To all the 'colonials', this CANADA thread is interesting - Cdn.'s are happy the Queen Mother is Canadian. Check out the thread. Comments?

Uh, yeah I read that too and I think it's a great idea. I'm going to propose putting Simon Bolivar on the US dolllar and Mao Tse Tung on the quarter. <BR>Those Canadians are wacky.

coin is not the late Queen Mother, but the daughter, who is head of the British Commonwealth of Nations. I leave it to you to do a search on that organization.

The point is that Queen Elizabeth is Canadian. So when you all sing 'God Save the Queen' you are also singing 'God save Canada'. I hope all you Brits join in the festivities on July 1st for Canada Day. Queen Elizabeth is hosting the fireworks and she is opening the doors of the Parliament Buildings to a host of Cdn. stars including Brian Adams, The Tea Party, Lara Fabian, Celine Dion, Sarah Brightman, Shania Twain, Sarah McLaghlan, etc. ... there will also be a performance on behalf of our ever so lovely Pamela Anderson by Kid Rock.

You Canadians should be proud to have Plastic Pamela Anderson representing your country. Will the 'Rock' be there too? He is Canadian ... lots to be proud of. Are they personal friends to your Queen Elizabeth of Canada?

Why isn't Jacques Chirac on your coins instead? We are equally a part of Canada.

I will rember to drink a toast to our Canadian cousins on July 1st. It was great to see the Mounties during the London Jubilee celebrations. I am a proud monarchist and i firmly believe that the Commonwealth is a great institution which brings a large group of English speaking nations together.<BR><BR>I for one do not want a Head of State who is an elected politician and judging by the numbers who turned out for the Golden Jubilee I do not think many of may fellow countrymen do either.<BR><BR>God Save The Queen!

Anniel: An elected head of state? Yes please... its called a democracy. I wouldn't care if the Queen stood for election just so long as the people of this country get to have their say in it. Directly elected for a 4 or 5 year term. Absolutely no questions asked. Even a "president" of whom I couldn't agree with (like Thatcher or George W) would be infinitely preferable to this undemocratic roll call we call the Monarchy.<BR>The Republc will come... maybe not in my time but surely one day as the UK drags itself into the modern era!<BR>D.

I certainly hope it will not be in my lifetome. I just loved to see all the republicans backpedal when so many of us turned out for the celebrations.Can you just imagine President Blair..or maybe President Toynbee..Yuck!

Well frankly I don't care that much. Anyway, its a hell of a lot better than having that arrogant asshole Chretien on our money, I'm sure he'd love that though. The Queen and the Governor General have no real official power in Canada, so whats the big deal?

state is not necessarily the same person as the head of government, the way the president is in the U.S. The head of government in parliamentary democracies is, of course, elected. I do assure you that whatever your opinions are of Mr. Chretien and Mr. Blair, both Canada and the U.K. are democracies. <BR><BR>"Frenchi", the head of state in a parliamentary democracy has no legislative power. Mr. Chirac cannot be the head of state in a parliamentary democracy, as France is a republic, of which he is of course, the president.

Well, we here in the currently do not have an elected head of state...the one living in the White House was certainly not elected, but rather appointed by the Supreme Court, which is of course made up of buddies of his daddy, ol' George Bush the First....so quit your belly aching old Brits, we too are still waiting for a fairly elected head of state here in the Colonies....

I am never quite sure why Americans (and others) have no clue about the reason we have the Queen on our currency and why we continue to consider her as "Our" Queen. The reason is simply because she is... You can't change history and the fact is that we are part of the Commonwealth, have never relinquished our part in this institution and have always had the monarch as our head of state. To insinuate that we are not a democracy just shows your own lack of knowledge about the world. Your amusement at this makes no difference to most of us, some Americans laugh at anything that isn't American. Putting simon bolivar on your dollar or mao on your quarter would have nothing to do with "your history", whereas the monarchy has everything to do with ours.(and much as having chirac on the currency would address the fact that France is a major part of our history the Battle at the Plains of Abraham kind of put an end to their political ties. <BR>Whether you approve of it or not, whether you are a monarchist or not, you can't change the fact that she is Our Queen. We have yet to have a referendum on the question, so until (if?) we do, accept the fact. <BR>

What is God supposed to save the Queen from?

Republicans, Capo

Republicans with pitchforks like myself, Capo!

Hahaha...my favourite topic!<BR><BR>I deplore the fact that Canada has a constitutional monarchy. When our constitution was repatriated in 1981, why the %%?$/$ did we have to have the Queen's permission??? Ludicrous. We elect the people who lead our country. NO one elected her...<BR><BR>I have never sung God save the Queen and have never toasted her with a glass...a barbarian thing we do at Liberal Party fundraisers...<BR><BR>Au bonhomme fran&ccedil;ais...Chirac n'a aucune place sur nos billets. Avec la perte de guerre de la Conqu&ecirc;te qui en 1762 (en grande partie caus&eacute;e par Louis XIV qui n'a pas envoy&eacute; assez de soldats parce qu'il se luttait contre tout le monde en Europe), la France a perdu sa Nouvelle-France.<BR>(Chirac has no business on our money. With France's loss of the battle "La Coqu&ecirc;te" in 1763, due in large part to Louis XIV ignoring our plight because he was too busy fighting in Europe, she lost any right to New France = Canada)<BR><BR>Tania<BR>- who thanks GOd that her passport no longer states that she is a British subject<BR><BR>- who has no wish to insult anyone in the UK, it's just that the Queen has absolutely nothing to do with the way our country is governed and resents having to shell out to pay the upkeep for a Governor-General in this country to represent the Queen here<BR><BR>- who can't wait to get to the UK this summer to see all the national treasures...see you soon..

Proud, many Americans don't even realise that Canada was once British. The reason slaves tried to escape to Canada was because slavery was abolished in Britain and its then colonies many years before they got round to it in the US. The slaves became free the moment they set foot on Canadian soil.<BR>As for the monarchy, if you look at the most stable democracies in the world they are constitutional monarchies. Even countries that have elected presidents are not so daft as to have the head of government and head of state in one person.<BR>Canada is the biggest country in the world, has enormous resources and is careful who it admits as immigrants. It doesn't squander its resources trying for world domination. Give it 50 years or so and it will be the dominant power in North America.

As a Quebecker and a Canadian, I don't really have a problem with the queen herself or the monarchy, but rather with the system of government that derives from the monarchy. This system allows for proportional representation which allows assholes like Chretien to be elected not directly by the people of Canada, but by party delegates. When we vote in Federal elections, we vote for our representative, so he may be good, but in the end it elects the PM. Also, for example, is it fair that the Liberal party has a majority of seats, which means that they can pass any damn law that they please with only 38% popular vote in the previous election? In Quebec, in our last election, the PQ got less popular support than the Quebec Liberals and yet the PQ formed a majority. Obviously, the US has had its share of problems with the electoral system, but it is not as frequent as it is here by electing Prime Ministers and Premiers without majority popular consent. Is that democracy?

I have no desire to see us as a dominant power in 50 years, doubt it's possible in any case, and am as happy to have Americans for neighbours. As for the coin, I'm more interested in collecting bills. Lots. <BR><BR>