THE CANADIAN SCENE NATION IS “MIXED-UP” ABOUT THE MONARCHY AT PRESENT

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31345, 15 April 1967, Page 12

THE CANADIAN SCENE NATION IS “MIXED-UP” ABOUT THE MONARCHY AT PRESENT

(Bv HILARY BRIGSTOKR. writing to "Th* Timot.” London, from Ottawa.) (Reprinted from "The Timet.**)

The appointment of Mr Roland Michener as another Ca.niulian.horn Governor-General of Canada raises the question in this centenary yearhow long is this office going to last in this country beset by feelings of doubt about its future?

“Take up your freedom, your days of apprenticeship •re over,” said “The Times” in 1872 about Canada. “Cut the painter.” Encouragement in these Tennysonian words has now reached the stage when Canadians of mixed races are looking to something more than “The Times” had envisaged. Much more now is heard about the cult of republicanism and the future of the monarchy in this country. It is being discussed openly—so much so that only a few days •go the "Toronto Daily Star,” a liberal newspaper, had a leading article headed: “Monarchy divides us. A Republic would help Canada.” The editorial said flatly: "We believe that the monarchy no longer serves any useful purpose in the task of nation building that lies ahead.”

Ethnic Changes It went on to say that the institution fed the illusion of some Canadians that Britishness defined the country’s identity, but the fact was, it said, that, apart from the invaluable legacies of British political and legal Institutions, Canada was no longer a British country. Such opinions would have aroused much wrath eight years ago—the time of the last formal royal tour of Canada. Today there is mostly indifference towards the monarchy except among the older generations of British stock. Ethnically there have been many population changes. Some 44 per cent of the people in this country come from the British Isles, 30 per cent are French-Canadian, one of the founding races; Italians, Germans, Ukranians and Dutch now make up the remainder and their percentages, coupled with the French-Canadians, outweigh the old Anglo-Saxon predominance. Younger people are either disinterested in the monarchy and it» representatives or downright hostile towards it and them. There is respect for the Queen as a person, and indeed great admiration for her, particularly after the visit to Quebec city in 1964, a visit marked with unpleasant incidents. The attitude of French Canada to the monarchy is simple; they welcome the Queen as the Queen of England, but not as Queen of Canada, a thought to be remembered when she goes to the Montreal world fair in July. The mood of the people here, and, indeed, the mood of the other white dominions, is changing rapidly. Traditional ties with the mother country are becoming much more tenuous, and in Canada’s case, although the apron strings with Britain have been cut as far back as the middle twenties, the child is not yet ready to be hauled kicking and screaming into a convenient marriage with rich old Uncle Sam, although economically she is being brought nearer to such an arrangement. Tedious Trappings As a result there is a vacuum in this country, particularly in “English Canada,” in which the modern world Canadians are trying to find a national identity of their own. Canadians, as I have pointed out many times before, know what they are not but not what they are, and that is their dilemma.

The younger generations want something new, for they find, as indeed their elders are beginning to discover, that the ceremonial trapping; surrounding the Upper House of Parliament, the Speech from the Throne, and the protocol of Government House, are dull and tedious and relics of another age. They may be justified in Westminster, with its rich traditions and atmosphere, but many ask here if such things are in keeping with a modern country like Canada. There is, nevertheless, the other side of the coin. There are those who argue that the Crown does indeed fill a vacuum. It is something above the hurly-burly of politics, something people can look up to. There are many who would like to see the Queen, were it possible, spending more time over, here, making Rldeau Hall a kind of Balmoral for a few months or weeks of the year. Canadians are at the moment mixed up about the monarchy. There are guilt feelings, and some observers wonder whether they would not have been happier if they had revolted like their southern cousins in the first place. Yet most Canadians do not want to become Americans: they want to be different If they are talking in terms of republicanism now they do not advocate a carbon copy of the United States form of Government Not for instance, a President on United States lines. As the "Toronto Dally Star” says, what it would like to see in essence is the vesting of Canadian sovereignty here in Canada where it actually lives, and not in Buckingham Palace.

