Queen Elizabeth II: an ‘unmistakable’ affection for Canada

To former governor common Adrienne Clarkson, the phrase “responsibility” finest sums up Queen Elizabeth II.

“I feel that she’s anyone who knew her job nicely, higher than anyone,” mentioned Clarkson, who was the Crown’s consultant in Canada from 1999 to 2005.

“She was all the time very, very circumspect about her constitutional position, which is that she doesn’t have, in any means, authority in Canada.

“She by no means talked about something political about Canada. Our conversations had been all the time about attention-grabbing issues in our lives, our homes, canine, pets, youngsters, and many others.”

The Queen died on Thursday on the age of 96. She was succeeded by her eldest son, Charles, who routinely turns into King of Canada.

Whereas the British monarch can also be Canada’s monarch, they haven’t any position within the day-to-day political affairs on this nation. These duties — together with dissolving Parliament, swearing-in a brand new authorities and granting royal assent to payments — fall to the governor common.

Tributes had been pouring in from former governors common and prime ministers following the Queen’s demise.

Former prime minister Paul Martin, who hosted the Queen throughout a go to to Canada in 2005, expressed his condolences in an announcement on behalf of himself and his spouse, Sheila.

“Many Canadians will discover it exhausting to think about a world with out Queen Elizabeth upon the throne of Nice Britain. Her reign and her presence had been outstanding,” he mentioned. “Her affect formed the course of lives and occasions.”

Martin mentioned the Queen had an “unmistakable” affection for Canada, and described her as “exceptionally good firm and really witty.”

He additionally acknowledged the Crown “conjures up a variety of reactions amongst Canadians,” mentioning that for Indigenous folks particularly, the monarchy is equated “with a protracted historical past of colonization and domination.

“The complicated process of reconciliation continues to problem Canada and there’s no doubt in my thoughts {that a} lifetime of service and responsibility gave Her Majesty a novel appreciation of the necessity to deal with historical past’s failures and make means for change,” he mentioned.

Clarkson met the Queen a few half dozen instances throughout her mandate, together with when Elizabeth toured Canada in 2002 to mark her Golden Jubilee — 50 years on the throne.

A few of her fondest recollections of the Queen are of the monarch driving Clarkson and her husband, John Ralston Saul, in her jeep round her Balmoral Citadel property in Scotland, the place the Queen handed away on Thursday.

“After we had been at Balmoral, the pipers performed solely Canadian music, which was very very considerate and good,” she mentioned.

“So I got here residence again to Rideau Corridor and mentioned ‘the Queen performs solely Canadian music for the governor common of Canada, so may you please play one thing else quite than ‘Scotland the Courageous?’ In order that they acquired on to that.”

She remembers the royals as unfailingly well mannered and welcoming. She mentioned it was not like how they had been depicted on the TV collection “The Crown,” significantly an episode the place British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was coldly handled throughout a go to to Balmoral.

“It might by no means occur like that. She’d be handled very pleasantly, similar to anyone,” Clarkson mentioned. “That isn’t what they do, and so they’re by no means alone anyway with their visitors.”

Clarkson mentioned the way forward for the monarchy in Canada in a post-Elizabeth age needs to be a query for the federal authorities, provided that the general public’s view of the monarchy shifted fairly dramatically throughout the Queen’s lengthy reign.

“She’d been there for therefore lengthy, and everybody was very used to her, and she or he’d by no means mentioned something controversial in her years on the throne, and so due to this fact not seen,” Clarkson mentioned, “nevertheless it must be determined whether or not that’s going to proceed.”

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