Monday, October 10, 2011

On royal demolition

Yesterday I posted about one way in which the Cons' threat to go over the head of Canada's governing institutions in order to hold onto power looks to have plenty of repercussions in the years to come. But let's note another massive gap between the Cons' message of 2008 and their actions since winning a majority government.

There's been plenty of criticism of the Cons' focus on symbolic references to the British monarchy, including by renaming Canada's Air Force and Navy to include the term "royal". But what would have been the consequences for the ongoing relationship between Canada and the U.K. if Harper had resorted to going over the head of the Queen - particularly if he'd succeeded? And if Harper was prepared to slash our substantive ties to the monarchy for political gain, doesn't that make for reason to doubt the sincerity of his subsequent exercise in rebranding?

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