. The biggest Pearls in the Crown which will undoubtedly move towards a republican form of State after the demise of the present Queen (Australia and Canada).
I'm not so sure about that. For starters, there isn't really any politically viable movement today for a Canadian republic. That might change if and when the NDP comes to power (as I suspect it is a crypto-republican party), but, again, as of today, the Canadian Conservatives are staunchly monarchist; the Liberals, although not particularly enthusiastic about the monarchy, are officially against abolishing it; and the NDP simply doesn't have an official position. Until one of the 3 major political parties embraces republicanism, I don't see it happening. And even then, there is the obstacle that, in addition to the Canadian federal parliament, all 10 Canadian provinces would have to agree with the abolition of the monarchy, which is a very high bar. Finally, a secondary, but not at all irrelevant issue, is that native peoples in many Commonwealth realms, especially First Nations in Canada (and maybe the Maoris is New Zealand?), seem to be contrary to a republic since their land claims and partial sovereignty status rest on treaties made with the Crown that would be on uncertain grounds if the monarchy were abolished.
In Australia, on the other hand, although a majority may eventually be in favor of a republic, it seems like republicans themselves cannot agree on who would replace the Queen and the Govenor General. Many republican voters actually voted against the republican constitutional amendment in the 1999 referendum because they disagreed with the proposed indirectly elected president. Politicians, on the other hand, didn't want a president elected by popular vote in a national election because they feared a French-like scenario where a partisan president with a strong popular mandate of his/her own could clash with a prime minister of another party that held a majority in the House of Representatives. In fact, a popularly elected president would substantially change the balance of power in Australian politics and the way Australia has been governed since 1901, which in turn would conflict with the "minimalist" approach taken by Australian republicans so far of bringing about a republic with minimal change to the Australian constitution. Besides, the constitutional bar for a republic is also high in Australia, where a national majority and a majority in a majority of states would be required in any referendum.
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