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2025 Royal Visit – Canada Still Deferring to Unaccountable Power

Hill Times: 28 May 2025 / Chronicle Herald: 31 May 2025

King Charles and queen Camilla’s May 26-27 Canadian visit inspires me to question both the value and purpose of Canada’s link to the British monarchy. I feel no personal loyalty to these wealthy strangers whose unrestrained forbearers cruelly-oppressed the ancestors of many Canadians, including mine. Nevertheless, Canada’s government and many institutions remain smitten by the glittering allure of royalty.

Charles’ visit reminds me that most Canadians still accept the legitimacy of unaccountable public and private power. Such deference continues to facilitate military violence perpetrated to protect and expand the profitability of transnational corporations while countless lives and even cultures are destroyed.

This useful deference helps explain the lingering presence of archaic royal figures whose public roles are often falsely defended as merely ceremonial rather than ideological.

Charles will read the Speech from the Throne, his personal performance supposedly lending authority to a government statement better read by a Canadian citizen. As well, Charles is obliged to witness the usual military theatrics and take a gilded carriage ride. He will also take time to plant a few trees and meet the prime minister.

While the monarch’s prestige has justifiably diminished, he could improve his reputation by meeting Donald Trump, an insecure figure who thrives on flattery. Given Trump’s veneration of status and power, Charles might succeed in softening the president’s hostility to Canada by treating Trump as a peer.

Until king Charles displays genuine nobility by publicly opposing civilian massacres and other global atrocities, he warrants no special treatment. In fact, the vast scale of royalty’s failure to act justifies critical commentary widely dismissed as ungracious, ignorant or even treasonous.

Finally, Charles’s timid rhetoric offends many Canadians obliged to pay his travel bills, suffer road closures and endure fawning commentary from official sycophants and private monarchists competing for mainstream media coverage.