You can’t tell the story of Canada without the Crown.
From this place here on the shores of the Niagara River, and other such places across the continent, the Crown was rooted in this land – it is an institution that is not only embedded in our Treaties, but also Canada’s democratic institutions, and countless other aspects of our day-to-day lives. The social, political and cultural landscapes of this land for the past 500 years are inextricably linked with the Crown – the evidence of this can be found in visible examples from street signs to military cap badges, Royal Visits to Royal Commissions, but there are also the unseen aspects of the institution, Dr. David E. Smith, an expert on the subject, characterized as The Invisible Crown.
During her historic installation speech as Canada’s first Indigenous Governor General, Mary Simon remarked that her role as the Queen’s Federal Representative was
to hold together the tension of the past with the promise of the future, in a wise and thoughtful way.
So let’s take look at the Crown in this land in a thoughtful way and see what we can learn about our country – both its tensions and its promises.