I swore I would never do it, but here I am. Writing about the Royal Family. It’s not that I’m interested in Kate’s baby bump – I agree with English writer Hilary Mantel that the latest victim the Royal Family has brought into their fold is little more than a mannequin and a breeder. Think about it. She’s a 31 year old woman who, in the eight years she waited for Prince William to pop the question, did nothing with her life. She did not study languages, use her degree in Art History, travel the world, work for a charity, or wait tables. One assumes either her parents or her Prince paid the bills.
Since marrying Prince William she has worn clothes well, pranced about in a bikini, went topless, and ate hot dogs with some boy scouts. And just when it was possible they would have to send her for fertility treatments, since she was not holding up her end of the bargain, she got pregnant. And the way the press go on about it, you’d think no woman had ever attempted such a dangerous feat before.
Now that I have that off my – clothed – chest, the reason I am writing about the Royal Family is because of what they cost us as Canadians. As members of the Commonwealth, it’s assumed most of us are royalists. From personal experience, I know that isn’t true. Most of the people I associate with couldn’t care less about Prince Phillip’s bladder problems. A recent survey showed that 65 per cent of Canadians believe we should cut all ties to the monarchy once Queen Elizabeth dies.
But it’s like most things with Canadians, unless we get really ticked off, unless you shock or horrify us, unless you propose to use our tax dollars to build a new arena for a NHL team, we pretty well don’t get involved in provincial or federal politics. For goodness sake, in the last provincial election only 57% of us actually voted.
Well, it’s time we thought about the $50 million a year it costs us to pay the travel expenses for members of the Royal Family when they come to visit, as well as the dollars it takes to run the office of the Governor General and those of the ten provincial lieutenant governors. According to Maclean’s magazine, Canada effectively has two heads of state, the Queen, Governor General and provincial representatives, and the pseudo royal “Harper Government.”
The way I see it, if we took the $50 million we are paying to be a constitutional monarchy as opposed to, for example, an honest-to-goodness grown-up democracy, then abolished the Senate and added that $90 million to the pot, we’d have enough to guarantee that the young men and women who are fighting in god-forsaken places to defend that democracy have guns that work, boots that don’t fall apart and radios that can tell them they are in danger.
Is that something worth getting off our butts for?
