With election fever over it is time to turn a page on our enthusiasms for all things Canadian.
We Canucks in the west can proudly wave big for the hockey Canucks for advancing to the second round of the NHL playoffs, while continuing to lament the sorry saga of the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers.
And of course spring is here with the promise of summer being just around the corner.
What better way to celebrate the leaving of winter and the coming of summer than to marvel at a good ole fashioned Royal Wedding, as witnessed by the world last Friday.
It was a fairy tale of sorts. Prince William, the eldest son of Prince Charles, married commoner Kate Middleton at the famed Westminster Abbey. Not since Billy’s dad married his mother, the late Princess Diana, nearly 20 years ago have the devoted subjects in all the realms been so smitten.
We must not forget that when we watched the Royal Wedding we were seeing our future King and Queen in their full glory.
Future, we say?
It has long been reliably rumoured that Prince Charles will not step up to the royal plate. Instead, so the royal gossip goes, he will hand off the Crown to William.
"I'm not a party animal, despite what some people might think,” the young prince has famously said.
That is good news for many who regularly felt over the past quarter century that the monarchy was turning into a joke, largely because of what was routinely reported by the British tabloid press, armed with all those naughty paparazzi photos.
But honestly, should we ever hold anything against our future king because he may have lived a little bit on the wild side once in a while when he was sowing his oats as a youngster?
There are far worse sins, and now that William has jettisoned his youth for a life of responsibility with a nice gal, the kind any parent would love to have as a member of the family, perhaps we should give him and the monarchy a break. Maybe the republicans in Canada should take a long holiday as well.
Queen Elizabeth still reigns, and she will for a while yet. At 85 years young she continues to amaze most people, even republicans, with her zeal to maintain the Crown with dignity.
She continues to do this in spite of all the shenanigans put out by her kids, notably Charles and Andrew.
It is now time for William to begin the process to show the world, including Crown-loving Canadians, the Crown has an important role to play in the 21st century.
He may even be able to prove to many the antics of his elders were Royal anomalies, bad jokes best left in the past – and lessons learnt for the future.
Like anything else, the role of the monarchy has to evolve to fit the times and mindset of its subjects. In Canada’s case, the nation will have the opportunity from June 30 to July 8 to check out the newly weds themselves when the couple comes for a royal visit. During that week the prince and his bride will make a stop in Alberta.
So what is Canada’s mindset on the monarchy these days? The Queen is still the head of state, and even zany elected separatists in Ottawa and Quebec City are duty bound to swear allegiance to her. Some of them don’t even mind. The late Rene Levesque even had respect for the monarchy.
While a clear majority of Canadians want to retain the monarchy as a symbol of its heritage there is a sizable republican movement, reputable but wrong, but beating its drum that Canada would be a far more independent land without any allegiance to a Crown residing across the great Atlantic pond.
William and his bride have that sort of stuff blocking their relevancy in this realm, as well as others (Australia has had a more vocal republican movement for decades).
But relevant or not, the Royal couple still makes for a fine fairy tale, a sort of thing that propels many in the land and beyond to believe that dreams do come true.
Isn’t that what Canada has always been about?
