• psycotica0@lemmy.ca
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    13 days ago

    Basically, the current King is the King of Canada, and also the King of the UK, and also the King of 13 other places. So this one dude is king of many places, but there’s otherwise no connection between the governments of Canada and the UK, or Australia, etc.

    So we’re an independent nation, but in an open relationship with our monarch.

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      I don’t think I fully understand the situation. From reading that it seems that Canadian bills require royal assent to become law. Doesn’t that effectively mean that the King of England determines Canadian law? It seems there’s some obfuscation going on between the governor general and the monarch but I don’t think I’m getting how that changes things at a fundamental level.

      • owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca
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        13 days ago

        Canada has a king.

        The UK also has a king.

        They happen to be the same person.

        So the king has similar authority in both Canada and the UK (plus 12 other countries). With respect to Canada, the king is just as much Canadian as he is British (or Australian, etc). With respect to the monarchy, each realm (country) in the commonwealth is on an equal footing with each other.

        So the UK has no more bearing on Canadian law than Canada has on UK law.

      • Nautalax@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        The Governor General rubber stamps the bill passed by the Parliament. The Governor General is nominally an agent appointed by the King of Canada (who happens to be the same person as the King of the UK), but they are recommended to the king by the Prime Minister. The king similarly rubber stamps whoever the Prime Minister recommended.