As Queen Elizabeth and her remaining loyal subjects celebrate her 96th birthday, a new Angus Reid poll found more than half of Canadians are ready to move on from the monarchy.
That’s no slight to Britain’s longest-serving monarch. In fact, the poll found Her Majesty is well-loved — 63 per cent of Canadians have favourable views of the Queen. And Canadians will be sad to see her go, 59 per cent said they’ll be impacted by the Queen’s death. Women aged 55 and older are the most likely to be upset by the Queen’s eventual death with 76 per cent saying they’ll be impacted.
But Canada’s love of Queen Elizabeth isn’t enough to stem a tide of anti-monarchist sentiments. Angus Reid found 51 per cent of Canadians think it’s time to sever ties to the British monarchy while only 26 per cent of Canadians want to continue the tradition and 24 per cent are unsure.
Canadians are broadly supportive of former Commonwealth countries that have severed ties like Barbados and Jamaica with 58 per cent saying it’s the “right decision” for countries to sever ties with the monarchy.
READ MORE: Queen Elizabeth II privately marks her 96th birthday
READ MORE: Sexual abuse lawsuit against Prince Andrew settled out of court, lawyers say
If Canada does maintain ties to the Crown, 60 per cent would prefer Prince William to become king. But there’s little appetite for a King Charles and Queen Camilla, only 29 per cent of Canadians would support them. Prince Andrew is the least popular option with only 13 per cent support, which is unsurprising given his involvement with prolific sex offender Jeffery Epstein and Andrew’s recent settling of a sexual abuse lawsuit.
Ultimately, Canadians don’t feel connected to the monarchy anymore. Half of Canadians say the monarchy has no relevance to their lives, 26 per cent said the monarchy was “becoming less relevant”, 23 per cent say the monarchy is as relevant as ever and only two per cent think the Royals are more relevant.
This is based on a widely held perception that the values represented by the royal family are “outdated”, as well as active efforts to decolonize Canada.
Those who oppose the monarchy believe it would be worth changing Canada’s constitution to be rid of the royals, with 92 per cent saying it would be worth the effort. In order to remove the Queen as head of state, there would need to be unanimous consent in the House of Commons, the Senate and each of the provincial legislatures.
The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey from April 5-7, 2022 among a representative randomized sample of 1,607 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.
@SchislerCole
cole.schisler@bpdigital.ca
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
