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Monarchy in Ontario
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The Monarchy in Ontario is the constitutional system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of the Canadian province of Ontario, forming the core of the province's Westminster style parliamentary democracy. As the institution from which the power of the state flows, the terms Crown in Right of Ontario, Her Majesty in Right of Ontario, or The Queen in Right of Ontario may also be used to refer to the entire executive of the government of Ontario.
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Encyclopedia
The Monarchy in Ontario is the constitutional system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of the Canadian province of Ontario, forming the core of the province's Westminster style parliamentary democracy. As the institution from which the power of the state flows, the terms Crown in Right of Ontario, Her Majesty in Right of Ontario, or The Queen in Right of Ontario may also be used to refer to the entire executive of the government of Ontario. As the pinnacle of governance, the authority of the Crown in the province is symbolised through elements included in various government institutions' insignia. All official government publications are also issued by the Queen's Printer for Ontario.
Constitutional monarchy in Ontario
The Crown in Right of Ontario was established through the British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), though the governments of the previous incarnations of the province, going back to the establishment of the Province of Quebec in 1763, have been monarchical in nature, and historical links with the French and British Crowns extend back even further, to the early 1600s. Thus, there are numerous monuments and memorials to members of the Royal Family located across the province. However, though Ontario has a separate government headed by the Queen, as a province, Ontario is not itself a kingdom.
The present Canadian monarch is Elizabeth II, who has reigned since February 6, 1952; as she does not reside in Ontario, a vice-regal representative, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, is appointed by the Governor General, on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada, to carry out all the monarch's duties in the province, which include a vast number of functions and duties central to the provincial government, judicial system (including, unlike in other provinces, the Crown Attorneys), and system of honours, as well as governing provincial Crown corporations and Crown Land, and calling Royal Commissions. His Honour The Honourable David Onley is the current Lieutenant Governor, having served since September 5, 2007. The viceroy is provided a residence in Toronto (should he or she require one), but a suite of offices and venues for entertaining and ceremonies is provided at Queen's Park.
Though the Crown is central to the functioning of the government in Ontario, members of the Royal Family predominantly perform ceremonial duties when on a tour of the province, visiting hospitals, charities, schools, communities, and the like.
History
The area that is today Ontario was claimed partly by Henry Hudson in the name of King James VI and I after 1611, along the shores of Hudson Bay, and partly by Samuel de Champlain in the name of King Louis XIV after 1615, in the area of the Great Lakes. By 1627, Champlain was installed as the first Governor General of New France, which, in 1663, was proclaimed as a province of France by King Louis XIV. In an effort to boost the population of this new province, the King also sent over 600 women of marrying age to be wed to colonial men, as well as engagés (male indentured servants) who were encouraged to wed with the Natives. However, the results of the Seven Years' War and the Treaty of Paris of 1763, was the ceding, in exchange for Guadeloupe, of nearly all New France to King George III by King Louis XV. On October 7 of the same year, a Royal Proclamation laid out the policy of the King regarding his newly acquired colonies of America; the three Quebec districts were united into the Province of Quebec, with James Murray appointed as the first Governor.
The population of the province greatly increased when, during and after the American revolution, 46,000 people loyal to the Crown dubbed United Empire Loyalists fled north to the British colonies, about 10,000 settling in the southern area of the Province of Quebec, where the King granted each family 200 acres (0.8 km²) of land. At the same time, thousands of Iroquois and other Aboriginals were expelled from New York and other states, resettling in what is now Ontario, under the protection of the Crown. The descendants of one such group of Iroquois, let by Joseph Brant Thayendenega, settled at Six Nations of the Grand River, the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. Continuning today, Ontario residents descended from these original refugees retain the post-nominals UE, standing for United Empire.
Into the early 1800s, the overtaking of the Executive Council of Upper Canada by wealthy merchants led to the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837, at the instigation of William Lyon Mackenzie. Republicanism was a driving force behind Mackenzie's actions; however, most colonists did not espouse a break with the Crown, and the rebellion failed, with Mackenzie fleeing, along with 200 supporters and American sympathisers, to establish the short-lived Republic of Canada on Navy Island. Responsible government was thereafter granted by Queen Victoria, altering the naure of the Lieutenant Governor's role.
