’s only as a courtesy. She has no say in what we do, and she doesn’t live here. She has a traditional role, but nothing more.

I must confess that I am, in fact, a republican (not the party, God forbid, but the political philosophy) and think it is high time Canada shucked all such connections with the throne of Gt. Britain. I mean, it was fine once, as was public flogging, but I think we’ve moved past that. Especially when you consider that the bulk of the Canadian population these days has no ethnic connection with the United Kingdom.

I think the Queen should be the Queen of England, and should periodically come to call, as health permits in her advanced years, and I would be quite content for her to retain her sovereign role in Canada until her demise.

But, when one of the other bums takes the throne, I don’t think so. I gather a lot of people in the UK feel the same way. .