The Canadian Kingdom: 150 Years of Constitutional Monarchy.

• Author: Brickwood, Jonathan
• Position: Book review

The Canadian Kingdom: 150 Years of Constitutional Monarchy, D. Michael Jackson, ed., Dundurn Press, Toronto, 2018, 248 pp

As a monarchist, The Canadian Kingdom had already been on my radar before I was asked to write this review. When provided this opportunity, I knew that I would have to consciously acknowledge this bias in order to provide an effective review. Coincidentally, the day after I was asked to write the review, I received an invitation to attend a book launch hosted by Ontario's Lieutenant Governor, Elizabeth Dowdeswell. I suppose my monarchical tendencies are more broadly known than I realized.

The Canadian Kingdom is, at first glance, the type of text one might find listed on a syllabus of required reading for a university course on constitutional law or political science. Yet, while it can certainly be brought into the academic realm, it is no less an enlightening read for anyone interested in the building blocks of the Canadian Constitution and the influence of the monarchy thereon. I am glad that I did not let the guise of an academic text discourage a casual read, as each essay on its own has an easy flow and structure, unlike some academic texts, and taken together the entire collection has a solid structure.

The book is divided into four parts: The Crown in Canadian History; The Crown and Indigenous Peoples; The Crown and Contemporary Canada; and, The Crown and the Realms. Each part is well and worthy on its own merits, yet when brought together here, the common thread that "[o]ur unique constitutional monarchy, the product of 150 years of thought, compromise and accident, is a fluke work of genius" (p. 22) is evident and a key concept in Part 3 of the book.

Editor D. Michael Jackson successfully assembled an accomplished field of 11 contributors, including academics, a former Lieutenant Governor, and a sitting Senator. The venerable John Fraser, long-time master of Massey College and founding president of The Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada, co-wrote the preface and contributed the final essay.

Part 1, consisting of three essays, is an interesting reflection on the development of Canada. The first essay by Barbara Messamore brings an interesting view on Confederation. She details how Canada's birth was "not a dramatic change that pivots on 1867, but continuity, the gradual evolution that has characterized Canada's constitutional history" (p. 29). Carolyn Harris set aside her royal commentary hat to...