The current hearing in a Quebec Superior Court over how someone gets to be King or Queen of Canada is a case that monarchists, such as myself, find fascinating, but would rather not by taking place in the public spotlight.
If the court decides that the Harper government acted correctly two years ago when it changed the succession rules with a simple act of Parliament to say that Canada will do what the British do, people who think the monarchy in Canada is no more than an ongoing, unacceptable relic of our colonial past will say, “Aha!”
If the court says — as ultimately I hope it does — that the monarchy in Canada is not the same as the monarchy in Britain or anywhere else, and the succession rules for this country can only be changed in this country by a constitutional amendment requiring the assent of Parliament and all 10 provincial legislatures, we will trigger the four most paralyzing words in our political lexicon: opening up the Constitution. In this case, too, the republican hounds will be unleashed in a dreary, baying debate over whether Canada should retain the monarchy at all.