Now that the federal election is over it is time to face an unpleasant truth: we do not live in a democracy. We live in a monarchy.
Oh certainly we have many of the trappings of a democracy; we vote and what not. But voting and elections do not make us a democracy.
The head of state of Canada is not, as many falsely believe, the prime minister, but a foreign parasite who lives in an English castle surrounded by immense wealth that he did not earn: the British monarch. In this case, King Charles III.
One would think the whole institution of the monarchy; of kings and queens who inherit their wealth and their power, and who believe, quite madly, that they rule by divine right, would have been swept away at the end of the middle ages. But no, they linger on, though history no longer has any use for them.
Now of course the monarch – the Great King – does not govern our country directly. He governs through the office of the Governor-General of Canada. Do you recall voting for the Governor-General? No. Because you didn’t, because you couldn’t; nor were you given the opportunity to vote for the Governor-General’s minions, the Lieutenants-General of each province.
The Governor-General is the federal representative of the monarch. The function of the Governor-General is to administer the government of Canada in the Monarch’s name. He or she serves at His Majesty’s Pleasure, as does our Parliament. At his pleasure, mind you: I can feel my little finger rising automatically, in desperate search for a tea cup.
The Governor-General, acting on behalf of the king, appoints the Supreme Court justices and the senators, and can summon or dissolve parliament, and grants Royal Assent to the bills that parliament passes. Does any of this strike you as democratic? Unless you are one of those boot-licking lackeys of the Monarchist League, you will understand immediately that what we take to be democracy is not.
What should be done – if we actually want to be a democracy – is to immediately dissolve the office of Governor-General (and save ourselves the hundreds of thousands of dollars in pensions that retired Governor-Generals receive) and toss out the monarchy altogether. Away with all kings! We should declare ourselves an independent republic. Others have done it, when the spirit of liberty appears to them. Why not us?
In the meantime, kings and queens expect us to scrape and bow before them as if they were the sovereign overlords they take themselves to be.
But I myself am a free man. I bow to no one but my bride.
