Canadians are fed up with monarchy

Not all of our readers know that Canada is still a monarchy and is subject to the British Crown. The head of state is not Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but King Charles. Yesterday, the Governor General of Canada, Mary Simon, attended his coronation. She became the first Canadian official to attend a British monarch's coronation in 70 years.

Mary Simon is a remarkable person in many ways. She is the representative of the King in Canada, and her powers of executive authority are almost unlimited. She has the same rights as the King and can dismiss Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This woman is an Inuk by maternal lineage, she can speak her native language, hunt, fish, and knows traditional Inuit practices. She can set up an igloo. Her family lived a traditional way of life, and she was the second oldest of 8 children. She has done a lot to protect the rights of Inuit people in Canada, represented the interests of Inuit people in Quebec as head of a local organization, and even visited Chukotka as part of a delegation in 1988. The Soviet director Patrushev made a film about her called "Cranes for Mary". Previously, she was a diplomat, journalist, and human rights activist, and took up the position of Governor General in 2021.

On the eve of Charles' coronation, Mary Simon asked Canadians to give him a chance. Her arguments are not without logic. According to polls, more than half of Canadians believe it's time to abandon the monarchy. However, Simon notes that such a serious step for the country will have significant consequences, and the country's residents have a poor understanding of what its political structure should be. Supporters of abandoning the monarchy do not offer alternative paths for the country's development or a plan of action for gaining independence. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emphasizes Canadians' passivity regarding independence: they don't particularly like the monarchy, but they don't envision or want to envision life in the country without it.

"If we're talking about whether we need a king at the head of our country, then in Canada, we need to have a very serious conversation about how we want to see our future and what our plan of action is...I haven't heard those conversations yet," Simon said in an interview with CBC's The House program.

She continued, "I've heard a lot of people say that they don't support the King. But at the same time, I think we need to give him a chance. We need to give him a chance to show us that he's a good leader."

Canadians fervently supported the late Queen Elizabeth and were proud of her as a symbol. Her son Charles was less fortunate — most of the country's residents did not like him right away and without any particular reason. Mary Simon and a number of political scientists believe that they have not yet become accustomed to the new leader and have not seen him in action, so it is too early to draw any conclusions about him.