Foe of monarchy, once axed for his beliefs, continues his battle

Glenn Bohn

Deputy prime minister John Manley may be the most prominent politician in recent years to call on Canada to break its ties with the British monarchy, but he hasn't lost his job so far.

A British Columbian did.

In 1987, after trucker Ed Press repeatedly refused to swear an Oath of Allegiance to Queen Elizabeth to get a $27,000-a-year job with the highways ministry in northern B.C., the Social Credit government fired him.

Tom Freda, national director of a new group called Citizens for a Canadian Republic, said Press was one of the pioneers of the modern republican movement.

"What we're advocating is that Canada is an independent country and there's no more British Empire, so it's time we do what should have been done decades ago and have a Canadian chosen as head of state," Freda said during an interview.

"Let the Queen worry about being the head of state of Britain."

In 1986, when Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, opened the Expo 86 fair, The Vancouver Sun reported that police followed Press in Vancouver and Prince George as he handed out anti-royal pamphlets.

Press, now 64, said he makes a living as a handyman and can't afford to travel elsewhere to protest Queen Elizabeth's visit next week.

"You get into a lot of trouble when you touch the centre of power in Canada," said Press, who still lives in Chetwynd, north of Prince George. "You get demonized and it makes it difficult to get another job."

Press said he was disappointed he didn't get more support from Canadians -- "that they didn't stand up for themselves as a people" -- but is hopeful that Canada will become a republic in his lifetime. Press said members of the Royal Family "have shown themselves to be what they really are -- inferior to the average person. They're self-destructing."

Freda, a Toronto writer, photographer and designer, said Citizens for a Canadian Republic won't advise people how they should react to the Royal couple's visit to Vancouver and Victoria next week.

"It's a free country and we can do whatever we want," he said. "As a matter of fact, once we have a Canadian chosen as head of state to replace the Queen, we hope the Queen will still want to visit Canada."

According to official estimates, federal and provincial governments paid $1.44 million for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's last visit to Canada, a 10-day-trip in 1997.

When asked whether Canadian taxpayers should foot the bill for this visit, Freda replied by saying it was the diplomatic standard for host governments to pay the costs of a visiting head of state. That said, he also noted: "She is the richest woman in the world, so she could probably afford it."

The history of republicanism in Canada dates back at least as far as 1837. Rebellion leaders in Ontario and Quebec proclaimed a bilingual republic, but British troops and Canadian militia defeated rebel troops.

In 1964, a Quebec City visit by Queen Elizabeth inspired anti-monarchist demonstrations and sparked a riot.

Over the past century, a number of incremental changes have loosened the ties that monarchists call historic and republicans call outdated:

In 1919, the federal government barred Canadians from receiving royal titles, knighthoods or seats in the British House of Lords; in 1949, the Supreme Court of Canada replaced the judicial committee of the Privy Council in London; in 1965, Canada adopted the Maple Leaf flag and dropped the British ensign; in 1980, O Canada replaced God Save the Queen as Canada's official anthem.

John Manley, the finance minister and a would-be prime minister, said last year Prince Charles should not be allowed to become the country's king.

"Having the oldest son inherit the responsibility of being head of state, that's just not something in the 21st century we ought to be entertaining," Manley said.

That's no longer a radical opinion in the country.

A poll this year by Leger Marketing indicated only 50 per cent of Canadians wanted to celebrate the Queen's 50 years on the throne. Forty-six per cent didn't want to join the party and three per cent didn't care.

Citizens for a Canadian Republic, which claims to have supporters in all regions of Canada but doesn't yet have a formal membership, announced its existence in April.

Its stated goal is to change Canada's Constitution to allow for a Canadian head of state.

This, according to the group's Web site, www.canadian-republic.ca, is the challenge:

"Even though polls show a significant number of Canadians favour ending the monarchy in Canada, the issue consistently fails to inspire initiatives to change the status quo. Why is this? Although it's partly because of the institution's benign presence in our daily lives, we believe it's also due to the lack of a credible, national republican movement to promote the benefits to our national pride, political unity and international prestige that comes with cutting Canada's last threads of colonialism. We aim to change that."

On Sept. 24, the group announced it will try to intervene in an Ontario court case that challenges the Act of Settlement, a 1701 British law inherited by Canada in 1867. It restricts the British throne to Protestants, barring Roman Catholics, Jews, Hindus, Muslims or anyone not a Protestant from becoming Canada's head of state.