History of Monarchy in Canada - Turbulent Decades

Turbulent Decades

The 1960s was a decade of swift change in terms of both politics and technology, and Canada's monarch found herself affected by both; for instance, Elizabeth II inaugurated the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable—part of one laid to link all the Commonwealth countries—when she, at Buckingham Palace, called Prime Minister Diefenbaker, who was at the Château Laurier. However, the Queen's success in the other field was not as guaranteed; shifts were taking place in Canadian identity, due, in part, to the establishment of multiculturalism as an official policy, increased immigration from beyond the British Isles, and Quebec separatism, the latter becoming the major impetus of political controversy around the Crown.

Those involved with the Quebec sovereignty movement saw the monarchy as a symbol of federalism and/or the British aspects of Canada's history and publicly displayed their contempt for the institution on a few occasions: At the height of the Quiet Revolution, the Quebec press reported that extreme separatists were plotting to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II during her upcoming 1964 tour of the province, as well as to kidnap Premier Jean Lesage's son, should the Queen come to Quebec. Despite fears for the monarch's safety and talk of cancelling the trip, Prime Minister Lester Pearson assured the Queen nothing much would come of the threats, the sovereign arrived as planned and, in a speech delivered to the Legislative Assembly on 10 October, in both French and English, Canada's two "complimentary cultures" and the strength of Canada's two founding peoples; she stated: "I am pleased to think that there exists in our Commonwealth a country where I can express myself officially in French... Whenever you sing "O Canada" you are reminded that you come of a proud race." However, as her motorcade passed through Quebec City, the route was lined with Quebecers showing their backs to her; others booed her and shouted separatist slogans. Though the protesters were the minority in the crowds gathered to see the Queen (the Montreal Gazette reporting that those who opposed the visit were students numbering in the hundreds) the provincial police violently dispersed those demonstrators who took to marching through the streets following Elizabeth's address to the Legislative Assembly, arresting 36, including some who had been there to show loyalty to the Queen; the Queen's "calmness and courage in the face of the violence" was noted. Ben Pimlott wrote in his biography of Elizabeth II that "the public reaction in Quebec, and the lack of it elsewhere, led Pearson—who had initiated the visit in the first place—to warn the Queen that the Monarchy’s days in the dominion were numbered."

Despite calls by the Toronto Star for a move to a republic as a mark of Canada's centennial, Elizabeth, accompanied by Prince Philip, presided over the main celebration of the event, taking part in a ceremony on Parliament Hill and touring Expo 67, which had also been visited by the her sister, Princess Margaret. A constitutional conference was held in Ottawa the following year, in February 1968, at which the delegates from Quebec indicated that a provincial president might suit the province better than the lieutenant governor, but the proposal was not accepted, the overall feeling being that the monarchy "has served us well and that its reform has no great priority in the present round of constitutional changes." Still, during constitutional talks ten years later, alterations to the Crown were put back on the table by the Cabinet of Pierre Trudeau, which proposed that the governor general be made full head of state and renamed as First Canadian. The provincial premiers, including Quebec's, reacted strongly against these suggestions.

Over the same period, references to the monarch and the monarchy were slowly removed from the public eye. For instance, while a number of royal symbols did remain, and new ones, like the Canadian Royal Standard, were created, the Queen's portrait was seen less and less in public schools, the federal government adopted a corporate identity programme without royal insignia, the Royal Mail became Canada Post, and the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force were merged along with the army into the Canadian Armed Forces. Of the changes made, it was said "the Crown was to be rooted in the future, not the past; for the historic Crown with its anthem, emblems, and symbolism made accessible a past the government of the day rejected," a policy never to be discussed, either publicly or at constitutional conferences, following the rejoinder to Trudeau's 1978 constitutional amendments. John Fraser called it "the process of gradual attrition".

These moves, in combination with his cabinet's constitutional tinkering and his antics and breaches of protocol around the monarch, fostered suspicion that Trudeau harboured republican notions; it was rumoured by Paul Martin, Sr. that the Queen was worried the Crown "had little meaning for him." In response to Trudeau's attitude towards the monarchy, the Monarchist League of Canada was founded in 1970 to promote Canada's status as a constitutional monarchy.

Still, the Queen consented to allow her representatives in Canada to undertake more of her duties, and by the early 1970s it was common practice for the governor general to represent the Queen and Canada abroad on state visits. Elizabeth continued to tour the country, though, and did so a number of times during the 1970s: in 1973, she and Prince Philip travelled to Charlottetown to celebrate centennial of Prince Edward Island and to Regina for the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. At the same time she, on Trudeau's advice, attended that year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting—the first held on Canadian soil—initiating the tradition of the monarch attending such conferences, no matter the location. Three years later, Trudeau also, at the urging of Premier of Quebec Robert Bourassa, advised the Queen to open the Olympics in Montreal, which were attended by no less than six other members of the Royal Family: the Duke of Edinburgh, Mark Phillips, Prince Edward, Prince Andrew, Prince Charles, and Princess Anne, who competed in the games for the United Kingdom. Then, the following year, the Queen, accompanied by her husband, returned to undertake a coast-to-coast circuit marking her Silver Jubilee.

Though she decided against suggestions that she allow Prince Charles to attend university in Canada, for worry that he would be hounded by the press, in 1978 Prince Andrew was back in Canada to attend Lakefield College School for a semester, as part of a Round Square exchange programme, and he too was presented with a canoe by Her Majesty's Canadian Cabinet.