94
Close call (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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[–] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I don’t know why all you guys hate the King so much. Canada doesn’t pay anything towards the Royal family except the cost of visits, it’s a purely ceremonial title. He has no power, and he uses his influence to campaign on the same things people on here like climate activism and access to healthcare. You may not like him but he’s a plus for everything we care about on here.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Preface: I don't dislike the King, I dislike the monarchy. Hate is too strong of a word -- I think it's not worth the effort to completely remove the monarchy from the Canadian constitution (it opens a can of worms), but I think next time the constitution gets changed it should be done.

    Canada doesn’t pay anything towards the Royal family except the cost of visits

    That seems like a great reason to not like the guy. He takes our money whenever he visits. If I visit another country they don't pay for anything.

    He has no power, and he uses his influence

    "Soft power" is another term for influence, so the king still has power.

    campaign on the same things people on here like climate activism and access to healthcare.

    That's great! Except he's doing it on private jets and with enough money to pay for many people's healthcare.

    Honestly, I think Elon Musk has more credentials for political influence (he did at least run a few moderately successful companies with his parents' money). And I'm under no illusions that Elon Musk is a good influence. What are the king's credentials? Being heir to dictators responsible for colonialism, many wars, etc.? Sounds like a really bad case of nepotism. The king is doing good work now, but there's nothing stopping him from using his influence for something incredibly destructive in the next five seconds.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    That seems like a great reason to not like the guy. He takes our money whenever he visits. If I visit another country they don't pay for anything.

    The monarch visits about once a decade. The King came by for 2 days recently to open Parliament. The last visit by a monarch before that was a 1 week visit by the Queen in 2010. One estimate I've seen is that the entire funding of anything Royal in Canada, including every expense related to the Governor General amounts to about $50m/year. That's about 0.01% of the Federal Budget. If Canada had a president (even a ceremonial one) instead of a Governor General those costs would barely change. A ceremonial president would cost roughly the same. Germany has a largely ceremonial president and his office costs the country 30m euros per year.

    Basically, the amount spent on the royals / the governor general is tiny compared to the entire federal budget. Is it worth it? Who knows. The GG basically acts as an ambassador for the country and I'd argue many of them have been useful, and that's where almost the entire royal-related budget goes.

    If Canada decided to switch to a republic without even a ceremonial president, the cost of that change would be equivalent to decades worth of spending on the GG / royals.

    "Soft power" is another term for influence, so the king still has power.

    Yeah, but so do TikTok influencers.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Political posting is mostly about jumping on a bandwagon, not any practical considerations. Adding nuance is no fun, so sure, they go straight for kill em' all, not "maybe relax the rules on taking oaths to the king". 99% will never do anything IRL anyway.

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