Messy process to abolish monarchy likely ‘nonstarter’ amid pressing problems: Trudeau
Global News
"Canadians have been through a lot of constitutional wrangling over the past decades," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, adding the national focus is on pressing issues.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the complicated process that would come with any attempts to abolish the monarchy are likely a “nonstarter” for Canadians amid pressing national problems like inflation, climate change and the need for continued work on reconciliation.
In an interview with Global News from London, U.K., where he is leading a Canadian delegation attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, Trudeau reflected on what her death means for this country, and why he thinks Canadians have bigger things on their minds than abolishing the monarchy.
“We are able to have all the strength of debates that we need to have in Canada without worrying about the overarching stability of institutions because they are embodied by structures that have been in place for hundreds of years,” Trudeau said in the interview, which airs in full Sunday on Global National.
“Canadians have been through a lot of constitutional wrangling over the past decades. I think the appetite for what it would take when there are so many big things to focus on, is simply a nonstarter.”
Among the big challenges, he pointed to are inflation and the cost of living, climate change, greater clean technology jobs, reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples, and global affairs in what his defence minister, Anita Anand, earlier this year called a “darker” and “more chaotic” world.
Last week, Ipsos polling conducted exclusively for Global News just days after the death of the queen suggested nearly 60 per cent of Canadians want a referendum on the future of the monarchy.
That’s an increase from last year, when the sentiment stood at just over half of respondents.
At the same time, that poll suggested there is nearly equal support among those who favour both preserving or eliminating the ties to the monarchy.
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