British Commonweath countries still considers the Queen as head of state??

I read this on cnn.com

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/03/11/queen.downunder.ap/index.html

And I was totally blown away by this quote:

"Australia became an independent state in 1901, but, like many former outposts of the British Empire such as Canada, it still recognizes the queen as head of state."

I realize that the US was kind of a rebellious child of all the British Empire, we find anything that links us to the UK so incredibly offensive that we won't even spell "color" as "colour". But is that really true? You Canadians, Austrailians, Hong Kongers, and any other state that uses the Union Jack in its flag still actually have a queen?

I am an American, but I assure you it's quite true. Even my South African friends (South Africa was kicked out of the Commonwealth decades ago for its apartheid policies) feel an affection for the royal family that borders on the, well, familial. One South African friend in particular, a wild man, libertine, professional sculptor and just in general a crazy artist kind of guy, I remember when the Queen Mother died he was genuinely sad, and we sat around drinking beer and reminiscing about her life that night, and it was almost exactly like being with a friend whose close kin has died.

Moral of the story: yes, they take it seriously.

Noblesse Oblige - Charles Pachter, 1972

Personally I have no love for the British Royals and think we should dump their sorry asses (and we haven't had the Union Jack on our flag since 1965).

Don't worry, I didn't mean to imply that I thought that the Canadian Flag has a union jack on it. Half my family lives in Vancouver and I've been there almost every year since I was born, so I know it looks like. They used to put them on all the 7-Eleven signs! :lol:

O Canada!
Our home and native land!

[ Edited by: paranoid123 2006-03-14 05:02 ]

The Queen has a minimum effect on our day-to-day lives as Canadians.

Our coins carry the Queen's image on the 'head' side, she is also featured on the $20 bill.

Canada is a constitutional monarchy and a Commonwealth Realm with Queen Elizabeth II as its reigning monarch, since February 6, 1952.

Most of the Queen of Canada's domestic duties are performed by the Governor General of Canada at the federal level and Lieutenant governors at the Provincial. There are few duties which must be performed specifically by the Queen (e.g., signing the appointment papers of Governors General and Lieutenant), or require assent by the Queen as well as the Governor General, but on occasion the monarch must personally act directly in partisan affairs.

Our navy's ships are referred to using the prefix "HMCS";
Her Majesty's Canadian Ship (HMCS) is the English designation of any Canadian warship. It derives from "Her Majesty's Ship" (HMS) used in the United Kingdom. The British monarch is also equally and separately the Canadian head of state. Should the queen be replaced by a king, the designation also changes to "His" rather than "Her" Majesty. Ships bearing this designation are the responsibility of the Canadian Forces Maritime Command.

[ Edited by: Tikiwahine 2006-03-12 16:34 ]

Yes, she's our 'Head of State' but like the U.K. (& the rest of the Commonwealth), she has no authority, it's just symbolic of a by-gone era. She's very popular here in Canada but alot of people have an issue with the amount of money spent to maintain her representation here. We have a Governor General who represents her in our Federal Government and each province has a Lt. Governor. They all get houses to live in and budgets to spend on ... well, I'm not really sure what.
I'm pretty indifferent myself but I do like 'God Save The Queen' (especially the Sex Pistols version).

yeh shes our head of state too. Noone down here in the "colonies" really cares for her. Shes on our coins and everything too. I think we keep her to be polite, so if we get attacked our buddies the US and the poms will help us out. Most of the monarchists are old people from times when we were more England focused (like my nan)

You know Canadians have a sense of humor when they can put the Queen's head on one side of a coin, and a beaver on the other. (The Canadian nickel)

I also like how their $1 coin has a loon on the back, and is nicknamed the loonie.

Vern

On 2006-03-12 10:47, paranoid123 wrote:
You Canadians, Austrailians, Hong Kongers, and any other state that uses the Union Jack in its flag still actually have a queen?

Hawaii is an American State and has the Union Jack in its flag :wink:

On 2006-03-13 16:30, cheekytiki wrote:
Hawaii is an American State and has the Union Jack in its flag :wink:

And is the only state in the Union to have a Royal Palace.

I realize that the US was kind of a rebellious child of all the British Empire, we find anything that links us to the UK so incredibly offensive that we won't even spell "color" as "colour".

"Colour" nothing! The Puritans banned Christmas because it reminded them of England. Christmas! What's better than Christmas? Geez-- First Christmas then tikis. Those Puritans suck.

Yeah, and because of those lame Puritans we can't have those nice graphic women's underwear advertisements that Europeans get.