I'm a Brit who moved to Canada and I find it _amazing_ that anyone here supports the queen.

You moved to a new land where you were not serfs. Where you could live free and your children could escape a suffocating class structure. To a land where you elected your own leaders.

Do you want oppression back?

Many Anglo-Canadians - and probably some Francos too - look at the monarchy as a "let's not re-write the whole Constitution" option, at least nowadays. Something that Australia's republican movement has discovered, to the best of my knowledge, to be quite burdening.

They call it "pragmatical monarchism" or similar wording.

That being said, I am similarly amazed - but for quite different reasons - by Brits moving to Canada.

The Canadian Constitution is a huge pandora box no one wants to open.

I'm a bit puzzled about your comment so my apologies in advance if I missed your point.

> I find it _amazing_ that anyone here supports the queen.

I haven't seen too much opposition about the Queen, mostly indifference. What I have seen a lot though is underestimation and lack of understanding of Canadian-born citizens about the amount of power over Canada that the Queen holds (at least on paper).

> You moved to a new land where you were not serfs. Where you could live free and your children could escape a suffocating class structure. To a land where you elected your own leaders.

I am not clear if you are defending the constitutional system here because there are republics that are doing just fine (ie. USA, France, Germany, etc.). Also, I have seen "suffocating" class structures in both systems so I wouldn't say the lack of it is an advantage of either one.

> Do you want oppression back?

Oppresion from who?

I'm not convinced the Queen is doing much oppressing these days...

No, you're right, but I think branchless' comment was referring to the Queen in the context of her role, not the person herself. Her role is that of, among others, a high-profile figurehead for the upper class. And the prominence and cultural importance of the role is certainly a factor in the oppression.

The UK is plenty oppressed. We still have all the same problems with economic rent extracted via land ownership.

Every country - republics included - has that problem.

Although the reason that a relatively high proportion of resource extraction revenues in Canada are redirected to public welfare is, perhaps ironically, because the vast majority of Canada's territory is classed as Crown Land...

Which is as it should be - that land belongs to all Canadians.

In the UK Queenie gets 15% of crown land to spend on the their lavish lives. I wonder how much rent she takes out of Canadian schools and hospitals. Any idea? Google failed me.

Not anyone, I don't support non-democratic "foreign" institutions. Most people don't care as in they don't realize about something that's been there all the time.

> You moved to a new land where you were not serfs.

This MUH FREEDOM metanarrative belongs more to the US. For example, freedom of speech in Canada is very much unlike the US -- hate speech and similar things have never been protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

People did not come to Canada to escape English or French monarchic oppression. Even Quebeckers feel a historical sorrow to have been forgotten by France, but never staged any sort of revolt against France. They still use the same French Fleur de Lys as their symbol, just like the rose is used by Anglophone Canadians to symbolise their attachment to England.

I'm pretty happy having a powerless figurehead, especially if the alternative is presidential elections.

What about the Canadian armed forces?

Yeah... that's even worse... All new recruits have to swear to the Queen too, and she is the Command in Chief of armed forces. But to be fair she delegates most of the power to the General Governor of Canada which is appointed by the recommendation of the Prime Minister which is indirectly elected by the citizens.

Balance of Power in Canada is very tricky and obfuscated, but here is a fairly accurate (and fun to watch) explanation by Rick Mercer :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi1yhp-_x7A

Yes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_Allegiance_(Canada)