How the Queen’s passing will affect Canadians

As the Queen is laid to rest following an outpouring of grief worldwide, many Canadians are left wondering what our relationship with the British Empire will be like moving forward with a new Head of State.

Professor Padraic Scanlan at the University of Toronto specializes in the history of the British Empire and says this situation will force Canadians to re-evaluate their relationship, given the history of British Imperialism.

“I think a lot of people all around the Commonwealth felt a kind of nostalgia, in some ways, Queen Elizabeth II represented a moment of what seemed like, or at least for some seemed like, prosperity and security in the period after the Second World War, right in the 1950s and 1960s, a period of prosperity at least for white, middle-class Canadians, if not for all,” said Scanland.

“In 2022, I think that people are eager for a sense of continuity, are eager for the rehabilitation of institutions. And I think in some ways, the death of the Queen will, no matter what people thought about the Queen, evoke that kind of longing for secure, stable institutions.”

Scanlan hopes that the federal government doesn’t turn away from the monarchy.

“Even if Canada were to move towards republicanism, which … I think is very unlikely, I would hope, that the federal government wouldn’t take that as an opportunity to break its treaty obligations to Indigenous people in Canada.

“Although, it wouldn’t necessarily surprise me if that were to happen,” Scanlan added.

Scanlan believes the Queen represented stability and a certain personal dignity that he says many people around the world admired.

Related articles:

• B.C. honours Queen Elizabeth II with commemoration ceremony in Victoria

• IN PHOTOS: State funeral of Queen Elizabeth II

• U.K. and the rest of the world say final goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II

As for King Charles III, one expert believes Canadians will take this opportunity to reflect on what the monarchy brings to contemporary Canadian life.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a huge groundswell to replace the monarchy simply because Charles is now the King,” said Andrew MacDougall, assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto, Scarborough.

MacDougall says he thinks, to a degree, that Canadians know who and what they’re getting.

“They’ve grown up with Charles, they’ve followed him … Many people followed [him] throughout their adult lives. So I don’t think there’s going to be a huge surprise here that he’s now the Crown, I mean, sort of the inevitable has now happened.”

When it comes to the future of the Head of State in Canada, MacDougall believes it is necessary to have input from Indigenous peoples on how we move forward.

“Canada is a very different place now, and I think it’s certainly a much more diverse place. And the Crown for a lot of modern Canadians has, you know, has a very ambivalent and, in many cases, quite a troubled past, given the relationship that the British had with imperialism and colonialism. And so there are many Canadians, I think, that would question whether or not really it’s appropriate to have Charles on the throne,” MacDougall added.

King Charles III officially took the throne in a historic ascension ceremony days after his mother’s death.

A formal coronation will most likely not take place for months.