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Chris Selley: Trump has killed Canada's anti-monarchy delusions

If there were any doubt, the new $20 bill — the King on one side, the Vimy Memorial on the other — put it to bed

Remember when the death of Queen Elizabeth II was going to prompt, at the very least, a serious rethinking of how the country works? Finally we might (as some pundits hoped) “grow up,” “move out of our parents’ basement,” and install a resident head of state. One chosen or elected through one of a variety of deeply flawed methods: a vote of Parliament and the legislatures, a general election, some kind of “citizens’ assembly,” or by just letting the prime minister choose. And the worst option, letting members of the Order of Canada choose, which is an actual real-life idea! Those are some of the options floating around out there in the ether, in roughly increasing order of terribleness.

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“This is the moment to have an honest debate on dissolving the monarchy, severing ties with Great Britain and taking the last momentous step on our journey to maturity,” author and journalist Andrew Cohen wrote in the Globe and Mail upon the Queen’s death. “We spared Queen Elizabeth the conversation. We cannot spare ourselves.”

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