Prince Charles Montreal Visit: Greeted by Protesters

Excellent sentiments, Barbara, and I agree with you, though I feel I must point out a) that the constitution was patriated, not REpatriated, since it had not been in Canada in the first place, and b) it is the Canadian Monarchy, as well as the British one. The Queen, as a sovereign, does not carry a passport, and is not therefore confined to British nationality.

Dear Guims,   Speaking as an Irish Catholic, who might have far more to complain about historically, it seems taht some Quebecois need to grow up. Ever since, int he `Quiet Revolution',  Quebec `caught' anti-clericalism and republicanism from their metropolitan homeland (which hasn't cared much for them over the centuries), their birthrate has plummetted and their numerical/electoral capacity to secede is consequently eroding dramatically - sometimes you get what you wish for, but in ways you had not foreseen! You need to discover the true patriotism and Francophone dignity of General Georges Vanier, who did not regard his French heritage as having been diminished one jot by his fervent loyalty to Sa Majeste Elizabeth II. Remember all those great Quebec parliamentarians who had no problem with combining their provincial pride with being loyal to the Crown. The Van Dous - Royal 22nd Regt embody this. Their and the provincial motto, `Je me souviens', recalls, contrary to Quebecois anglophobes, the lines: `I remember that though I was born under the lily (of the Bourbons), I flourished under the rose (of England)'. No intelligent person outside Quebec or Canada regards them as being anything other than independent and sovereign, and that was the case long before 1982. Becoming a republic wouldn't make you any more independent or even stable - look at your erstwhile metropolis: since 1789, five republics, two restorations, two Napoleonic empires and a collaborationist regime. No wonder the old joke about the French schoolchild who asks the local library for a copy of the Constitution, only to be told: `We don't stock periodicals'! France is schizophrenic about its past and not only the Vichyite legacy; are they the France of Charlemagne, Joan of Arc and St Louis? Or of Marianne and those silly 1789 they've consitently fallen short of with murderous results. It would be a pity if Quebec too dislocated itself from its history and traditions, based on similarly silly notions. Constititional monarchies are grown up and ( as Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Spain illustrate), but republics (i.e most of the tinpot dictatorships around the world) are murderously childish.  Returning however to your anti-clerical birthrate, however; that will most likely take care of separatism very peacefully! Daniel