Republics, monarchies and the old dominions (Australia).

• Author: Smith, David E.

David E. Smith is professor of political science at the University of Saskatchewan. He is also author of several books on Canadian political parties and federalism. His most recent publication is The Invisible Crown: The First Principle of Canadian Government (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995). A new work, The Republican Option in Canada, Past and Present, is currently in preparation.

These days Australians are doing more than debating whether they should become a republic. They have actually begun the process that could lead to a vote on the matter. During the first two weeks of February 1998, 152 delegates - half appointed by the federal and state governments, the other half directly elected by a voluntary postal ballot - will meet in Canberra to seek a consensus on the question whether Australia should become a republic. If the people's convention so decides, and also agrees on a republican model and a timetable, a referendum will be put by the end of the year 2,000, that is, on the eve of the country's centenary.

Whether the convention will reach the necessary agreement and whether the electorate will endorse what is decided upon is far from certain at this point, although a week following the death of the Princess of Wales, support for republicanism had reached an all-time high of 54 percent (an increase of five percent in three months). Later in September, Sir Zelman Cowen, constitutional scholar and a former governor general, declared his support for a republic in a major lecture at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. The pendulum seems to be moving toward change.

Thus Australians are doing more than talking about severing their last link with Great Britain. But even if that were all, they would still be some distance ahead of their Canadian cousins. Except for proposals in 1978 (as part of an aborted constitutional amendment package) to domesticate the position of governor general by naming its holder the First Canadian and conferring on him or her all the prerogatives, functions and authority belonging to the sovereign in respect of Canada, Canadians have demonstrated scant interest in organizing to abolish (or, for that matter, retain) the Crown. The Crown remains untouched by the constitutional investigation and introspection of the last three decades. Only the Globe and Mail's quixotic editorial support for a republic at the end of the present Queen's reign, with the 150 Companions of the Order of Canada acting as a...