Canada hasn’t had titles since around 1920, although PM Bennett relaxed the prohibition for a period in the 30s. See this thread.
With respect to the OP, I believe that Churchill was offered a dukedom (the proposed title was “Duke of London,” with reference to the Blitz) but he turned it down because it would have meant leaving the Commons after about a half century’s membership (on and off, of course).
IIRC several (maybe many) Canadian citizens were knighted and given peerages until quite recently when the Canadian Prime Minister banned it totally. Of course, ntil the last generation, many Canadians had full British citizenship as well as Canadian citizenship, so may have technically received honors as Brits.
pjen, they’re not certain how many Canadian have been knighted since the 1920 resolution. The ones that I’ve seen mentioned in the papers have been living and working in the U.K. for some years, as you suggest, but the British PM never notified the Canadian PM for those cases. As far as I’m aware, since PM King defeated PM Bennett, the Canadian position, if asked, has been to oppose titles for someone with Canadian citizenship. The fact that the British PM’s office didn’t always consult with the Canadian PMO doesn’t suggest that the Canadian PM’s position suddenly came out of the blue.
I know that Canada was one of the first (? the first) to pull out of recommending titles (I remember the ending of the Aussie and NZ lists in the last thirty years).
Many knighthoods have been conferred on non-Brits (including Bob Geldoff!) and I cannot see how the PM of Canada would be different from the PM in Ireland (with whom Britain has had a far rockier history).
I remember that several of our overseas press barons before Conrad Black were given peerages and am sure that at least one was nominally Canadian.
Because of the vexed question of British Nationality, it is difficult to determine whether someone having Canadian citizenship is or is not also a full British Citizen with resident rights (certainly for most people over 50- the most likely age for titles). I would guess that someone who has lived as a Brit in the UK with full citizenship for some years, who was also Canadian, would not necessarily be referred to the Canadian PM for approval. However, if you are as big a beast as Black, and want a peerage, then ripples will turn into tsunami!
AS I noted above, I think its all Ruritanian Tosh anyway.
When Alex Ferguson was knighted after leading Manchester United to the treble in 1999, there was a lot of grumbling in Scotland that Jock Stein should have been for doing the same thing with Celtic in 1967. I remember reading at the time (1999, I mean) that the Government had discussed a knighthood for Stein but for some reason decided against it - the only reference I can find at the moment, though, is that Whitehall officials decided he was “not the right sort” for the honor, whatever that means.
Max Aitken, originally of New Brunswick, was made Lord Beaverbrook during or shortly after WWI. I believe that was one of the events which triggered the resolution of the Canadian House of Commons back in 1920.
In the 60s, Thomson was made Lord Thomson of Fleet, but he renounced his Canadian citizenship to do so, because PM Pearson opposed the conferral of a peerage on a Canadian citizen, consistently with the resolution.
The difference flows from the fact that we’ve not had so rocky a history, and continue to share the same head of state.
Based on the principles established at the Commonwealth meeting in 1926, and set out in the Statute of Westminster, 1931the overseas members of the Commonwealth are independent, with the same rights to advise the Sovereign with respect to matters coming within their jurisidiction as the British PM has for British matters - and the British PM cannot give her advice on matters arising within the other Commonwealth nations.
In this case, PM Chrétien has advised HM that she should not confer titles on Canadians. She is constitutionally required to accept that advice.
PM Blair was thinking about advising her to confer a peerage on Black, a British subject. She would equally be required to accept that advice, but that advice would conflict with the advice of the Canadian PM, validly given.
Since the Queen cannot be put in the position of getting conflicting advice, which would require an independent decision on her part, the two PMs have to settle the issue between them. So far, they have done so by PM Blair not advising her to give the peerage to Black.
Ireland does not have the Sovereign as its head of state, and therefore the PM of Ireland has no constitutional right to give advice to the Sovereign with respect to peerages for Irish citizens. As a completely separate nation, Ireland could raise the issue through diplomatic channels, but it would not have the right to give advice to the Sovereign on this issue.
The most disgraceful example of successive politicians refusing to bestow a knighthood on a deserving subject is that of P G Wodehouse, one of the greatest (and funniest) writers of the last century. He was eventually given a knighthood at the age of 93 - the long long delay was down to the establishment’s view of Wodehouse’s “treachery” during World War 2. His crime ? He naively agreed to write and broadcast some humourous accounts of life in an internment camp whilst he was held captive in occupied France. The talks in fact subtly mocked his German captors.
Former PM Ted Heath was largely responsible for blocking his knighthood for so many years.
That’s one way of putting it. Another would be that he wrote and recorded propoganda broadcasts on behalf of the Nazis.
It may well have been naivety rather than sympathy for the Nazis that led him to do it, but it was extremely ill-judged. It was quite right not to award a knighthood to somebody who had collaborated with the enemy during the war, even at a low level.
Wasn’t Ronald Reagan, of all people, awarded some kind of knighthood (void where prohibited) after his Presidency?
Oh, and how about if France gives Chretien a Legion d’Honneur, perhaps as reparations for DeGaulle’s “Vive la Quebec libre!” speech? Might he relent on a British knighthood for Black, then?
If I remember correctly from reading the Royals’ web page linked to above, Reagan and Bush Sr. were both awarded honorary GCB’s. Since this is one of the ones awarded by the government, I’m not at all surprised it. After all, Reagan and Thatcher (who, BTW, has been awarded a barony and membership in the Order of the Garter) got along smashingly.
The site also mentions several other foreign leaders getting honorary awards, including Nicolai Coucescu (sp?), whose GCB was withdrawn.