My friend has a girlfriend in Canada.
I know, I had the same reaction you did, but either there is a concerning commitment to the ruse or my friend and his girlfriend visited us in Austin last fall and stayed a night in the guest room in the duplex.
Anyway, with Victoria Day a couple weeks ago (last week?) I asked my friend if he could figure out whether Victoria Day is “what happens when white people want a start-of-summer holiday but never had a civil war to set up Memorial Day for them,” and he said, “She says no and that she has respect for the monarchy.”
Which…
I forgot about the monarchy.
I mean, I know the monarchy’s out there. I know some of them have even come over to Canada? Is that where Harry and Meghan wound up? I know the monarchy’s out there, I just always think of it as confined to Britain and the past. I never think about it as a Canadian thing. Not actively.
That, however, like it or not, is what it is: The monarchy is an active Canadian thing. Canada has a queen, and as such, I think we’d do well to remember that Canada is not a democracy. You don’t elect your queen. Your queen is bestowed upon you by God. (Divine Right of Kings, ever heard of it?) Canada? Has a queen. Therefore it is not a democracy.
