Will Canadians Be Done With The Monarchy Once Prince Charles Takes Over?
However you feel about the British royal family and the monarchy in general, everyone seems to at least agree that they like the queen. But Prince Charles, her son and presumed heir to the throne? Well, maybe not so much.
In case you've somehow missed the explosion of royal family and Princess Diana content in all forms of media, you should know that Prince Charles is one of the least popular members of the royal family worldwide (via The Daily Beast, who reported on a survey showing that most Britons would prefer Prince William to become king, and The New Yorker). He was the one who cheated on Princess Diana with Camilla Parker Bowles, for one thing. And after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, it was pretty widely speculated that he had been the one to comment on their future son's potential skin tone.
As far as Canada's involvement with the monarchy goes, it's a little complicated and certainly strange, but here are the basics. Canada is part of the British Commonwealth, meaning that it's not part of the United Kingdom officially, but Queen Elizabeth is still the official head of state. The question is: If Prince Charles does become the king, will Canadians decide to just yeet the whole monarchy thing altogether?
Canadians don't seem to like Prince Charles
Well, according to a new poll of Canadians as reported in Yahoo News, Canada's interest in the royal family is mostly Queen Elizabeth-specific. The poll showed that 55% of people would prefer to stay a part of the British monarchy as long as Queen Elizabeth is still around. But when asked if they would support Canada staying in the monarchy if Prince Charles became King Charles, only 34% said yes. Womp, womp.
For what it's worth, there's nothing particularly shocking about this news. Support for the monarchy has been under a lot of new scrutiny recently, particularly on this side of the Atlantic, where there is a lot of strong support for Meghan Markle. Contrast that with in the U.K., where the duchess is still regularly hammered by the press and "royal experts." That said, the monarchy probably isn't going anywhere when it comes to Merry Old England. But here in North America? We'll just have to see.