Republic supporters |
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Often, one hears the monarchist myth that
republicanism is a "fringe issue" or has failed to generate
any substantial interest among Canadians. If you've seen our
page on Canadian public opinion polls and
republican support
within the federal political parties, you already know that
theory is simply not true. To supplement that data, we've
also compiled this list of prominent Canadians who are on
record as supporters of ending Canada's constitutional link
to the monarchy.
(Note: This is just a select sample of names and is by no
means definitive. CCR will be adding to it on an ongoing
basis as new information is compiled and verified. For the
time being, we've also omitted people who have expressed
support but are not yet on the public record, or many
advisors and organizers
involved with Citizens for a Canadian Republic.)
* New addition July 31,
2011 |
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A
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Warren
Allmand |
Former member of parliament & cabinet minister |
"In my bill [to remove reference
to the Queen in the Citizenship Oath], it says that we ask
people to pledge allegiance to the Canadian Constitution...
My bill does not abolish the monarchy. Perhaps I would like
to do that sometime, but that's not what this bill does."
Hansard 10/29/96 |
B
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Michael Bliss |
Professor of
History, University of Toronto, Author, Member of the Order
of Canada |
"It’s an
absurdity that in 21st century Canada, no Canadian can
aspire to be head of state of Canada."
National Post 1/21/11 |
C
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Andrew Cohen * |
Founding president of the
Historica-Dominion Institute, professor of journalism and
international affairs at Carleton University. |
"Now, in a new century, ...
Canadians should not shrink from continuing, if not
completing, their journey to independence. In making the
governor general Canada's head of state, we will create a
worthy institution inspired by Britain, but made in Canada."
Ottawa
Citizen, July 2, 2011 |
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Deborah Coyne |
Lawyer, co-founder of the Canada
for All Canadians Committee and the Canadian Coalition on
the Constitution, federal candidate in Toronto-Danforth in
2006, federal party leadership candidate 2013. |
When we look for a unifying
symbol with which all Canadians identify, it is certainly
not the monarchy, .... It is the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms.
Charter Day Commentary (April 2013) - What it means to be
Canadian |
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D
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Herb
Dhaliwal |
Former member of parliament & cabinet
minister |
"It's clearly the way to go
[ending the monarchy]. There's an historic inevitability to
Canada's reaching full independence." Globe and Mail 12/98
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Peter
Donolo |
Political strategist, former
prime ministerial advisor, former consul general, lawyer |
"It would all be almost
comfortingly predictable. If it weren't so maddeningly
provincial; a G7 nation behaving like a colonial outpost.
And a reminder of some unfinished business: that, despite
all the strides we've made in 135 years of nationhood,
despite our standing at the front ranks of the nations of
the world, we still have a foreign monarch as our head of
state." Macleans Magazine, 10/21/02 |
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Ken Dryden |
Former member of parliament,
lawyer, businessman, author, former NHL goaltender |
Columnist Lawrence Martin wrote:
"Ken Dryden reveals he wants to dispense with the
monarchy....The country without the Queen, without colonial
vestige, fits Ken Dryden's vision of Canada as "The Global
Society."" Globe and Mail 4/2/06 |
F
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Allan Fotheringham |
Author, journalist, broadcaster |
"There it is for the poor,
ignorant rest-of-the-world [the NY Times on proroguing
parliament], who will now know that it isn’t even a Canadian
citizen who is the final proprietor of the sanctity of
Parliament, but a messenger who is responsible to a queen
who lives in a castle across a large ocean."
National Post
12/11/08 |
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Will
Ferguson |
Author, humourist,
recipient of Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour |
"Royalty exists only through an
act of willful ignorance on the part of their subjects. Call
it a suspension of common sense."
Why I hate Canadians, 1997 |
G
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Ken Gray |
Journalist, columnist, academic |
"I stumble over the fact that
Canada has a Queen, for that institution doesn't reflect the
country I know. Canada is not British anymore, but rather
wonderfully independent with its own institutions and
culture while the Queen is vaguely colonial."
Ottawa Citizen
10/11/10 |
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Lorne Gunter |
Journalist, columnist |
"But it [the monarchy] is seen by
Canadians - and rightly so - as increasingly irrelevant.
Charles, as king, would only accelerate the drift apart.
Before that day arrives, it would be smart of us to debate a
made-in-Canada alternative."
National Post 12/22/10 |
H
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Bob Hepburn |
Journalist, columnist |
"[I] wonder why Canada, which
claims to be independent, keeps marking the birth of a long
dead British queen who never set foot on this soil, yet
doesn't have a single national holiday to honour a Canadian.
[It] is time to stop calling it Victoria Day, a sad vestige
of British colonialism... Countries change, as Canada has.
Such bowing and scraping to Britain seems archaic now."
