Since, by convention, the Queen of Canada only acts (usually by and through her Governor General) on the advice of her ministers, could the Queen be replaced by a robot? As far as I know, the monarch of Canada has not exercised his or her reserve powers in almost one hundred years. Would a robot Queen be capable of exercising the reserve powers?
Similarly, could the Queen of the United Kingdom be replaced by a non-catholic robot?
Although I am looking for serious responses, I am posting this in MPSIMS because I predict this thread will either die quickly or immediately turn into a complete train wreck.
Canada is a sovereign, independent state. I don’t know of any reason why Canada could not unilaterally change the monarchy of Canada without affecting the monarchy of the United Kingdom. However, Canada might no longer be considered a commonwealth realm as a result.
QEII is head of the commonwealth by an independent decision of the nations. Charles has been voted to be the replacement. Neither of these were technically automatic.
Several members have their own royal head of state. Malaysia has a king (or “Yang di-Pertuan Agong”). Brunei has a sultan. Why not Canada?
Head of the Commonwealth is not the same as Queen/King of Canada. The succession as Queen/King is automatic, not dependent in any way on the decision of the Commonwealth nations to agree that Charles will be Head of the Commonwealth.
Note I was replying only to the issue of Canada being kicked out of the Commonwealth due to deciding on some other monarch. Since other Commonwealth members have their own monarchs this seems unlikely.
Also, it’s clear in my post that I am fully aware that the head of the Commonwealth is an independent position of monarch of anything.
Also, please note that I was only suggesting that if Canada had a different monarch other than that of the United Kingdom then maybe Canada would no longer be considered a “Commonwealth realm.” However, Canada could probably still be a member of the Commonwealth.
Okay, serious answer. It’s true that the monarch virtually never invokes their powers over the Canadian government. But those powers still exist. And by existing, they cause Canadian politicians to avoid doing things which would cause the monarch’s powers to be invoked. So the fact that the powers are never used is a sign that they’re working.
blue infinity, a magic rock is not a real power. The reserve power is a very real power that under certain circumstances can call an election, force (by refusing to grant an audience) the head of government to resign, and/or replace the government by one party with government by another party or by a coalition of parties.
Where this comes in handy is ensuring that the government is both responsible and responsive. If a government is not able to get things done (for example, pass a money bill rather than fully or partially shut down the government the way Americans do), the head of state’s representative (the Governor General) invites the Prime Minister to tea, and says “Hey buddy, if you can’t keep the wheels on the rails, I’m gonna either let some other coalition of parties drive the train or I’m gonna call an election.”
It’s that simple: to ensure that the government is responsive, either pass a budget or step aside and let someone else pass a budget, all courtesy of the Crown’s very real reserve power.
While this parliamentary model is a heck of a lot better than the USA model, it still can be significantly improved by instituting proportional representation. Presently, it is first past the post in each electoral riding / voting district. (Fortunately, there is no gerrymandering in Canada due to Elections Canada being neutral). If a single party were to have a 51% majority in each riding, then no other parties would have any representatives in Parliament. That would leave 49% of the voting public standing in the cold, which would not be a fully responsible government.
With proportional representation, seats in Parliament would be divvied up amongst the parties in proportion to the votes. Our present Prime Minster made a run at instituting proportional representation, but failed. Close, but no banana. Sooner or later we’ll come up with a formula for proportional representation that is practicable or all parties and that the ruling party at the time will still sign on to. My guess is that it will arise during a minority government, for it is a lot to ask a majority government to give away some of its power. In the meantime, we’ll still have half a bowl rather than none thanks to multi-party coalitions.
blue infinity, if you are interested in leaning about how a parliamentary democracy works, including how the Crown’s reserve power comes into play, start with Senator, Privy Councillor, Companion of the Order of Canada, and Canadian Labour Congress Researcher Eugene A. Forsey’s “How Canadian’s Govern Themselves.” His writing is remarkably authoritative and nuanced but still easy to understand without being simplistic. https://lop.parl.ca/about/parliament/senatoreugeneforsey/book/intro-e.html
I doubt if a robot could do the job, or at least not at the present technological level. We have a living system, not a rigid algorithm.
There are too many intangibles that would arise out of the opinions of the privy council and the party leaders.
Quantification of the value of each intangible with respect to other intangibles would be a bitch (have a look at work Atif Kubursi Atif Kubursi – The Conversation ).
