The Queen

My brother, Barry, and I have argued since we were very young. His leanings are very liberal and mine are more conservative. Another way to put it is that I am right and he is wrong.

In Canada, Queen Elizabeth is our queen, too. Her representative is the Governor General, currently Michaëlle Jean.

Our most recent argument was about the Queen. He feels that we don’t need a queen for our country. I have no argument with this. Aside from a ceremonial role, the monarchy has little to do with Canada. Mind you, there have been two occasions in our history where a bill passed by Parliament was rejected by the Governor General. There is some constitutional power with the position.

Barry said that he had no more respect for the queen than anyone else. He commented that he would treat her the same as everyone. Personally, I would love to see him presented to her at a formal gathering to see if he refused to follow protocol. He contends that she didn’t earn the position. It was handed to her, so why should he treat her differently?

It is this that I have a problem with. My feeling is that the people of Canada have spoken about our system of government. She is not the Queen of England or the Queen of the Commonwealth. She is the Queen of Canada. Since she represents us, then I feel she is due the respect she deserves for the position. If we don’t want her, then we should change our constitution. Until we do that, little respect for the Queen, to me, means little respect for our governmental system and little respect for Canada.

However, my brother can do as he pleases. He can have his opinon.

When I got home, I started thinking. Barry says that he would treat the Queen like anyone else. I thought, wouldn’t it be better if we treated everyone else like we would the Queen? In other words, why bring the Queen down to everyone else’s level? Why not elevate everyone to hers? Let’s not treat somebody worse. Let’s treat everybody better.

Being the owner of a bed and breakfast, I know the satisfaction we have when our guests feel like they have been treated like kings and queens. It’s better to go the extra mile than come up short.