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Member of Parliament

John Williamson

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of Parliament
  • Conservative
  • New Brunswick Southwest
  • New Brunswick
  • Voting Attendance: 66%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $123,506.39

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 96 - Sep/15/22
Mr. John Williamson (New Brunswick Southwest, CPC)
  • Sep/15/22 5:38:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, in 1947, on the occasion of her 21st birthday and while on a world tour with her family, the future Queen Elizabeth II delivered a radio address to the entire Commonwealth of Nations and said: I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. I think we can agree that Her Majesty was true to her word. Throughout her remarkable 70 years as Queen, and it was a long life to be sure, she was fully devoted to the service of her many subjects. This includes that vast majority of Canadians born after 1952 who had never known another head of state. Her death last week at the age of 96 is a time for profound sadness and respect. Every Canadian has some sense of connection to the Queen, whether fleeting or profound. That is because she was always there for us. While we all understood that she had an entire Commonwealth to serve, many of us, including me, like to think that we were her favourite, such was the deep connection she formed with Canada. Queen Elizabeth often said she had to been seen to be believed, and so she worked tirelessly to ensure that she was indeed seen and believed by her public. Her 22 state visits to Canada include many of the most momentous occasions in the life of our country, including the centennial in 1967, the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, and the repatriation of our Constitution in 1982. Some visits had unusual twists, like when Her Majesty visited my home province in 1984, and marijuana was found in our premier's luggage in the royal plane. Obviously he did not know how it got there, and a judge even speculated that a member of the media had planted it. It was all a royal fuss, and I am sure many MPs from other provinces have similar colourful stories about the Queen, pot and the RCMP, or maybe not. Be that as it may, the Queen's experience allowed her to see how we see ourselves. In 2010, on her final visit to our shores, she said, “This nation has dedicated itself to being a caring home for its own, a sanctuary for others and an example to the world.” The durable relationship between the monarch and her public was the direct result of the Queen's duty and devotion to public service. While these qualities often seem in short supply today, our Queen had them in vast, seemingly limitless quantities. Her sense of duty alone is reason to greatly mourn her passing. Our Queen served a role of even greater significance than her own personal dedication to public service. I refer here to the role she played in preserving and protecting our remarkable democratic constitutional monarchy. While our system is greatly preferable to a republic, it nonetheless requires an astute but apolitical monarch to function properly. The Crown must be dedicated to defending the public interest without ever imperilling the natural course of the elected government. She must reign without ruling. Doing so requires a delicate balancing act of tradition and modernity, tradition because Canada's current system of government dates to the earliest stirrings of our country. From the Royal Proclamation of 1763 to the founding of New Brunswick in 1784, a date of particular significance for my constituents, to Confederation in 1867, Canada has grown and thrived under our living constitutional monarchy. In her interactions with the public and the pomp that surrounded her, the Queen offered repeated reminders of our connection to our institutional foundations, our long democratic traditions and our cultural ties to other Commonwealth nations. However, critics who claim the Crown is too focused on tradition and is an antique institution resistant to change have overlooked the many ways in which Queen Elizabeth was responsible for the remarkable reforms to the institution she embodied. From embracing new forms of communication to recognizing the revolution in modern relationships, the Crown has changed with the times. Members will recall that the very reason Elizabeth became the Queen was that her uncle King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 because, at the time, it was unthinkable for a monarch to marry a divorcee. Today, her son Charles takes the throne with Queen Consort Camilla as his wife. Was the Queen hidebound? Hardly. In all that she did, Queen Elizabeth exemplified a classically dignified approach to change. She worked tirelessly to defend the institution she represented while recognizing the need for its slow and measured evolution in line with public expectations. The seamless ascension of King Charles III should be seen as a final testament to Queen Elizabeth’s commitment to the institution of constitutional monarchy. There was never a moment of confusion in the entire process. In fact, it happened before most of us even realized it, and it is happening still as bonds deepen, which is the remarkable authority of the Crown. Finally, all Canadians can take great comfort in knowing that, as soon as he took his place, King Charles made direct reference to his mother’s own historic pledge from 75 years ago. He said, “That promise of lifelong service I renew to you today.” Such a commitment is exactly what Canadians have, need and expect from their monarch. The virtues of a head of state of discretion, dignity and duty have been passed from mother to son, from Queen to King. Queen Elizabeth’s ultimate and most lasting gift was to ensure her long years of work to safeguard that the continuity and stability of our constitutional monarchy will continue far into the future. On behalf of my constituents, I recognize all that Her Majesty has done for this great country of ours. I thank our Queen Elizabeth. Long live the King.
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