Victoria's birthday was a day for celebration in Ontario long before Confederation and the institution of Victoria Day. On May 24, 1854, 5,000 residents of Toronto gathered in front of Government House to give cheers to their queen. The city grew during her reign, and in 1860 her son, Prince Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) opened the prominent park in downtown Toronto, named for his mother, Queen's Park; he went on to see Niagara Falls, which were illuminated for the first time for his visit, rode on the Maid of the Mist, met with veterans of the War of 1812 at Queenston Heights, dedicated Brock's Monument, and visited with Laura Secord. Seven years following came Confederation, and the Lieutenant Governor of the newly created province of Ontario became an agent of the federal government, rather than of the government at Whitehall. The arrangement quickly changed, however, as the viceroy moved to become a direct representative of the monarch in the province. Queen Victoria chose Bytown, on the eastern border of Ontario, as the national capital. Toronto, however, had been the home of the Queen's Plate, which had been innagurated with Victoria's blessing in 1860, and had its first royal attendees when Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll and her husband, John Campbell, Duke of Argyll, came in 1881. Louise's brother, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, with his wife, visited Ontario in 1890, and her nephew, Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and his wife Mary, Duchess of Cornwall (later King George V and Queen Mary), travelled across Canada for two months in 1901, passing through Ontario and creating "incredible excitement seldom seen since the visit of his father in 1860." Amongst other duties, the Prince dedicated the Alexandra Bridge in Ottawa, in honour of Queen Alexandra, wife of the King.
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught arrived in Pembroke on April 14, 1906, when he was greeted by 2,500 people gathered at the Canadian Pacific Railway station, before returning to Ottawa, where, on April 17, he visited the Royal Ottawa Golf Club, moving between greens in a special electric car. His great-nephew, Prince Edward, Prince of Wales was in Ontario on a number of occasions; he travelled throughout the province first in 1919, laying the foundation stone of the re-built clock tower of the parliament buildings, opening the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, meeting with the League of Canadian Indians at Sault Ste. Marie, and taking a three day canoe trip down the Nipigon River to fish and hunt with two personal Ojibwa guides; in 1927 he, along with his brother Prince George, opened Union Station in Toronto, and dedicated the Peace Bridge across the Niagara River. Their brother, George VI, with his wife Elizabeth, was the first reigning monarch to tour Ontario; in 1939, the royal couple undertook various tasks throughout the province, including attending the Queen's Plate, and dedicating the Queen Elizabeth Way and the Rainbow Bridge, also over the Niagara River.
George VI died on February 6, 1952, and his daughter ascended to the throne as Elizabeth II. Her coronation took place in London in June of the following year, to which a number of Ontario dignitaries were invited, including Toronto Mayor Allan Lamport, Premier Leslie Frost, and Lieutenant Governor Louis Breithaupt. Elizabeth who had been in Ontario three months before her accession, attending a hockey game at Maple Leaf Gardens amongst other activities would not come to Ontario as sovereign until 1959, but returned numerous times after that. In June 1973 she was in Toronto, and, at a state dinner at the Royal York Hotel, encouraged diversity in the nation's growth and upheld the Crown as a link between "Canadian citizens of every national origin and ancestry." Four years later, the then 16 year old Prince Andrew arrived to attend Lakefield College for one year, and has maintained links with the school ever since.
In 1991, Diana, Princess of Wales, was joined by her two sons, Princes William and Henry, on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, and caused some controversy when she broke from established protocol by enthusiastically hugging the two boys after they ran up the gangplank to meet her. After performing official duties in Toronto, including a formal dinner at the Royal York Hotel, the royal family then went on to visit Sudbury, Kingston, Ottawa, and Niagara Falls, where the princes, as their great-great-great-grandfather had done, rode on the Maid of the Mist. A decade later, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, again visited Toronto and Ottawa, where his interactions with the crowds kept Prime Minister Jean Chrétien waiting for twenty minutes. It was reported that the media and public referred to Charles "almost casually" as "our future King." The following October, the Queen was back in Ontario as a part of her Golden Jubilee tour of Canada, travelling to Hamilton, Toronto, Oakville, and Ottawa, meeting Ontarians at every stop. While in Toronto she attended the celebration of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's coincidental 50th anniversary, and the Festival of Ontario at the Canadian National Exhibition, where the achievements and advancement of Ontario over the previous five decades were highlighted. Elizabeth also visited Sheridan College, where she met and lunched with animation students, and viewed their work, also dedicating the journalism building as the Golden Jubilee Journalism New Media Centre.
After forming in the same year as the jubilee celebrations, the group Citizens for a Canadian Republic (CCR) staged its first public demonstration in Toronto, at Queen's Park, and on the sovereign's official birthday, Victoria Day, in 2003. Despite attendance being sparse, the protest did garner some attention in the local and national media, and became an annual event with the theme altering each time; the first saw commemorations of the Rebellions of 1837 as a step towards a Canadian republic, then there was demand for a change to the name of Victoria Day, and then a recantation of the portion of the Oath of Citizenship where allegiance is sworn to the Queen. Regardless, in 2004 Prince Andrew, now Duke of York, returned to Toronto twice to undertake a number of duties on behalf of various organizations and Canadian Forces regiments in Ontario. First in May he was invited by Lieutenant Governor James Bartleman to meet Ontarians from different communities and ethnic groups at Queen's Park. Then in June, Andrew travelled to CFB Borden to meet with the Queen's York Rangers, of which he is Colonel-in-Chief. Dressed in Canadian Forces combat uniform, he went into the field to observe a tactical hide and address the troops. Nearly two years later, Andrew's younger brother, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, toured Ontario; the Prince visited Peterborough, Prince Edward County, and Toronto, while Sophie went to Welland to be installed as Colonel-in-Chief of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment. The two rejoined in Toronto, where they met with members of the Monarchist League of Canada and unveiled an Ontario Heritage Trust plaque for the Toronto-Dominion Centre.
