Nathan Tidridge - Canadas Constitutional Monarchy

Canadas
Constitutional
Monarchy

Nathan Tidridge

Did You Know?

• The Queen made her first televised Christmas address in 1957, sent her first email in 1976, launched her official website in 1997, joined YouTube in 2007, started tweeting in 2009, and became a member of Facebook in 2010. The Queen also owns her own BlackBerry.
• The Queen made her first live television address in on July 1, 1957, for Dominion Day (Canada Day) while she was in the country.
• The Honourable Lincoln M. Alexander became the first member of the African-Canadian community to serve as a representative of the Queen of Canada when he was appointed lieutenant governor of Ontario in 1985 and served until 1991. Before representing the Crown, Mr. Alexander had been the first black Member of Parliament. He was elected in 1968, becoming Minister of Labour in 1979. Hamiltons Lincoln Alexander Parkway is named after its favourite son (declared the greatest Hamiltonian of all time in 2006), even though the former lieutenant governor has never had a drivers license!
• The first Commonwealth Games were held in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1930.
• The Honourable Dr. Stephen Worobetz became the first Ukrainian-Canadian to be appointed to the position of lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan in 1977.
• Prince Harry, the Queens grandson, spent thirty-three days training at CFB (Canadian Forces Base) Suffield, Alberta, in 2008.
• Even though representative and responsible government first emerged in Nova Scotia, the Legislative Assembly did not have a mace until 1928 (a gift from former Chief Justice Robert E. Harris and Mrs. Harris).
• The oldest organized sporting event in North America is the Royal St. Johns Regatta on Quidi Vidi Lake in Newfoundland. Stretching back to the 1700s, the regatta has always maintained a strong relationship with the Sovereign, including visits by Prince Albert Edward in 1860 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1978, as well as continued patronage by the provinces lieutenant governors. The event was given its Royal designation by the Queen in 1993.
• The Canadian Victoria Cross contains a mixture of several types of metals: the gun metal used in the production of the British Victoria Crosses (captured cannons from the Crimean War), metal from an 1867 Confederation Medal, as well as elements from all regions of Canada.
• Queen Elizabeth II is the first monarch in our history to celebrate a sixtieth wedding anniversary (her wedding to Prince Philip was on November 20, 1947).
• The Queens signature is Elizabeth R, the R standing for Regina (meaning Queen in Latin).
• There are six golf courses in Canada that have permission to use the Royal prefix: Royal Colwood Golf Club (British Columbia), Royal Mayfair Golf Club (Alberta), Royal Montreal Golf Club (Quebec), Royal Ottawa Golf Club (Ontario), Royal Quebec Golf Club (Quebec), and the Royal Regina Golf Club (Saskatchewan).
• Although the national golfing body rebranded itself as Golf Canada in 2010, the organization is still legally registered as the Royal Canadian Golf Association (founded in 1895 and granted permission to use the Royal prefix by Queen Victoria in 1896).
• The oldest educational institution in Canada is Universit Laval, which was founded with the permission of King Louis XIV as a seminary by Monseigneur Franois de Laval, the first Bishop of New France. Located in Quebec City, the institution was granted a Royal charter by Queen Victoria in 1852.

New Westminster Mayor Wayne Wright sets off one of the twenty-one anvil shots that make up the Ancient and Honourable Hyack Anvil Battery Salute, May 19, 2008.
Photo by Tony Fox.

• Canadas (and indeed the Commonwealths, excluding the United Kingdom) oldest chartered English-speaking university is the University of Kings College in Nova Scotia, which began in New York by Royal Charter granted by King George II in 1756. In 1802, after the American Revolution, Loyalists re-established the university in Nova Scotia (the American campus would eventually be reorganized as Columbia University).
• Every year, the Gatineau Historical Society organizes a memorial to Private Richard Rowland Thompson, who is buried at Chelsea Pioneer Cemetery. Private Thompson received one of eight scarves hand-knitted by Queen Victoria for his act of kindness during the Anglo-Boer War. Saving a severely injured man who had been shot in the throat at Paardeberg, Private Thompson was an example of the heroism shown by young men in the Queens forces.
• In 2002, frustrated Member of Parliament Keith Martin tried to remove the mace from the House of Commons. The Speaker found Mr. Martin in contempt of Parliament, and he was ordered to apologize before he could return to his seat in the House.
• The first Secretary-General of the Commonwealth was Canadian Arnold Smith in 1965.
• In New Westminster, British Columbia, the Queens birthday (a.k.a. Victoria Day) is celebrated with a twenty-one-anvil salute at Queens Park Stadium. The community once had the traditional twenty-one-cannon salute, until the military left (taking the cannons with them), and the honour was taken up by the local Volunteer Fire Department.
• In 1959, the Queen met members of the Inuit community in Stratford, Ontario. This was the first meeting in history between the Royal family and the Inuit.
• The practice of having a Christmas tree became widespread in Canada after Queen Victorias husband, Prince Albert, popularized the practice. An image of the Royal family around a Christmas tree (originally published in an 1848 edition of the London Illustrated News) was published in the United States magazine Godeys Ladys Book in 1850, which led to the custom being adopted by many Canadian and American families.
• The Right Honourable Vincent Massey, governor general of Canada from 1952 until 1959, was to become the first knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (Englands most ancient order, founded in 1348) who was not from the United Kingdom. The Canadian government did not support the appointment (citing that it went against a long policy of not allowing citizens to be given titles), and the Queen instead presented Massey with the prestigious Royal Victorian Chain.
• The Honourable Dr. Sylvia Fedoruk was not only the first female lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan (19881994), she was also involved in the development of the worlds first Cobalt 60 unit used in the treatment of cancer, as well as one of the first nuclear medicine scanning machines. A professor of oncology and associate member in physics at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Fedoruk became the first female member of the Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada in 1973. As an athlete, Dr. Fedoruk held the 1947 Canadian record for womens javelin and was a member of the 1961 Canadian ladies curling championship team.
• Every year since 1970, the lieutenant governor and chief justice of Saskatchewan co-chair a prayer breakfast attended by over seven hundred people.
• The Salish First Nation conferred the title Mother of all People on Queen Elizabeth II in 1959.
• Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley (the man credited with coming up with the name Dominion of Canada) twice served as lieutenant governor of New Brunswick (18731878 and 18851893).