Ummm…so, what does Prince Andrew have to do with Canadian government? What official role exactly, does he play in Canadian politics? Oh. None? Ok.

So, who the fuck cares, then? This loser has all but been completely disowned by the Royal family, anyway.

Whenever royals visit Canada, the government pays millions in security costs, travel, lodging, etc.

Is that cheaper then the Canadian Mint re-issuing new bills and coins without the King and Queen on them?

We wouldn’t have to pull the old bills and coins out of service. Just for a new design for new ones.

We also pay millions in security costs when we host lots of foreign government people. The hosting of the g7 summit this year cost us what, $600 million?

Keeping that connection to Europe alive (especially right now) is well worth the cost in my opinion.

What official role exactly, does he play in Canadian politics?

In explicitly politics? Not much. But as a royal dignitary, he’s entitled to a host of benefits reserved for the Monarch and their representatives.

While Canada might not pay money directly to the monarchy, the country’s ties to the House of Windsor could cost taxpayers more than $58.7 million annually.

The $58.7 million would not cover more recent costs to taxpayers, like then-Prince Charles’ three-day visit to Canada in May 2022, which totalled at least $1.4 million or more.

…

In 2022, the Canadian government also spent nearly $400,000 on hotel rooms during the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II; a figure that included a luxurious $6,000-a-night river-view suite for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife.

Governor General Mary Simon, who is the monarch’s representative in Canada, racked up an over $80,000 catering bill with her entourage during a March 2022 trip to the Middle East that reportedly cost more than $1.3 million, according to the National Post. The newspaper also reported that Simon’s first official overseas trip to a German book fair in Oct. 2021 fair cost taxpayers over $700,000.

Other recent monarchy-related costs have still not been released, or are not yet available, like those associated with the RCMP giving a horse to King Charles as a gift in March, as well as costs tied to sending a Canadian delegation to the King’s upcoming May 6 coronation ceremony. In 2022, Canadian taxpayers also bankrolled Platinum Jubilee celebrations to mark Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne, which included a $187,500 grant to the Monarchist League of Canada to distribute 70,000 educational booklets. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society has received $257,000 in similar educational funding to celebrate King Charles’ coronation.

As brother to King Charlies, whose personal incomes were estimated at around £20 million/year as of 2023, its safe to assume he’s influential purely based on his enormous personal fortune. How much of a role a second-son to a British Billionaire actually plays is always up for debate. Andrew’s a notorious fuck-up and moron, so you’d like to think he doesn’t play a significant role in UK-Canadian relations. But Canada’s got its own crop of idiots and assholes - several also tied up in the Epstein scandal. So who is to say what he’s been up to behind the scenes?

To remove the monarchy from our system would require opening up the constitution, which is opening up a huuuuge opportunity for problems. The benefits aren’t worth the risk, especially in today’s political climate. We don’t need a Brexit level fuckup because the average person is easy to sway with fear mongering and racism.

They’re figureheads and effectively have zero power over Canada, why get rid of them?

And that money would just be spent on the new head-of-state instead, if we decided to get rid of the monarchy.

(Don’t suggest making the Prime Minister the head-of-state, even as a joke. Combining the legislative and executive branches is Not A Good Idea.)

Our symbolic ties to the monarchy are useful when facing annexation from the south. Can we not rightly denounce child predators without jettisoning one of our only lifelines on principle?

We already have a Governer General, we wouldn’t even be changing any structures. Just removing the symbolic power and giving it to the Governer General to begin with.

The Mint does not produce notes, only coins.

You can denounce whoever you want just remember who his friends are

He is buddies with Carney Right?

Sure. If attending a single dinner party back in 2014, makes them “buddies”.

Except that that opens an even larger can of worms.

Currently, the GG is selected on the PM’s recommendation. We’ve gotten away with that so far because there’s a disinterested party staring over the PM’s shoulder in the form of the monarch (reducing the chance of really dodgy recommendations) and because no PM has yet run off the rails the way Trump is doing down south.

In every government decision except the selection of the GG, the GG is the disinterested person staring over the PM’s shoulder. Even if they don’t normally exercise any power, I don’t want a position that could act as a check for the PM being decided on by the PM. So we then have to move to some other method of selecting the GG. The most usual method in other countries is by holding a separate election, but that immediately pisses a huge amount of money down the drain. And that’s without dragging in the constitutional amendment considerations.

I’d rather just spend a trivial (on national budget scales) amount of money on the monarchy and keep the worms firmly enclosed in their cylindrical metal containers, thanks very much.

And where was his first trip after becoming PM? What does his brother Sean do? Oh…?

I’m downvoting you not necessarily because I disagree but because this “source” (Facebook post of headline screenshotted with no URL) is horrendous

The UK caved to the US basically immediately. Hardly a reliable ally in this. They picked the US as besties over us, which should not really surprise. The financial ties of London and New York are stronger and far more alive in 2025 than the old Commonwealth ties of Canada and the UK, not to mention their security and intelligence ties.

And this one