Royal connections
Ontario'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
For more than 60 years the Department of Education (later the Ministry of Education) promoted homage to the monarchy and patriotism within the British Empire and, later, the Commonwealth, by setting aside one school day a year to observe Commonwealth traditions and ideals. Called Empire Day, it was observed in May, preceding Victoria Day. Teaching aids and information were issued in published Empire Day pamphlets, each issue including a message from the Minister of Education as well as specific instructions for teachers of children from kindergarten to Grade 8. This material ceased to be distributed in the early 1970s.
At various levels of education within Ontario there exist a number of scholarships and academic awards either established by, or named for, members of the Royal Family, or have a royal patronage. In 1989, the Robert T. Jones, Jr. Scholarships were established, which allowed for an exchange between the University of St. Andrews and, initially, the University of Western Ontario, and in 1996, Queen's University, was added to the program. Prince Andrew, Duke of York became the patron of the Robert T. Jones, Jr. Scholarship Foundation. Also, the Crown offers the , which awards $3500 to students who have achieved high academic standings at the high school level.
Schools across the province are also named for Canadian sovereigns, Royal Family members, or either federal or provincial viceroys.
Some other scholastic institutions with royal associations include the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, which was founded in 1886, though was constituted through royal charter by King George VI in 1947. Further, the Toronto French School is under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth II, and Prince Andrew, Duke of York, is patron of Lakefield College School, where he was a student in 1977.
Landmarks
A number of buildings, monuments and geographic locations are named for Canadian monarchs, members of the Royal Family, or federal or provincial viceroys.
Ontario has at least 47 distinct features named for Queen Victoria: one county, one township, 14 populated places, and 31 physical features. The major thoroughfare of Queen Street, in Toronto, was also named for the sovereign in 1851. Both King George VI and his daughter Queen Elizabeth II travelled, on separate occasions in 1939 and 1957, respectively, down this street in open cars to greet Torontonians.
Further on the theme of streets and highways, across the Ottawa River in Ottawa is the Prince of Wales Bridge, called such for Prince Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and the Alexandra Bridge, named for Queen Alexandra by Prince George, Duke of Cornwall (later King George V) in 1901. The largest bridge in Toronto, crossing the Don Valley, and completed in 1918, is named the Prince Edward Viaduct, after the then Prince of Wales, Prince Edward (later King Edward VIII), who visited Canada the year following the bridge's completion. Twenty years later, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, during their 1939 royal tour, dedicated the site of the Rainbow Bridge, between Canada and the United States, at Niagara Falls; a monument at the site marks the occasion. The same Elizabeth is honoured in the name of the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW), which runs between the border with the United States and the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto. Completed in 1939, Their Majesties opened the highway, were the first people to traverse its length, and dedicated the Queen Elizabeth Way Monument at the Toronto end of the route, which bears the effigies of the King and Queen, along with a St. Edward's Crown. At the base is inscribed the words:
- "The Queen Elizabeth Way was opened by the King and Queen in June, 1939, marking the first visit of a reigning sovereign to a sister Dominion of the Empire. The courage and resolution of Their Majesties in undertaking the royal visit in face of imminent war have inspired the people of this province to complete this work in the Empire's darkest hour, in full confidence of victory and a lasting peace."
The monument was moved in the mid 1970s in order to accommodate widening of the original QEW, and is now located in the nearby Sir Casimir Gzowski Park, on the east side of the Humber River; Queen Elizabeth, by then the Queen Mother, returned to re-dedicate the monument in 1989. In 1939, she and the King also dedicated the decorative stone pillars on the eastern approach to the Henley Bridge in St. Catherines, each consisting of a regal lion bearing a unique shield. The King George VI Bridge in Port Stanley is the oldest lift bridge in the province.
Parks in Ontario with royal associations include the Garden in Jackson Park, Windsor, the at Upper Canada Village, near Morrisburg, and in Niagara Falls, from which tourists view the falls. The Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park, a 335 km² park, one of the largest, least disturbed natural areas in central Ontario, located near Gravenhurst, was named after the sovereign in honour of her Golden Jubilee in 2002, as was the Golden Jubilee Park, in Haliburton. Hamilton holds Prince's Square, named for Prince Edward, Prince of Wales, who also planted a fir tree there when visiting the city in 1860. Within these parks, as well as in schoolyards, cemeteries, and private yards all across Ontario are what are known as Royal Oaks or Coronation Oaks; Oak trees grown from acorns shed from oaks in Windsor Great Park, around Windsor Castle. The first shipment of acorns came in 1936, to mark the coronation of George VI, and the same was done for the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.
