Canada Is So Ready To Ditch The Monarchy, A Survey Suggests
Queen Elizabeth is popular. Her spawn? Not so much.
Queen Elizabeth II waves from inside a car.
Let's be real, the Commonwealth has been shrinking for the past 70 years, but it's not a subject often talked about here in Canada. Following the queen's 96th birthday, the question of whether or not Canada still wants a reigning monarch has started circulating again.
According to an early April survey by the Angus Reid Institute, most Canadians (63%) still view Queen Elizabeth II favourably, and 59% say that they will be sad when she dies. She is the most well-regarded royal, beating out Prince William by a narrow margin of 3%. This number drops significantly when it comes to the heir Prince Charles. Only 29% of Canadians polled think well of him.
The ARI suggests that the general dislike for Prince Charles may be at the root of many Canadians' desire to abolish the monarchy. 55% of Canadians support maintaining the status quo for as long as the Queen lives, but only 34% would want to keep the monarchy with Charles on the throne. Two in five Canadians (41%) oppose the idea of Charles as king, and half of Canadians (52%) are against the idea of Queen Camilla.
Unsurprisingly, the idea of maintaining the monarchy is least popular in Quebec, where 71% of survey respondents said they don't want Canada to be a monarchy "for generations to come."
The Crown seems to be losing relevance for most Canadians. Only 25% of Canadians think the monarchy is still as relevant as ever. All in all, half of Canadians (49%) feel that the monarchy upholds outdated values.
Canada wouldn't be the first country in the Commonwealth to abolish the monarchy. India ditched Elizabeth's father King George VI in 1950, soon followed by Pakistan in 1956. The '70s saw Sierra Leone, Guyana, Malta, and Trinidad and Tobago cut ties with the Commonwealth, the ARI wrote. Australia continues to wrestle with the idea, while the Jamaican government recently announced its intention to become a republic.
The Angus Reid Institute reached 1,607 Canadians for this survey.
