It’s the right time for Canada to give the Royal Family the royal wave

The time is right for the federal government to set the wheels of reform in motion. Randy Boswell discusses how Canada can — and should — break from the Royal Family.

It’s time for Canada to sever its constitutional ties to the British Royal Family.

It should happen in an orderly and respectful way, acknowledging the rich history of the relationship and the legacy that will endure in a modernized, evolved Canada. It should happen with sincere, full-throated recognition of the 70-plus years of dedicated public service — pre- and post-coronation — that Queen Elizabeth II and other members of her family have rendered to Canada and the rest of the Commonwealth.

But above all, it should happen with a minimum of disruption to our system of government, and in a way that simply makes the appointed governor general our new head of state.

We should drop the “de facto” qualifier currently attached to the GG position while maintaining its key role in the operation of Canada’s parliamentary system.

Ideally, this could happen during the term of the current governor general, which would make Mary May Simon, the first Indigenous Canadian to occupy Rideau Hall, an even more profoundly pivotal figure in the country’s history.

The time is right. With a popular Queen nearing the end of her reign, a widely respected and exceptionally symbolic governor general now in office, and a majority of Canadians eager for this historic change, the federal government should set the wheels of reform in motion.

And make no mistake: Canadians, by and large, want this to happen, as recently reported by Global News.

The results of an Angus Reid poll, published on Nov. 30, showed that 52 per cent of Canadians don’t believe Canada should remain a constitutional monarchy for much longer, while only 25 per cent supported the status quo indefinitely — a 15-percentage-point drop of that perspective since 2016.