Everything about The Monarchy In British Columbia totally explained
The
Monarchy in British Columbia is a legal entity formally known as the
Crown in Right of British Columbia, which serves as the institution from which the power of the state flows within the province of
British Columbia (BC), forming the core of the province's
Westminster system of
constitutional monarchy. The present
Canadian monarch is Queen
Elizabeth II, since
February 6,
1952, who is known within British Columbia's legal jurisdiction as the Queen in Right of British Columbia. As the monarch doesn't reside in British Columbia, a
vice-regal representative, the
Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, is appointed to carry out all the monarch's duties in the province.
The Crown in Right of British Columbia was established by an
Order-in-Council of Queen
Victoria in
1871, though the governments of the previous incarnations of the province, going back to the establishment of the
Colony of Vancouver Island in
1849, have been monarchical in nature, and historical links with the
Spanish and
British Crowns extend back even further, to the late
1700s.
Constitutional monarchy in British Columbia
headship of state isn't a part of either the federal or provincial jurisdictions; the Queen reigns impartially over the country as a whole. However, due to
Canada's federal nature, each
province in Canada, as with the
federal government, derives its authority and sovereignty directly from the one
Canadian monarch, meaning there effectively exists within the country eleven legally distinct crowns with one sovereign. Thus, British Columbia has a separate government headed by the Queen; however, as a province, British Columbia isn't itself a monarchy.
A
lieutenant governor is appointed by the
Governor General, on the advice of the
Prime Minister of Canada, to serve as the Queen's representative in the province, carrying out all the monarch's constitutional and ceremonial duties of state on her behalf. His Honour The Honourable
Steven Point is the current Lieutenant Governor, having served since
October 1,
2007.
The viceroy is provided an official residence by the Crown:
Government House in
Victoria. The building belongs to the Crown; being held in trust for future rulers, and can't be sold by the monarch. However, members of the Royal Family have owned property in a private capacity: Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, owned Portland Island, though this was offered on permanent loan to the Crown in Right of British Columbia.
The Crown in Right of British Columbia performs a vast number of functions and duties central to the provincial government, judicial system, and system of honours, as well as owning provincial
Crown corporations and
Crown Land.
Symbols
Images of St. Edward's, the Tudor, and King's Crown are visible on provincial symbols such as police badges (see the ), and the
Order of British Columbia, the latter illustrating the monarch's place as the ceremonial head of the
Canadian honours system. Portraits of the monarch are often found in government buildings, schools, and military installations. The Crown is also included on the
Lieutenant Governor's personal flag, or vice-regal
standard, visible above the shield of the
Arms of Her Majesty in Right of British Columbia, which, in turn, is surrounded by ten gold maple leafs, symbolizing the
ten provinces.
Monuments to members of the
Royal Family are located across the province, including a statue of Queen
Victoria on the grounds of the
Parliament Buildings. The foundation stone of this statue was laid by Prince
Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1919, when he visited the capital as part of a two-month tour of the country.| Royal Proclamation of Queen
Victoria, 1858}}
The
Duke of Argyll was appointed
Governor General in 1878, and he, along with his wife,
Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, traveled widely across the British North American territories. Their extensive visit to British Columbia in 1882 did much to reconcile the province to Confederation.
On July 21, 1871, British Columbia became the seventh province to join Canada, causing the Governor of the
United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia to take on the dual role of representing the sovereignty of the Crown in British Columbia, while also representing the Federal Government in
Ottawa. Five years after this date, the Governor General,
John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, and his wife,
Princess Louise, arrived in the new province and spent three months in
Victoria. The Princess proved so popular that when the Governor General announced that the awaited completion of the
transcontinental railway would pass through
Kicking Horse Pass into what has since become
Vancouver, rather than by the
Yellowhead Pass to
Bute Inlet, then Premier
Robert Beaven asked the Duke whether it would be possible for
Vancouver Island to become a separate kingdom with Princess Louise as Queen.
This situation remained in place until the passage of the
Statute of Westminster in 1931, which effectively ended the ability of the parliament at
Westminster to legislate for Canada, and started the process of the legal division of the Crown over the
Empire. By the time of the 1939 tour of Canada by King
George VI and Queen
Elizabeth, it was well accepted that the monarchs were present as King and Queen of Canada, and not King and Queen of the United Kingdom; to enforce this,
Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King accompanied the Royal couple as Minister in Waiting, and not a British minister. Thus, the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia was now seen as a direct representative of the Canadian sovereign within the province.
During that 1939 tour, the King and Queen ventured to British Columbia, where they stopped in
Vancouver,
Victoria, and a number of other smaller communities in between. The Prime Minister was enthused, stating in his diary on May 29, 1939: "The day in Vancouver was one of the finest of the entire tour," he wrote. The following day in Victoria, he wrote: "Without question, Victoria has left the most pleasing of all impressions. It was a crowning gem...."
In 1903, Lieutenant Governor
Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière was the last Lieutenant Governor in Canada to dismiss an incumbent premier from office. This occurred before
political parties were a part of
British Columbia politics. While the practice is for the Lieutenant Governor to name the leader of the that wins the most seats, the
royal prerogative of naming a premier has been important in British Columbia history. For example, after the
general election in 1952, the new
Social Credit Party and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (now the
New Democratic Party of British Columbia) each fell short in forming a majority. Despite the CCF holding one fewer seat than the SoCreds,
Clarence Wallace, the Lieutenant Governor of the day, was under pressure to call on CCF leader
Harold Winch to form the new government. The selection of SoCred leader,
W.A.C. Bennett, resulted in the start of a twenty-year dynasty for Bennett.
