Members of the Victoria branch of the Monarchist League of Canada are thrilled with the Queen reaching her Platinum Jubilee — even if they can’t celebrate it together at the moment.
“I think it’s a milestone for the monarchy and for Canada,” said league spokesman Bruce Hallsor.
The 95-year-old Queen, the world’s longest-serving current monarch, ascended to the throne 70 years ago today.
A flag marking the Platinum Jubilee will be raised today at Government House, and a commemorative website will be launched Monday. A special garden to honour the Queen and a time capsule are also planned at the Government House grounds.
The approximately 200 members of the local monarchist group haven’t gathered for almost two years due to the pandemic, they expect there will be a chance to celebrate the occasion later this year, Hallsor said.
“As long as we do something in the year of the jubilee, I think that’s perfectly appropriate,” he said.
“There should be some local event to mark that huge milestone and we’ll be involved, but we don’t know the details yet.”
A garden party and a citizenship ceremony are among the possibilities for Government House events, and Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin will mark the year by establishing a journalism fellowship and an arts and music award.
Hallsor said the Queen has enhanced her grace and dignity as time has gone on.
“I think the popular views of Her Majesty are much more favourable and stronger than they’ve ever been,” he said. “In terms of people’s attitudes and opinions of her, their loyalty to her, I think it’s hard to find anybody to say a bad word about her.”
In his experience, even people who aren’t monarchists “will grudgingly acknowledge that she has been a good queen,” Hallsor said.
He said polls on support for the monarchy tend to have fairly consistent outcomes.
“Generally speaking, over the last 30 years it’s been remarkably stable,” Hallsor said. “About a third of Canadians are very strong supporters of the Crown, about 10 per cent or maybe 20 per cent are [non-monarchists] and the rest don’t have strong opinions about it.”
He said he will have his own acknowledgement of the Platinum Jubilee today.
“I will privately raise a glass with my family at dinner.”
The Queen became the longest-serving monarch in Canadian and British history in 2015, passing the record set by Queen Victoria, her great-great grandmother. Celebrations in the City of Victoria included raising the Monarchist League of Canada flag at Victoria City Hall, and having O Canada and God Save the Queen played on the carillon outside the Royal B.C. Museum.
An event in Oak Bay featured a Queen lookalike and an appearance by several corgis — the Queen’s favourite dog breed — while Government House hosted a public garden party complete with a crown-making station for children.
The Queen first visited Victoria as a 25-year-old princess in 1951, just four months before her father’s sudden death would put her on the throne. Her naval officer husband Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was along for the trip. Prince Philip died last April at the age of 99.
The couple also visited during the 1994 Commonwealth Games. In 2002, during their last trip to Victoria, they went for morning prayers at Christ Church Cathedral and unveiled a stained-glass window at the legislature.