Monuments to members of the Royal Family are dotted across the province. On the grounds of Queen's Park alone stand statues to King Edward VII, King George V, and Queen Victoria. Statues of King George VI stand in Niagara Falls, and one to Queen Victoria is in Hamilton. On Parliament Hill in Ottawa is an equestrian sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II riding Centennial, a horse presented to the Queen by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1977; it was the first equestrian statue of the Queen in the Commonwealth at the time of its unveiling in 1982. At that location there also stands a statue of Queen Victoria, sculpted by Louis-Philippe Hébert for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Inside the parliament buildings, over the doors to the House of Commons, are busts of Kings Henry VII and François I, the first monarchs officially considered as reigning in Canada. Along with them are depicted King Louis XIV and George II. In the Library of Parliament stands a marble statue of Queen Victoria, and a bust of her looks over the Senate Chamber from above the throne dias.
At Queenston Heights, the Brock Monument was dedicated to Major General Sir Isaac Brock by Prince Edward in 1860, and, similarly, the National War Memorial in Ottawa was dedicated by Edward's son, King George VI, in 1939; the Queen and successive members of the Royal Family have visited the national memorial whenever in Ottawa to lay a wreath and conduct a moment of silence. Elizabeth II herself dedicated Ottawa Memorial in 1959. The gate at the north end of Philosopher's Walk in Toronto was originally built at the corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road in 1901, at the instigation of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, and to commemorate the visit of Prince George, Duke of Cornwall and Mary, Duchess of Cornwall, that year. The letters on each post E and A stand for Edward and Alexandra, the reigning king and queen at the time. When Avenue Road was widened in 1960, the gate was moved to the head of Philosopher's Walk.
Also in Ontario's capital city can be found an array of buildings with names and histories associated with the Royal Family. For example, the King Edward Hotel, the Princess of Wales Theatre (named for Diana, Princess of Wales), and the Royal Alexandra Theatre, which was granted letters patent from King Edward VII entitling it to the royal designation. Its present owners believe that it is the only remaining legally "royal theatre" in North America. Where the Royal York now stands, the current hotel where the Queen and members of the Royal Family stay when in Toronto, was once the site of the Queen's Hotel, where all Victorians of note stayed, including the then Prince of Wales. The Royal Ontario Museum was granted its royal title through Order-in-Council of Lieutenant Governor John Morison Gibson in 1914, and opened by Governor General Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria. The institution has been under the patronage of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario since that date. There can also be found in Toronto the 1936 built Canada Post Station K, which bears the rarely found insignia of Edward VIII, who was King of Canada for only eleven months in 1936. In Toronto's west end is The Kingsway neighbourhood, began in the early 1900s, which contains streets such as Queen Anne Road and Kingsgarden Road.
The main ceremonial entrance to the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) grounds, Exhibition Place, is known as the Princes' Gates, named in honour of Prince Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), and his brother, Prince George, who both officially opened the gates on August 31, 1927. Earlier in the month the two opened Union Station in downtown Toronto. The CNE grounds also contain the Queen Elizabeth II Building, and the Princess Margaret Fountain.
Both King's College (later the University of Toronto) and Queen's University were founded by Royal Charter, the former in 1827 and the latter in 1841. After fire destroyed the University of Toronto Library in 1890, Queen Victoria and members of the Royal Family (including her grandson, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany) gave money for the restoration. The Toronto preparatory school Upper Canada College was also founded by Royal Charter in 1829, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, currently serves as the school's official visitor, having performed his duties as such in 1979. To celebrate the school's sesquicentennial, and again in 1994 to open the gymnasium and dedicate the new college gates at the head of Avenue Road. Sheridan College was visited by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002, whereupon she renamed the journalism building as the Golden Jubilee Journalism New Media Centre, in honour of her Golden Jubilee as Queen of Canada.
outside of Toronto, the Soldiers' Memorial Hospital in Orillia holds the Princess Elizabeth Wing. The Prince of Wales Hotel is in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and the Prince George Hotel is located in downtown Kingston, where Princess Street can also be found. Further, in Kingston, on the grounds of the Royal Military College, is Fort Frederick, named for Frederick, Prince of Wales.
Organizations
Organizations in Ontario 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. For example, Princess Margaret Hospital in downtown Toronto is named for Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, and was under her patronage until her death in 2002. Anne, Princess Royal, now serves as patron. Similarly, Women's College Hospital was under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Royal events include the Prince of Wales Stakes in Fort Erie, and the Queen's Plate and Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto.
See also
External links
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