Donald Trump keeps talking about Canada as the 51st state. Why isn't King Charles saying something?
CBC
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On this side of the world's longest undefended border, U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated comments about Canada becoming the 51st state have led to outright rejections of the idea as a "non-starter," spontaneous bursts of national pride and dogged determination to "buy Canadian."
The comments have also prompted a question from some, who wonder about the role of Canada's head of state as Trump repeatedly casts his eyes and rhetoric northward:
Why hasn't King Charles said anything about all this?
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson told CBC this would be a matter for the Canadian government, on whose advice the King acts.
All this gets at the fundamental nature of Canada as a constitutional monarchy, where the monarch is a figurehead and the elected government of the day acts in the monarch's name.
"If you think of Parliament as being a circle, and you think of the King and what he can do as being a circle, the overlap is actually quite small," said Justin Vovk, a royal commentator and sessional professor of history at McMaster University in Hamilton.
"That's by design. That goes back just shy of 400 years, so that the King cannot step into Parliament's shoes and make laws, direct foreign policy, declare wars when he is not an elected official….
"If you have a situation where you have a King who is calling all the shots, that is despotism, that is tyranny. That raises questions about who is above the law."
While the government could ask Charles to get involved, there's no public indication that's happened.
"I think there are probably several reasons" for that, said Vovk.
"I think No. 1, first and foremost, [is] the fact that our government has repeatedly made it clear [the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state] is a non-starter."
Vovk says he's been asked repeatedly by colleagues and others over the past little while about why Charles hasn't got involved.
"The short answer to that question is it's not yet a constitutional crisis. So in the event that the Canadian Constitution would be in crisis, that is actually then the sovereign's role to step in and ensure proper governance is maintained by Parliament."
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