Transmute Jun
Queen of the Bird Missiles
I am a Swan.
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Registration Date: 04-04-2007
Posts: 20978
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16-04-2011 22:58
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lborgia88
Gatchamaniac
I am a Condor.
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Registration Date: 27-06-2007
Posts: 5991
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 I confess, that would be rather more entertaining, in many respects, than what I'm likely to see when I haul myself out of bed at an obscenely early hour (for me) on April 29 to watch the real thing.
Having to be in a wedding on that scale, with that much fuss and media attention, would be a nightmare for me, but I enjoy watching other people, who are not me, do it. (But then, if I ever got married, City Hall on a Tuesday morning would be my plan...)
For all that monarchy seems pretty irrelevant now, I can still respect the visible symbols of ~1000 years of more-or-less institutional/political continuity. Not too many places have that. Plus, growing up in Canada, there was more emphasis on it, though it's lessened over the years, I believe. All through elementary school, I remember there always being a formal picture of Queen Elizabeth in the classroom, usually above the blackboard. My mother even let me skip an afternoon of school in grade 7 to go with a friend and her mother into Halifax to watch Prince Charles and Diana plant a ceremonial tree on the Halifax Common.
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18-04-2011 04:25
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lborgia88
Gatchamaniac
I am a Condor.
0 fics uploaded
Registration Date: 27-06-2007
Posts: 5991
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| quote: | Originally posted by amethyst
| quote: | Originally posted by Transmute Jun
Interestingly, in Canada, people seem more informed about the royal family, but in the US, people are less informed, but more interested! Weird... |
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I wonder if that has something to do with the fact Canada, while independent, still considers itself under the monarchy, but the US completely severed all governmental ties?
We're curious, but it doesn't affect us type of thing. |
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It is a bit different. Unlike the US President, the Prime Minister of Canada is not, technically, the head of state -that's Queen Elizabeth. Except she's represented in Canada, by a stand-in known as the Governor General (currently David Johnston). However, the Queen always appoints as Governor General the person recommended by the Prime Minister, and the Governor General always signs off on any legislation that's passed the House of Commons and the Senate.
On occasion, the role of the Governor General gets more interesting-and-less-ceremonial...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%...mentary_dispute
At any rate, I guess there's always a dim awareness, in Canada, that the British Royals are, albeit very distantly, a part of the overall governmental structure. And the Queen is on every coin, after all.
This post has been edited 2 time(s), it was last edited by lborgia88 on 21-04-2011 at 00:35.
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19-04-2011 17:33
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littlewolf
Forum God
I am an Owl.
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Registration Date: 10-04-2010
Posts: 1009
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Hopefully this one is about love...and not about alliances and politics.
Now that I am pretending to be a mature adult (sometimes) I understand that (my opinion) his mothers marriage seemed to be more about politics, it's an age old traditions to cement alliances between different families and countries (been around for centures and still is used), stengthen ties and produce heirs, from an outsider view it may seem cold and calculating, but, it is what it is and for the most part it seems to work (as long as both parties know what it's about in the first place), ...duty to family and country...(shades of Gatchaman... duty befor personal needs)
But..then there was Edward VIII who abdicated in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson a divorced American, they stayed married for about 35years till his death separated them..nice to think sometimes love wins out on duty
Anyway as an Aussie I like the fact that we are still part of monarchy (my opinion, this is always a hot potato subject over here), we are still a fairly young country( 1770s), still have a lot of growing to do , and even though we are a fairly large country we are isolated by water and have limited resources, infrastructure and limited amount of living space, so can't hold a very large population (it's hard to live in the middle unless you have UBER great survival skills, mostly desert and little water or shelter and our citys are outgrowing out infrastructue at a very fast rate, the Brissy floods were a good example of this)
Anyhow (my opinion) I'm not ready to be a Republic, (have yet to hear a good reason for this or what the impact will be) I love my Flag, my official nation anthem and the unofficial ones, this country, these people, Kiwis, Taswegian and the "she'll be right" attitude we have.
I may not have my eyes glued to the telli, but I'll be channel surfing to the ceremonly between adds.
..end small rant...
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21-04-2011 02:25
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lborgia88
Gatchamaniac
I am a Condor.
0 fics uploaded
Registration Date: 27-06-2007
Posts: 5991
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Wow, that does seem odd. I suppose it's not so rare for grandparents to not have met the parents of their grandson's girlfriend-then-fiance until the wedding, but when the grandparents are the Queen and Prince Philip... you'd think they'd have met the Middletons somewhere over the past several years. I imagine that Prince Charles, at least, has met them long before this -or I'd hope so! I wouldn't be surprised, though, if the Queen had been hoping or expecting William to marry someone from a family with more "prestigious" lineage.
Then again, maybe it's possible that the Middletons are determined not to be perceived as "pushy social climbers trying to ride their daughter's coattails" and have themselves avoided chances to meet them.
Now that I think about it, no one in my family has ever met anyone in my BF's family, though he's met my family and I've met his. Though that's largely due to geographical distance. Guess it would take a wedding to bring it off!
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by lborgia88 on 22-04-2011 at 15:45.
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22-04-2011 15:43
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