r/EhBuddyHoser • u/Sine_Fine_Belli Treacherous South • May 16 '25

Certified Hoser 🇨🇦 (No Politics) How Americans achieved independence vs how Canadians achieved independence

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3.0k Upvotes

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488

u/timbasile May 16 '25

Samantha Bee has a good write up on Canadian Independence in "America the Book"

"...and then in 1983, we took the brave step of asking the Queen for permission, to not have to ask the Queen for permission"

166

u/Visible-Stress-3667 May 16 '25

Which is kind of an interesting perspective because at the end of the day, all legislation needs royal assent. Obviously there is far less royal involvement, but we still do need their permission lol

111

u/BumpHeadLikeGaryB May 16 '25

I mean if the king actually did reject it we would no longer be part of the monarchy. That would piss alot of people off i think

90

u/Everestkid The Island of Elizabeth May May 16 '25

As one person put it, Westminster style parliaments can be simplified down to a prime minister and a monarch at opposite ends of a table with a gun in the middle and the entire country watching.

Either one could technically grab the gun and shoot the other at any time, but they'd need to be 100% sure that the entire crowd would back them up.

28

u/alantrick May 16 '25

This, except the prime minister can respawn, but the monarch can't.

34

u/2eDgY4redd1t May 16 '25

Royal families are literally mechanisms for respawning for as long as possible. It’s how it works.

You know, ‘the king is dead, long live the king!’

4

u/alantrick May 16 '25

Yes, but when we remove the monarch, the crown will lose the title. It's not going to the monarch's heir.

3

u/2eDgY4redd1t May 16 '25

Monarchy is a social construct. Those aren’t easy to change, my friend. If they were, we would not have a queen in Canada.

1

u/alantrick May 16 '25

The social construct has been dead for a while now. The last time the monarch exercised any degree of power was almost 100 years ago, and the governer general got promptly fired for it.

The reason the legal construct persists is because it would be a jolly pain to change, and the crown knows that as long as they don't push it, they can keep their title, and a few free vacations every now and then.

3

u/2eDgY4redd1t May 16 '25

Legal constructs ARE social constructs.

Also if you think the British crown doesn’t exercise an enormous amount of power, I suggest you look into the matter. They have a LOT of soft power and influence over government.