OTTAWA — Until a royal tour sparks public interest — something Prince William and Catherine are about to do on a near-fanatic level — the Royal Family functions like a tasteful wallpaper pattern in Canada: enjoyable in an absent-minded way, but so ubiquitous as to be almost invisible.
From place names and currency, to commemorative plaques unveiled on long-ago royal tours, the symbolic presence of the monarchy is everywhere in Canada — which is exactly what makes many people forget about its significance.
Mail a letter and Queen Elizabeth II is likely to be on the stamp — which you can pay for with coins or a $20 bill also featuring her image. Walk into an airport, government building or school and there's probably a portrait of the monarch on the wall, though it might be a decades-old image of her younger, dark-haired self.
Visit a park or campsite and you might spend your weekend on Crown land, and you'll face the Crown in court if you run into trouble with the law — after being arrested by a police officer with the royal headgear on his badge, that is.
Chances are good that the monarchy is part of your daily commute, given that at least 228 Canadian cities have a Queen Street and 316 have a King Street (or Road or Crescent), along with countless schools, bridges, buildings and highways named for various members of the Royal Family, contemporary or long dead.
Prince Albert, Sask.; Victoria, B.C.; the Queen Elizabeth Islands in the Canadian Arctic; Charlottetown and Prince Edward Island itself: countless elements of this country bear royal names, but many of the origins have faded as they've become established parts of the Canadian atlas.
"Either we just don't pay attention to it so we don't know the connection — such as Regina, a lot of people don't know that's Latin for Queen — or if we do know, often it's seen through historical eyes, that these are streets named after a bygone era of history, colonial times," says Robert Finch, chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada.
Many Canadians are oblivious to the ubiquitous Crown as part of Canada's modern identity as a constitutional monarchy and don't know that the Queen arrives as "Queen of Canada," not an outsider, as is the case with the president of the United States, he says. Finch took to Twitter last week to point out the distinction that Will and Kate will "visit" the United States but "tour" Canada because they aren't considered foreigners here.
He says he believes the vintage of many of these symbols is to blame for the disconnect Canadians feel from "their" Royal Family: dusty portraits of a freshly coronated Elizabeth on many government walls have little connection to the white-haired great-grandmother who tours and appears in the news now.
"Before Canada Post turned monarchist, you used to get a stamp of the Queen and she had black hair," Finch says, laughing. "Where the symbols become a little more powerful or helpful in reminding Canadians about the monarchy is when they're relatively new designations and they involve members of the current Royal Family."
To that end, the world's most famous newlyweds could spark a new wave of namings and a stronger Canadian connection with the House of Windsor after their tour.
Canada Post issued stamps commemorating Prince William and Catherine's April 29 wedding and the Royal Canadian Mint — another of those nearly invisible "royal" elements of Canadian life — is doing the same with coins. Kevin MacLeod, the Queen's Canadian secretary, says he's already received a request to name a Duke and Duchess of Cambridge park somewhere in Ontario in advance of the royal tour.
"If you do a little digging, you'll see that there's a very special relationship," he says of the myriad royalty-related landmarks in Canada. "We kind of know the Crown is there, but we don't give it a lot of thought. We're surrounded by it, but on a day-to-day basis as we live our lives, are we conscious of it? I would venture to guess no."
With 60 years on the throne next year, the Queen herself has been "interwoven into the course of Canadian history" in a way that's easy to ignore, says Carolyn Harris, a royal expert and PhD candidate in history at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. — an institution established by a royal charter from Queen Victoria in a city that was the Canadian capital until she picked present-day Ottawa to replace it.
"To some degree, it's taken for granted and there isn't always such a sense of historical context of how all of this came into being," she says. "A lot of times, people only see the visible manifestations, like these tours or the Queen on our money, as opposed to how the constitutional monarchy works and the structure of the Canadian state."
Both monarchists and republicans in Canada say this apathy toward the Crown is the greatest obstacle faced by those on the other side of the debate.
With the royals soon to arrive with their megawatt star status in tow, Finch says he believes the monarchy is about to get a boost in profile in a country festooned with its symbols — even if it's only temporary.
"It kind of reminds you of having an extended family and they visit every once in a while and you have a big event and you welcome them with open arms, but you probably don't miss them throughout the rest of the year," he says.
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