Sandra Dunham
Who could miss the death of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8? CBC spent days giving people the opportunity to call in and tell the world what the queen meant to them. It is interesting how many people viewed her as a “grandmother” figure, despite never having met her. The queen was also touted as devoting herself to public service. Something that would be easier for all of us to do if we enjoyed her wealth.
In spite of having a net worth of $500 million, the queen and her household expenses were funded by British taxpayers through the Sovereign Grant in the amount of £102.4m or about $150 million CAD. Clearly, I am not a monarchist. I find it difficult to understand the connection people have found with someone whose most significant contribution to the world was being born with a title.
So, when a federal holiday was declared to recognize her funeral, I began to fume. Approximately 319,000 federal government employees received the day off. Assuming an eight-hour workday, taxpayers missed out on over two and a half million hours of labour. Simply put, this is the equivalent of losing 1,276 full-time employees for a whole year.
Many provinces followed suit, including British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Yukon, and Newfoundland and Labrador. The provinces which declared the day a provincial holiday closed schools and some daycares, leaving tax-paying parents, who are footing the bill for the holiday, scrambling for childcare.
Prince Edward Island took things one step further and declared the day a statutory holiday for all. Not only did government employees get the day off, but businesses had to decide, on short notice, whether to stay open and pay employees statutory holiday pay or close up shop and lose a day’s revenues.
The logic behind this ill-planned decision eludes me. What were these employees to do with their day off? The funeral was over long before most Canadians got out of bed in the morning. Although some callers to the CBC might indicate otherwise, the death of the monarch was simply not an emotionally devastating event for Canadians.
Canadians who wish to disavow any oaths they were forced to swear to the Queen/King/monarchy may do so here: http://disavowal.ca/
The idea is growing that 99% of monarchist support in Canada was down to cult-worship of Queen Elizabeth II’s charisma. There is widespread doubt that King Charles III has any of his late mommy’s personal appeal. So……enter [stage left] the movement to drop the British Crown as (remote-dwelling) Canadian Head of State.
No, we didn’t need a national day of mourning, and yes, we can drop the British monarchy as our Head of State, but I have to admit, I will miss Queen Elizabeth.
Alex B.
You could say, Alex, that you will miss Elizabeth Windsor, but not Queen Elizabeth. (I wouldn’t even go that far.)
As for oaths, I am still very glad that I didn’t have to confront that when I became a public servant in 2007. Progress! (I am a birthright citizen, too, so I didn’t have to make that choice to become Canadian, either.)