Thursday, July 03, 2014

Can we afford the Queen of England/Britain?

What comes up if you google "maple crown"
Smith makes the business case for disconnecting Canada from Britain's monarchy:
There are many things the Canadian government can do to help Canadian banks to succeed in global markets. Associating Canada with the empire responsible for such accomplishments as the Sykes-Picot agreement, the Amritsar massacre, and the Opium Wars surely is not one of them. I don’t want to overstate the importance of political symbols in international business, but they do matter, at least at the margins.
He's drawing on the recent op-ed by Paul Heinbecker:
The monarchy adds celebrity to Britain’s reputation but not to ours (ask any American or Asian or African which country William will be king of). It does generate confusion about who we are and what our relationship with London is, and necessitates endless explanations that the Crown is a kind of legal convenience in Canada and historical artifact. 
Coyne's not onside, though in other respects he's good on the politicians' "history wars":
The Crown, likewise, is not some useless foreign ornament 
Image source: drinkspirits.com (an excellent sipping drink, btw)
 
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