This is to all the SDMB members who live in the Commonwealth (or any other country that has government ties to a monarchy) would you want your respective country to cut their ties with “The Crown”. I’m looking for a yes or no, and it would be nice to have a reason for your choice.
Me, I live in Canada and would greatly welcome any attempt in severing our ties to the British monarchy.
A) The English are cool , but I just don’t like the Royal Family.
B) It isn’t even “The Canadian Royal Family” they are from the UK!
C) When the time comes for ol’ Liz to step down, I do not want “King” Charles on my money. :eek:
D) And I really don’t like monarchies in general. I feel the whole idea is is an outdated concept which rewards the luckily few who happen have been born into royalty, without any regard to achievements that might have been made my that person.
As a Canadian, I think we should have an all-Canadian monarchy, if we’re going to have one at all. Let’s have our own princes and princesses and king and queen, our own ceremonies, our own symbols.
Of course the symbols of the new monarchy could grow out of the soul of the shared British/French history, but there’s no reason we couldn’t include the symbols of the other nations and peoples who came to and became part of this land. Inukshuks. Dragons. The Four Directions. Moose. Manitou. The list is long.
I want to be Duke of Toronto.
More seriously, I like the idea of having the members of the Order of Canada elect the Governor-General. We wouldn’t even need to change any of the titles… just put a new face on the money.
The provincial lieutenant-governors could be elected by comparable bodies in each province.
This would maintain the separation between the symbolic Head of State (the Governor-General), and the political Head of Government (the Prime Minister)…
I’d like Australia to go for the “minimal-change rebublic” model. Ditch Lizzie and family, and have an Australian as head of state. He or she could still be called the Governor-General, and we’d stay in the Commonwealth. I don’t really care if they change the flag or not.
New Zealand have only recently isolated ourselves from the Privy Council as the highest court of appeal.
Yes, I agree with severing any other lingering ties with the Crown. We started cutting the apron strings in 1907 – it’s long past time the job was completed. The Governor-General, the representative of Her Majesty here in NZ, is just as much a figurehead, rubber-stamper as the Queen is.
And by all means, let’s have a change to the flag. (I know this goes against the wishes of returned servicemen and their families, but I’d like something that is more closely represents my country).
Like TLD, I’m for the “minimal-change republic” model.
I emphatically do not want us to move to a model in which our head of state (whether we call that person governor general, president, or big kahuna) is elected directly by the public.
I’m not overly concerned about whether the flag is changed or not - I do find some of the arguments put forward for retaining it both inaccurate and over-emotive, though.
Count me as another McGarvie (minimalist) model republican.
Timing, well I thought that last time was soon enough. But enough direct electionists pissed the opportunity away and we won’t see another for a decade.
The flag, while I would go into the trenches either way, probably should be changed concurently but the Eureka Flag or the Aboriginal Flag to be the only legitimate alternatives.
Just a footnote. If it came down to a referendum on direct election of our head of state or retaining the monarchy, I’d vote to retain the monarchy - I’m that opposed to the direct election model.
Just curious, though. All you other Aussies…why are you so against a direct election of our head of state? What am I missing here?
And I SO want the flag changed. You have no idea the number of times I’m asked “Why do you have the English flag on there?” or “Why do you have the same flag as NZ?”. Its almost humiliating that we don’t have a flag that is recognisable at a glance as the Aussie flag.
I’m against the direct election of the head of state because I believe the position would then become a populist political one - we’d probably end up with an ex-cricketer as our president/g-g.
In terms of stability and checks and balances, our current system serves us fairly well (although I’d certainly favour the head of state having to be ratified by a substantial majority of both houses of parliament).
Direct election would mean a number of things, not the least of which would be massive amounts of money spent on campaigning by candidates who’d selected themselves.
The role of our head of state involves protecting us from our politicians; if we politicise the office itself, we lose one of the most important (IMO) aspects of the office (and we’d probably end up with Alan Jones as president)>
An additional point - as our head of state is essentially apolitical and campaigning could not be done on any kind of political platform, it would pretty much come down to a straight popularity contest fuelled by mega-bucks.
It is inevitiable that you would have a populary elected HoS, (with the reserve powers to dismiss the government) in a ideological/political/personality clash with the Prime Minister of a democratically elected government. Who has the mandate? Especially if the HoS is recently elected on a hot-button political issue.
Count me in with the other Aussies. I’d like a no-fuss change to a republic, but never a directly-elected head of state. Why?
What *reprise said.
What woolly said.
The ARM estimated (in 1999) that a direct election would be cost something like $50 million. No thanks.
Of course, the model system I’d prefer has already been defeated at a referendum. IMO, there’s little change it’ll ever see the light of day again. Not when the monarchist lobby can easily shoot another dishonest “Politicians’ republic!” missile.
Eh. I don’t really care one way or another about the monarchy. (I expect to become a somewhat bigger monarchist when Wills accedes to the throne. Yum!) But if we did away with it, we might as well go all the way and can the position of GG as well.
The senate really must change, though. One figurehead is fine, but a hundred is pushing it a little.
, but I just don’t like the Royal Family.
Let’s have our own princes and princesses and king and queen, our own ceremonies, our own symbols.