New poll shows lack of interest in Queen’s visit
Posted Jun 28, 2010 05:47:48 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Halifax is getting ready for a royal visit!
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh launch their Royal Tour of Canada this afternoon in Halifax.
Her Majesty will spend two days in Halifax before proceeding to Ottawa, Winnipeg, Toronto and Waterloo, Ont.
Despite the hype surrounding the monarch’s visit, a new poll suggests Canadians aren’t getting too excited.
In face, about 45 per cent of the respondents polled by Harris-Decima didn’t even know the Queen was coming.
Tom Freda of Citizens for a Canadian Republic says the poll confirms
Canadians are indifferent when it comes to the role of the Queen and her visits.
“That indicates just where Canadians’ loyalties really lie,” he said. “They just don’t care a heck of a lot about it.”
But Robert Finch of The Monarchist League of Canada says we’re just really busy, and probably preoccupied with events a little closer to home.
“We have a lot of things going on, and certain things rank higher in importance in certain people’s lives,” he said. “So it’s not a question of whether or not people support the monarchy, it’s just the reality of the live we live in today.”
Almost half of the 1,000 respondents agreed when asked if they consider
the monarchy “a relic of our colonial past that has no place in Canada today.”
Forty-four per cent said they would support a referendum on whether Canada should keep the monarchy, with 58 per cent of Quebec respondents leading the call for a national question.
The Queen arrives at Stanfield International Airport this afternoon.
She and the Duke of Edinburgh will be officially welcomed at the Garrison Grounds at 3 p.m. From there, they’ll tour a Mi’kmaq village on the Halifax Common and take in the rededication of Government House.
