Quote:
Originally Posted by vid
Monarchic countries are typically the ones with the most individual freedom. That one sacrifice allows us to have that freedom. The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, are all monarchies, and all have more freedoms than almost all republics.
Not that a Canadian republic would be less free, but I don't really see any particular issue with the monarchy being hereditary. In fact, I view it more as a burden on their family than as a burden on us. The head of state in a republic system is often somewhat hereditary or at least confined to a particular class (many American presidents are closely related to the others, or were part of the same social circles) so aside from the charade of "anyone can become the president" (which is really only true for about 20 people per century) and hardly a goal worth fighting for when we have so many other serious issues in this country.
Unless you specifically want to be the head of state for Canada (and in that case, I'd rather you not be as people who pine for that position often seem to become dictators), I don't see any real downside to retaining some form of constitutional monarchy.
I really don't give a shit about the monarchy or their personal lives. I just like the stability of the system, and what we've achieved under it.
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It's easy to cherry pick the most successful monarchies and ignore the most dreadful, the same could be done with republics. The 3 that you've chosen have 2 things in common: 1) Their monarchs have zero power- any power that they do have, if they chose to exercise it, would result in a constitutional crisis that would result in their immediate dissolution. 2) Their monarchs are their own; born there, live there and an historic symbol of each country's independence, not a symbol of bygone colonialism.
Your use of the United States as an example is typically, myopically Canadian. We always use the U.S. as an example because we can't really think beyond the U.S./Canada comparisons. It's as if the rest of the world doesn't exist. German Federalism? What's that? The National Inferiority Complex, so much a part of the Canadian identity that it appears to actually
be the Canadian identity, seems to drive us to the point that we will cling to this outmoded monarchy simply because it's one of the last bits of this country that we haven't sold (only because nobody will buy it).
In Canada, it's always fashionable to bash the United States. Despite the fact that our little country has been completely reliant on the U.S. for defence over the last 70 years, are almost completely reliant on them economically, and are culturally overwhelmed and nearly indistinguishable from them.. we will constantly denigrate their system as being somehow inferior, despite the fact that they have been the undisputed greatest nation in the world over the last century and we've been...
But we should feel good about ourselves, we're different. We've retained the monarchy. We're no upstart republic. The monarchy has ensured our stability and affluence. Either that or abundant natural resources.
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