Happy Victoria Day! It is amazing how much difference a year makes. This time last May Canada was still coming to terms with what fighting Covid-19 would look like (even as New Brunswick remained an island of security) and we didn’t know when things would start looking up. But now there is light at the
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The Maple Monarchists - Blog: Marking Emancipation Day
August 1st is Emancipation Day. It is exactly 186 years since the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 received royal assent. While it is often thought that this was done during the reign of Queen Victoria, it actually went into force three years before she ascended to the throne. That said, I thought I’d share a
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: Evolution of the Right to Encourage
Walter Bagehot was a contemporary of Queen Victoria having been born after, and died before, the long-lived queen. And while Queen Victoria was the one who set about creating a greater symbolic role for the monarchy going forward, it was Walter Bagehot who codified the monarchy’s political role. Now, Mr. Bagehot would likely object that
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: The Mother of Confederation
Recently a preposterous letter was printed in the editorial section of the local newspaper. The author stated that the reason you don’t hear about Canada’s ‘founding mothers‘ is because there were none. He challenged his readers to name one. Challenge accepted. I will provide a short biography of one of them. But there are in
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: The Royals Who Wrote
Recently I’ve been in the process of de-cluttering my bookshelves of some of the hundreds of magazines I’ve bought overthe last few years. After keeping a few stacks of the moreuseful ones I’ve been selling/donating the rest. And while Ihave a good collection of books on monarchs I don’t have anyby
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Has Trudeau committed treason?’ The answer is no and the question is completely bonkers!
Donna Kennedy-Glans, by all accounts an intelligent and accomplished Alberta Conservative, recently posted and pinned a Tweet asking, “Has Trudeau committed treason?” If her intention was to grab the attention of Alberta’s chattering classes, she succeeded. If she was out for attention, though, I’m not sure she really wanted the
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Alberta’s odd tradition of naming electoral districts after former politicians
Become famous in Alberta politics and one day you could have a provincial electoral district named in your honour. It has become a custom in recent decades in Alberta for electoral districts to be named after former politicians. As far… Continue Reading →
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: China’s "Century of Humiliation" And Why It Matters.
I’m regularly astonished at the reaction I receive when I mention the militant nationalism flourishing within China’s military establishment, stoked by the perceived need to avenge what they call China’s “century of humiliation.” Few in the West have the slightest idea of how Britain and her allies suppressed the Chinese
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Ten indredibly true facts about Queen Victoria
Yay, it’s almost Victoria Day — one of my favourite holidays, mostly because it’s so necessary. For those of you who don’t live in Canada, in many provinces we celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria, Regina Atroxica, who was born … Continue reading →
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