Welcome to the first public gathering of republicans in Toronto since 1838. I’m sorry to say it won’t be as exciting since there’s little likelihood of arrests, hangings or deportations to Australian penal colonies.

Allow me begin by telling you a bit about our organization. Citizens for a Canadian Republic is a national, non-profit and non-partisan group with the goal of promoting the concept of a non-monarchial head of state chosen by Canadians. We are very much a moderate, mainstream group of regular Canadians who want a strong and independent Canada free of its one remaining colonial tie to Britain. We support the celebration of Canada's rich history, both monarchist and republican, a continuation of friendly, bilateral relations with Britain and the royal family as well as maintaining the current leadership role Canada has in the Commonwealth.

Now if you’re a fence-sitter on this subject or perhaps a default monarchist, you may be wanting to ask "why?". Why go through all this? Why discuss a subject that won’t stop the killing in the mideast, won’t get homeless people off the streets and won’t put tax dollars back into the pockets of our citizens?

Well, we believe, as a growing number of Canadians do as well, that this subject goes to the very core of what makes us different from all other peoples of the world. We believe that we need a home-grown head of state, not one who visits only occasionally at our invitation or is a constant reminder to one of our founding peoples that they’re conquered nation. We believe this step, symbolic that it is, is the last step to Canada achieving total independance.

At the moment, the belief in an end to the monarchy in Canada is shared by at least 43% of the population - according to the latest polls conducted by Leger Marketing in April, 2002. By raising awareness of the benefits of this change, we hope to help bring that figure to within 60 - 65% within five to ten years - which is roughly the same level of support the Australian Republican Movement had when it took this issue to the polls in 1999 - which by the way they would have won had they not disagreed on a formula for replacing the existing system.

This brings me to one possible option that would avoid that pitfall. We'd like to see a referendum on changing the role of the Governor General from being the representative of the Crown to that of being the representative of the People of Canada. This could be attached to the ballot of a general election to save cost. Once we have the position of head of state assumed by the Governor General, a secondary process of regional or multi-city public consultations would then take place on how to define the role and selection procedure of the new head of state. The people would vote again to select the preferred model from the top two or perhaps three candidates.

There are many other options, all of which we hope to make Canadians aware of as our task of promoting this evolution in Canada’s development unfolds. But in the little over a month since our incorporation, we've had the opportunity to try out this formula for change with the Canadian public and the response has been extremely encouraging. Canadians who've traditionally felt that this was a non-subject and that we shouldn't be wasting our time on such an endeavor have begun to come onside with us. And by proving that our institutions, history and unique traditions can be safeguarded in a Canadian republic, we're even getting monarchists as allies - proven recently during a nationally broadcast television debate where I actually managed to convert a monarchist participant to our republican formula ... on the air.

We're building a membership database at a remarkable rate, volunteers are offering their services, the donations are trickling in and the media has jumped on our cause as well. All in all, we have the firm beginnings of a viable national movement for something we believe will redefine the way Canadians think of themselves as a people and the way the world will see Canada as a nation among nations.

In closing, I encourage you to take a close look at the contents of our web site - the address is on the literature by the door - to see for yourself that yes, we’re extremely serious about this - about making our popularly based movement a positive force for the betterment of Canada in this new century.