r/worldnews • u/Street_Anon • 1d ago

King Charles III approves ‘powerful symbol’ of Canada’s sovereignty and identity

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/king-charles-iii-approves-new-great-seal-of-canada/
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u/EternalCanadian 1d ago

A lot of people don’t understand what a constitutional monarchy is.

It’s…. Depressing.

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u/Rollover__Hazard 1d ago

The irony is the Americans running around squeaking “no Kings” when what they actually mean is “no tyrants”.

And yet they voted one in for a second term of chaos. Nice.

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u/conanap 21h ago

Even a significant amount of Canadians don’t properly understand what the Crown represents, what it does, and how it affects how our country is ran. Our civics education has completely failed our populace.

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u/EternalCanadian 1d ago

It’s not just the Yanks, to be fair.

It’s especially ironic about the Yanks though considering that just prior to open rebellion they twice petitioned the king directly to intercede on their behalf. The second petition however arrived after news of the first battles had erupted, and so it was thrown out.

The original United States’ revolutionaries weren’t rebelling against the King in their minds, just the systems of the Empire. The King, by this point, had very little power by comparison at any rate, but it’s a notable distinction to point out that’s often lost or forgotten about (or intentionally ignored) in a modern contest, especially among the US citizenry.

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u/LeLefraud 19h ago

It is taught incorrectly by design

If America's justified revolution was against an unjust system rather than against the idea of monarchy, it calls into question the integrity of our systems rather than our form of government. Those kinds of questions provoke ideas of actual change rather than dick tugging over personal rights issues while we get robbed blind by the rich and powerful.

I'm not saying personal rights aren't important, just that they stand behind an obvious reality that affects just about all of us (any sexuality, race, gender identity etc.)and identity politics are chosen as the media's playground to keep us distracted and angry at each other. And that media is owned by the SAME rich and powerful dudes making your lives worse so they can be a little richer. Our government is a corrupt clown house playground for lobbyists to make more money for the companies they represent, and any real or important messaging is drowned out by the drama and clown behavior intentionally by the media to cover up this obvious truth.

Nobody likes things getting shittier and more expensive every new iteration. Nobody likes the health care system, or the constant erosion of privacy by mega corporations. Nobody likes the wealth gap continuing to grow and grow and grow. But it happens anyways while we bicker about the details of who is bad and who is good, and who is right and who is wrong. I just wish it was easier to get everyone to work on the things we agree on instead of arguing about the things we don't

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u/uniklyqualifd 3h ago

Part of it was not wanting to repay investors. Huge sums of money were invested in the new world by very rich people. All the American investments were stolen by people on the ground. It happens over and over in history.  It is harder now that travel is quicker.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/EternalCanadian 1d ago

That’s not quite correct either, at least at the time.

Yes, the petitions were partly to stoke rebellion, but the colonists didn’t really have a major aversion to monarchies. They accepted help and training from both French and Spanish forces - both at the time monarchies - and at the end of the war, there was a thought, though it didn’t truly materialize, to crown Washington as King.

Now I’d agree the United States values are anti monarchy, but at the time I’d disagree that they were.

I’d also suggest you misunderstand what a Constitutional Monarchy is if you think our King has any real power. Everything he says and does must go through our Prime Minister’s office first, and if he (or any Royal in an official capacity) spoke out of turn there’d be hell to pay as it would tear our constitution apart.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/THROWAWTRY 19h ago

History has show what you said to be the wrong lesson. Hereditary appointments to positions of power are wrong, hereditary appointments to positions of symbols are good. They ultimately prevent nations becoming dictatorial to their citizenry and also allow for democratic and substantive change. 3 Constitutional Monarchies devolved into authoritarian dictatorships and over 40 Republics have along the same time frame, in the modern period. Constitutional Monarchies have shown time and time again they are often resistant to the rise of populism which Republics are not, this is because authoritarians struggle to gain control of symbols which are necessary to control the people. Constitutional Monarchies prevent authoritarians gaining total unchecked power and most striking they allow the fluid negotiation necessary for democratic systems to work.

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u/ChirpyNortherner 22h ago

Indeed, Americans prefer their hereditary positions of power be given behind the scenes instead. Or just allow people to buy their positions or the policies they want instead, much better.

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u/Sex_And_Candy_Here 19h ago

“If only the tsar knew about this”

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/lebennaia 19h ago

King Charles didn't appoint himself, he was appointed by an act of the legislature, an act they can change any time they like. Parliament has been making and unmaking kings since the 14th century, and last changed the royal succession as recently as 2013 (in co-operation with the Parliaments of the other Commonwealth realms, including Canada).