Toronto Star 5/15/08 |
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Michael Ignatieff |
Academic (Cambridge, Oxford,
Harvard, University of Toronto), authour, journalist, former member
of parliament, federal party leader & leader of opposition |
“Instead, as in all Commonwealth
democracies like ours, I swore an oath to Her Majesty the
Queen and her heirs and successors. The ‘heirs and
successors’ part stuck in my throat, since I think we ought
to decide, when the current Queen dies, whether to continue
to acknowledge her family as our sovereign." Fire and Ashes:
Success and Failure in Politics (Memoir) |
K
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Janice Kennedy |
Writer, columnist |
"At 143 years of age, Canada
embarrasses itself by still playing the adolescent... It is
time to move on. We can keep celebrating our history and
that part of our heritage that is British... We can stay in
the Commonwealth. But in the meantime, it really is time to
say goodbye. It really is time to grow up."
Ottawa Citizen
7/8/10 |
L
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Laurier LaPierre |
Former Canadian senator, former
broadcaster, journalist, author, Officer of the
Order of Canada |
"The sooner we put an end to this
monarchist system ... the sooner we will accept the Governor General
as the real head of state." Ottawa Citizen 10/8/09 |
M
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Roy MacGregor |
Journalist, columnist |
"It had been somewhat presumed in
Canada - even more so in Australia - that once the beloved
Queen goes, so, too, should the unloved Prince and the whole
archaic, colonial, goofy idea of a monarchy in which males
count for more than females and Roman Catholics count for
nothing." Globe and Mail 4/6/09 |
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John
Manley |
Former member of parliament & deputy
prime minister, lawyer |
"Personally, I would prefer an
institution after Queen Elizabeth that is just Canadian. It
might be as simple as continuing with just the Governor
General as the head of state in Canada. But I don't think
it's necessary for Canada to continue with the monarchy."
CTV
10/6/02 |
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Lawrence Martin |
Journalist, columnist |
"Canada's 150th birthday in 2017
isn't that far away. For big dreamers, the realization of
national projects to mark the occasion stir the imagination.
One, ... is a final break with our colonial vestiges. The
creation of an independent republic of Canada. Nothing less
than a new identity to replace whatever the old one was."
Globe and Mail 11/4/09 |
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Pat Martin |
Member of parliament |
"This is as
good an argument [cost of royal visit] as I have ever heard
for a republic of Canada. It's time for us to get rid of the
monarchy and grow up."
SunMedia 11/25/09 |
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Sean McCann |
Actor |
"[I] never, ever toast the Queen
as Canada's head of state." National Post, 11/16/04 "[The
monarchy] really doesn’t have any relevance to the average
Canadian."
Toronto Star 4/15/11 |
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Edward
(Ted) McWhinney |
Lawyer, academic specializing in
constitutional and international law, former member of
parliament |
In his
book 'The governor general and the prime ministers: the
making and unmaking of governments,' McWhinney suggests
phasing out the monarchy when the Queen's reign ends by not
proclaiming a successor. "The Office of the Queen would thus
remain in the Constitution, but inactive and, like very many
other historically spent sections of the Constitution Act,
wither away and lapse by constitutional convention."
Vancouver Sun 4/17/05 |
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Rick
Mercer |
Comedian, television
personality, political satirist |
"Look, Canada is 147 years old,
and we still pledge allegiance to a family that lives in a
castle in England? No hard feelings, nothing personal. It's
time we grew up." Rick Mercer Report, 11/17/09
"We're not British people any
more. It's time to get the Queen off our money and turn this
place [Rideau Hall] into a big park.
This hour has 22 minutes Oct, 1997 |
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Thomas
Mulcair |
Member of parliament, deputy
party leader |
"When the current Queen dies, it will be
"time for Canada to grow up," [Pat] Martin said. He quickly
added he wasn't sure whether that was the position of the
NDP or just himself. But deputy leader Thomas Mulcair,
sitting at Martin's side, said he agreed."
Winnipeg Free
Press 11/16/10 |
P
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Alan Park
|
Comedian, television personality |
"Having our politicians swear an
oath to a foreign based corporation [the monarchy] ... is
about as silly as placing your hand on your chest and
swearing an oath to Kentucky Fried Chicken."
CCR Victoria Day forum 3/18/09 |
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Charles Pascal |
Academic (Professor at OISE University of
Toronto), former Ontario deputy minister |
"It’s time to cut the cord, time
for a referendum ... it’s time we developed a made-in-Canada
approach [to the head of state] that is transparent and
truly democratic."
Toronto Star 3/6/11 |
S
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Alex
Shepherd |
Former member of parliament |
"The sovereign should be "replaced by a
uniquely Canadian head of state. It is time for us to grow
up as a country.""
Los Angeles Times 4/26/96 |
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|
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Jeffrey Simpson |
Journalist, columnist, author. |
"Queen Elizabeth II of the United
Kingdom, Canada and sundry countries is 83 years old. God
bless her, and long may she reign over us – after which
Canada should cut its ties to the British monarchy."
