Let’s have a shot, let’s have two

To the health of lovers

To the health of the king of France,

And screw the King of England

Who declared war on us!

It is enough to recall this classic of the traditional song to understand why the coronation of Charles III. met with general indifference in both France and Quebec on Saturday in London. Sung by folklorist Raoul Roy in the 1970s and more recently by the Bodh’aktan group, this song is said to celebrate the capture of the English frigate kent in 1800 by the great French privateer Surcouf resonates more frequently in Quebec than in France. Maybe because unlike France From 31.08 works with us like balm on the still living wounds of a conquered people. Symbols so entrenched in the heart of the nation that even the best deconstructors’ efforts can’t achieve anything.

According to Buckingham Palace, Saturday’s coronation at Westminster Abbey will contrast with the glory of bygone days. As if to apologize for being king, Charles III. wanting to adopt the sullen tone that has always been his hallmark at these celebrations. Four times fewer guests than at his mother’s coronation; Camilla’s crown fished out of her great-grandmother’s closet; invitation cards on recycled paper; Olive oil instead of the traditional ambergris from the arm of the forest. Charles III seems determined. having no other dream than drowning in the surrounding landscape. And the high: Eating quiche without bacon on a Coronation Day isn’t exactly what you would call a feast!

Despite his Saint Nitouche airs, this new king was not to slow the monarchy’s slow drift toward the star system. A ride that was certainly too slow for Prince Harry, who didn’t hesitate to swap Buckingham for a palace in Los Angeles. If we choose Tom Cruise and Winnie the Pooh over the bridesmaids who wore Elizabeth’s train, there’s little doubt.

But didn’t monarchy and entertainment always go hand in hand? As Professor Marc Chevrier wrote, citing the great English political scientist Walter Bagehot, ‘monarchy serves to curb people’s thirst for sovereignty, to dazzle them with the spectacle of an ancient world where the right to rule seemed to fall from the sky the anointing of the time that crowned an elected official in whom the people recognized themselves as father or mother”.

Nothing could be more normal than Justin Trudeau, who shares in this monarchical legacy as much as in the star system, one of the parties, and that he misses his party’s congress on this occasion. Monarchy polls may be running at half-staff in Canada, but the fact is that few countries have the monarchical spirit so ingrained in their political mores. Aside from a few Caribbean islands, Canada remains the only major country in America that is not a republic. The most important nations of the continent, from Brazil to Mexico, via Peru, Haiti and small Suriname, all fought hard to gain their independence from the former colonial powers and opted for the republic. Without forgetting the United States, where Joe Biden will conform to tradition by not attending the king’s coronation.

With the exception of the Quebec independence movement, Louis Riel’s revolt in Manitoba, and the 1837-1838 episode, Canada has never shown such a thirst for popular sovereignty. One of Canada’s ‘founding fathers’ in 1867, George-Étienne Cartier, did not hesitate to refer to the people as ‘crowd’ and ‘rabble’, Marc Chevrier reminds us. Unlike Spain, the Netherlands or Sweden, Canada will take the colonial spirit to the point of being content to be just the branch of a foreign monarch who is also a religious leader. No longer colonized, you die!

There is not a trace in Canada or in its Constitution of what Lincoln called “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Our contempt for referendums, which, moreover, are only advisory in nature, our reverence for judges appointed by the authorities rather than unelected, our imprisonment in the “province” ex-Prime Minister Bernard Landry liked to remind that the Latin name (province) meant “territory of the vanquished”, all of which stems from this heritage.

Oddly enough, in recent years we have never talked as much about decolonial or post-colonial currents in universities as in left-wing organizations. And yet what do our “decolonials” do if they do not conform to the monarchical spirit? Far from valuing the sovereignty of the people, the power of monarchs always rested on provincial lords and local baronies. In the same way, our decolonial ones continue to fragment the nation into communities to consolidate the tribes, the races, the ethnic groups and the chapels. Multiculturalism, which has become Canada’s official ideology, is also a legacy of the Empire, which has always favored racial, ethnic, or sexual affiliation as citizens.

Meanwhile, it will not be forbidden to sing on Saturday From 31.08. We comfort each other as best we can…

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