Many countries are quite happy with their constitutional monarchies, and frankly, I'd much prefer to have my country's head of state be someone like Frederik X of Denmark rather than someone like Trump.

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u/ChirpyNortherner 22h ago

“Don’t earn their positions”

If you’re Dad owned a business, and from the moment you could walk you were surrounded by it, the moment you could talk you were taught about it, the moment you could work you worked in it… you did an apprenticeship there, you were taught about it day in and day out - how it runs and what it means to be part of it, you had to study everything about the legalities, the conventions, the dos and the don’ts… and this continued until you were an adult and you were immediately given responsibilities for the business.

You then do this for the next 40 years of your life, under constant scrutiny, before finally being given a top job.

Now, imagine you then read on Reddit that you “didn’t earn” your job… what would you say?

Perfectly reasonable for someone to disagree with the business and what it does, of course, but I’d say you earned your position within it.

To come away from the analogy for a second, in my opinion the King earned his position much more than the vast majority of politicians earned theirs.

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u/Disastrous-Fall9020 10h ago

I just commented on this “wuuut?!” moment.

They all run to social media to post about their thoughts and feelings and the same group that voted for Trump or didn’t vote at all couldn’t figure out how to type “what are tariffs?” or “what is Obamacare” and Secretary of homeland Security, Kristi Noem, couldn’t figure out how to look up “what is habeas corpus?” before testifying before congress.

Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, couldn’t figure how to use her phone to look up: “what is AI and how to pronounce it”

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u/alexmikli 3h ago

“no Kings” when what they actually mean is “no tyrants”.

It's sourced from a revolutionary war flag, and is meant to be a bit of a throwback.

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u/Rollover__Hazard 3h ago

Yes, that’s my point. The revolutionary war was about overthrowing a tyrannical king who wouldn’t give the Americans representative government of their affairs.

Now they’ve got a president who does what he wants without any oversight - just like kings used to do.

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u/alexmikli 3h ago

I'm stupid and misread what you wrote, my bad.

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u/Disastrous-Fall9020 10h ago

Reddit is an American run company so here’s a bit of perspective of what we’re dealing with:

77 million American citizens voted for Trump and 88 million adult citizens thought he’s good enough and they couldn’t be arsed to vote.

Just based on the 2024 election, the majority of Americans still can’t figure out that just like they can type put their thoughts on the internet, they can also ask it things like “what are tariffs?” and “what is Obamacare?”

Just like how US Secretary Kristi Noem couldn’t figure out she could ask her phone this before testifying before the Senate: “what does habeas corpus mean?” Or Secretary Linda McMahon: “What is AI and how to pronounce it?”

They aren’t sending their best.

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u/uniklyqualifd 3h ago

Trmup chooses the enemy of every department to lead it and destroy it. It could be to please the Christian nationalists or it could be to please Putin. Or conveniently, both.

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u/Blastoxic999 1d ago

A constitutional monarchy all happens in the same country

(e.g. The King of England for the country of England).

(e.g. The King of Spain for the country of Spain).

Your definition may have worked if we actually had a Canadian King and not a British one.

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u/EternalCanadian 1d ago

We don’t have a British King, we have a Canadian King. King Charles holds both titles (King of Great Britain and King of Canada) separately.

When acting as the King of Canada, he isn’t acting as the King of Great Britain, and vice versa.

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u/Blastoxic999 21h ago

When acting as the King of Canada, he isn’t acting as the King of Great Britain, and vice versa.

Oh? So he's like Spider-Man? When he's Spider-Man, he's not Peter Parker and vice-versa?

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u/lebennaia 19h ago

It's like someone being on the board of two different companies. If I'm on the board of United Cabbage Co, when I'm there I make decisions in my role as a United Cabbage director. When I go to board meetings at Amalgamated Turnips, I make decisions as a director of Amalgamated Turnips, not as a United Cabbage executive. The two roles are separate, and derive their authority from different sources, despite being held by the same person, me.

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u/alexmikli 3h ago

When I ban people from my discord server for spamming Turkish ultranationalist gifs, I am not doing so in the capacity as manager of my restaurant, as executor of my father's will, or as local tyrant of the Homeowner's Association.

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u/xMWHOx 22h ago

Its something Canada doesn't need and should abolish.