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Toronto,
September 17, 2008 - Canada's republican movement welcomes
Monday's news announcing Malcolm Turnbull as the new leader
of the Australian Liberal Party. Mr. Turnbull is a former
chair of the Australian Republican Movement and campaigned
in favour of a 'yes' vote in the unsuccessful 1999 republic
referendum.
The leadership change, which
now sees both of Australia's main federal political
parties led by committed republic
supporters, has renewed discussion of when to have a new
referendum.
Although Australia leads the Commonwealth in republican
debate, the prime ministers of New Zealand, Barbados and
Jamaica have also publicly voiced their approval for
reform and have all encouraged public debate on the matter.
Canada however, stands alone as the only major overseas
Commonwealth nation left without at least one national
political party with either an open discussion or official policy on ending the
monarchy.
"In Canada, pro-republic opinion matches or occasionally
exceeds that of Australia", says Tom Freda, national
director of the non-partisan group, Citizens for a
Canadian Republic.
"Right now, a majority of Canadians don't want the
monarchy. We know first-hand that our
parliamentarians hold the same view", he adds. "It's
time for our political leaders to stand up for what they
believe and allow Canada to join the rest of the
Commonwealth in a healthy, constructive debate on how to
end our last constitutional link to Britain."
The 2008 general election will mark CCR's second online
poll in which all candidates of the three national
parties will be asked their views on the
monarchy/republic issue.
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