Queen
Elizabeth II made her first appearance in British Columbia during a coast-to-coast tour of Canada in 1951, when she was still Princess Elizabeth. Her last visit to the province was in 2002 for her
Golden Jubilee celebrations. It was during this trip that she, along with
Wayne Gretzky performed a first: dropping the ceremonial puck at the beginning of an
NHL exhibition game between the
Vancouver Canucks and the
San Jose Sharks, in front of a cheering crowd of over 18,000 people. Premier Gordon Campbell said during the visit to British Columbia: "Your Majesty, much as the world has changed in the last 50 years, one thing has always remained constant – the sincere affection between the people of British Columbia and their Queen."
First Nations and the Crown
The status of the
First Nations (aboriginal) people of British Columbia is a long-standing problem that has become a major issue in recent years. With the exception of what are known as the
Douglas Treaties, negotiated by Sir James Douglas with the Native people of the
Victoria area, no treaties were signed with the Crown in British Columbia; many Native people wished to negotiate treaties, but the province refused until 1990. A major development was the 1997 decision of the
Supreme Court of Canada in the
Delgamuukw v. British Columbia case that aboriginal title still exists in British Columbia. Two-thirds of the bands in British Columbia, represented by the First Nations Summit, are now engaged in trilateral negotiations with the Crown in Right of British Columbia and the
Crown in Right of Canada. Only one treaty, the Nisga'a Treaty (1998) has been signed in recent years, and that one outside of the current
British Columbia Treaty Process. There is considerable disagreement about treaty negotiations; many non-native British Columbians are vehemently opposed to it, while a substantial minority of native people consider the current treaty process inadequate and have therefore refused to participate.
Royal connections
British Columbia's monarchical status is illustrated via associations between the Crown and many private organizations within the province, as well as through royal names applied to a plethora of regions, communities, schools, buildings, and monuments, many of which may also have a specific history with a member or members of the Royal Family.
Communities
The Crown's presence at the most local levels is demonstrated in part by royal and vice-regal namesakes chosen to be incorporated by communities across the province. Communities with royally or vice-regally associated named include:
Education
At various levels of education within British Columbia there exist a number of scholarships and academic awards either established by or named for members of the Royal Family. The Queen Elizabeth II Centennial Scholarship was set up by the Government of British Columbia to coincide with the visit of the Queen to the province in 1971, to take part in the province's centennial celebrations. It awards one major scholarship of $60,000 and two minor scholarships of $5,000 to Masters students.
Schools across the province are also named for Canadian sovereigns, royal family members, or either federal or provincial viceroys.
Landmarks
A number of buildings, monuments and geographic locations are named for Canadian monarchs, members of the Royal Family, or federal or provincial viceroys. As well, there can be found plaques, cornerstones, trees, and statues, documenting the official visits of members of the Royal Family.
The
Queen Charlotte Islands were called such after Queen
Charlotte, wife of King
George III. On the island is the Queen Charlotte Mountain Ranges and Queen Charlotte City. Other islands include
James Island, named for the first Governor of the
Colony of Vancouver Island, Sir
James Douglas. Waterways between the islands also bear royal names, such as
Princess Louisa Inlet, named for
Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria. Branching off the inlet are Prince of Wales
Reach, named after
Prince Edward when he was
Prince of Wales; and Princess Royal Reach, named either for
Victoria, Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Victoria, or for Queen Victoria's mother,
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who was born Mary Louise Victoria. One of the highest summits in the
Pacific Ranges of the
Coast Mountains is
Mount Queen Bess, named for Queen
Elizabeth I. In the
Vancouver Island Ranges,
Mount Albert Edward is named for Prince
Albert (later King Edward VII), and
Mount George V is named for King
George V.
Mount King Edward, in the
Canadian Rockies near
Athabasca Pass, is named for King
Edward VII. Around Queen's Reach on Princess Louisa Inlet are five mountains that derive their names from children of Queen Victoria: Mount Victoria, after
Victoria, Princess Royal; Mount Albert, after Prince
Edward Albert; Mount Alice, after Princess
Alice; Mount Arthur, after
Prince Arthur; and Mount Helena, after
Princess Helena, all part of the Pacific Ranges cmoplex.
Other outdoor spaces are: Consort Park, named for Victoria's consort,
Albert; Similarly,
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught laid the cornerstone for the new Provincial Library at the Legislature. During her 1958 visit, Princess Margaret opened the new
floating bridge in Kelowna; two plaques mark the ceremony.
One mansion in British Columbia nearly became a royal palace: In 1940
Hatley Castle, near
Victoria, and built by former Lieutenant Governor of BC,
James Dunsmuir, was purchased as a residence for King George VI and his family, intended as the place the King would live out the duration of the
War. These plans fell through, however, and the
Royal Roads Military College, originally established as a replacement for the Royal Canadian Naval College, which had been closed in Halifax in 1921, moved in. It later became the combined Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force College in 1946, but was closed in 1996 due to cuts to the
Department of National Defence's budget. It is now Royal Roads University.
Royal designation, charter and patronage
Organizations in British Columbia may be founded by a
Royal Charter, receive a "royal" prefix, and/or be honoured with the patronage of a member of the Royal Family.
» Further information: Monarchy in the Canadian provinces: Royal designation, charter and patronageFurther Information
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