Former Speaker Mr Michener, a former Speaker of the Commons and Canadian High Commissioner to India, comes to Rldeau Hall •nd it will be, as they say in the theatre, “a hard act to follow.” One wonders how many more Governors-General there will be in Canada, and, in-

deed, lieutenant-governors in the provinces. Mr Roland Michener is the second Canadian with a political background to be appointed Governor-General of Canada. Vincent Massey, who was the predecessor of the late General Vanier, was active in the Liberal Party organisation during the early 1930’5, but Mr Daniel Roland Michener, P.C., Q.C., known to his friends in Parliament as "Roly,” comes from a strong political background. His father was the leader of the Conservative Party in Alberta and a member of the

Legislature before being elevated to the Senate in 1917. Mr Michener himself, born in Lacombe and raised in Red Deer in that province as the oldest of eight children, recalls campaigning at the age of fifteen for his father. A Rhodes Scholar In his early youth he remembers owning a couple of cows and supplying the family home with milk. Indeed, he started a dairy route to earn pocket money. However, at the University of Alberta he was to earn more, namely the GovernorGeneral’s medal and a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford where in 1919, after war service in the previous year with the R.A.F., he met the present Prime Minister of Canada, Mr Lester Pearson. Although they belonged to different political camps even at that time, they became firm friends and have remained so ever since.

After Oxford, where he received his M.A. and 8.C.L., apart from gaining a Blue for running and half Blue for hockey, he became a barrister of the Middle Temple. In 1923 he returned to Canada to practise law. His connexions with Oxford have been long lasting. Since 1936 he has been secretary for Canada for the Rhodes scholarships and in 1961 Hertford College made him an honorary fellow. At the end of the Second World War he entered politics proper, being elected for a Toronto constituency to the Ontario Legislature, where, in 1946, he was appointed to the George Drew Conservative Cabinet as provincial secretary and registrar, a post he held for two years. In 1949 he was defeated, however, and it was not until 1953 that he came to Ottawa as member of Parliament for the riding of St Paul’s. When the Diefenbaker administration came to power in 1957 Mr Michener was earmarked as Speaker of the Commons, a position he held until the general election of 1962, when

again he lost his seat and retired from politics.

Witty And Urbane

During his political career in Ottawa Mr Michener did not give the impression of being a real House of Commons man. As Speaker he rather laboured with procedures and ratings, especially at question time, but he did achieve a good reputation as a witty, urbane figure with a strong sense of impartial. Ity. He was one of the better speakers of the Commons. Some thought that Mr Diefenbaker would reward him for his services after the 1962 defeat but for various reasons It was not to be. However, when the Liberals were returned to power in 1963 Mr Pearson asked Mr Michener to be permanent Speaker, but the Toronto lawyer had had enough of the rough and tumble of political life. After a short period during which Mr Michener was chairman of a Manitoba royal commission Mr Pearson appointed him to a position much more to his liking, that of Canadian High Commissioner to India. Now his old Oxford friend has advised Her Majesty that the post of Governor-General be given to the former member for St Paul’s, a remarkable and rare instance of Canadian political impartiality. Mr Michener, who will be 67 on April 19 this year, is still an active sportsman, enjoying swimming, squash •nd ski-ing. A trim, welldressed man with an air of formality he will bring to Rldeau Hall, as a former Speaker of the Commons, a careful and judicial approach to affairs. Wife’s Qualities Mrs Michener will bring other qualities to the viceregal post. She has a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Toronto and is the author of a work on Jacques Maritaln. A graduate from the University of British Columbia, she attended the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where she met her husband, who also plays the piano. For some years she wrote a column on food and entertain* ment for a Canadian magazine, and when her husband was Speaker she compiled a handbook for parliamentary wives detailing the customs and manners of life in official Ottawa. It is said that she took easily to diplomatic protocol as wife of the High Commissioner in Delhi. The Micheners have three married daughters. One is a C.B.C. producer who is also a well-known film critic here. Another is an artist and sculptor whose husband is the head of the history department at Brown University, Rhode Island. The third is a biochemist in Toronto.