Globe
and Mail 10/30/09 |
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David E. Smith |
Academic (Professor of Political
Studies, University of Saskatchewan), leading authority on
constitutional governance
in Canada |
"There is no longer any strong
idea behind the Canadian monarchy and its representative in
Canada. Left as it is, the monarchy will continue to
atrophy. Canadians, who have often led Australia in
constitutional change, would do better this time to follow
the Australian lead, and adopt a minimal republican state,
one that retains the essence of parliamentary government and
changes only the way the head of state is chosen. Any
reforms should take care to assure that those powers that
still reside with the Sovereign should be transferred to the
new head of state."
Republican Tendancies, Policy Options,
May 1999 |
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Keith
Spicer |
Academic, public servant,
journalist, writer |
"Why care if Canada is a
constitutional joke abroad? Well, it feeds Quebec separatism
[and] ... tells Canadian children every day, with each
Queen-bearing dollar they clutch, that their country is not
quite grown-up. Worst of all, it tells the world that we
don't much respect ourselves."
Ottawa Citizen 12/22/08 |
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William T. Stanbury |
Academic (Professor emeritus Commerce
University of British Columbia) |
"The symbol of the once-strong
colonial (and emotional) connection with Britain is today a
heavy mental shackle. How will Canadians ever be able to
call their elected representatives to account when the
language of their fundamental institutions strongly implies
that they are "subjects," not autonomous citizens who alone
possess the moral legitimacy to delegate authority to
government and to hold it accountable?" The Hill Times,
9/2/02 |
T
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Brian
Tobin |
Former member of parliament & cabinet
minister, lawyer |
“It‘s a little bit silly don’t you think
that in the world today Canada has a head of state, somebody
who is born in another country, to be our Head of State. We
can’t come to some other arrangement among ourselves? I
don’t accept that and I think it’s an appropriate time and I
think the time is coming soon, we ought to make a change.”
The Telegraph 10/28/09 |
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John E. Trent |
Academic (Centre on Governance,
University of Ottawa, Fellow of the Centre on Governance,
University of Ottawa), founding president of Dialogue Canada |
In 1996, arguing against the
monarchy in a debate, said the monarchy is "a hindrance to
the development of Canada's political culture."
The
monarchy: for or against? = La monarchie: pour ou contre? A
debate held by Cité Libre 1/17/96 |
V
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Michel Virard |
Vice-President, Humanist
Association of Québec (AHQ), IT entrepreneur |
"The current monarchy state of
Canada is actually not a force for unity and stability ...
but rather a way to alienate a majority of Canadians, first
and foremost the Quebec society, but also many newcomers ...
who do not see what the heck a foreign monarch is doing at
the apex of the Canadian confederation." |
W
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Margaret Wente |
Journalist, columnist |
"The truth is that the monarchy
stands for much that has held Canada back. It embodies the
triumph of inheritance over merit, of blood over brains, of
mindless ritual over innovation. The monarchy reminds us to
defer to authority and remember our place. In Quebec, the
Royals are regarded as an insult."
Globe and Mail 10/7/02 |
Y
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Barbara Yaffe |
Journalist, columnist |
"With Canadians feeling so negatively about
the future king and expressing a growing fondness for the
made-in-Canada governors general, Ottawa ought to be
exploring options, however quietly and respectfully.
Elizabeth is not going to give two years notice of her
death. Harper should name a panel of constitutional advisers
to provide advice on future options for the head of state."
Vancouver Sun 7/15/10 |
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From history ... |
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John J. Conway
(1916-1995) |
Academic (Professor of
Humanities, York University, Professor of History, Harvard
University) |
"Whether treated as an alien or
fraternal symbol, the British monarchy has stunted
imagination and discouraged initiative."
The republican option in Canada, past and present. p18, Pt
1 |
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Mitchell Sharp
(1911 - 2004) |
Member of parliament, cabinet
minister, prime ministerial advisor, Companion of the Order
of Canada recipient, declined appointee to position of governor
general |
"Canada should have its own head
of state who is not shared by others. The Queen and her
successors could then have a special place as head of the
Commonwealth as well as queen or king of Great Britain. In
that capacity, the monarch would be received with enthusiasm
and acclaim by Canadians in all parts of the country,
including places Queen Elizabeth is now reluctant to visit."
Which Reminds Me - A Memoir 1994,
Mitchell Sharp |
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Walter Tarnopolsky (1932 – 1993) |
Judge, legal scholar, pioneer in
the development of human rights law and civil liberties in
Canada |
"Both for the sake of keeping
Quebec in Canada and for the sake of the just and
egalitarian society that I think is our aim, Canada will
become a republic within the Commonwealth." Multiculturalism
- The Basic Issues p.146 |
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