In becoming an independent nation free of the tethers of the 'royal' mockery and tradition - Canadians will have to finally come up with an identity and pride and yes arrogance of their own - something for which they demean all the people to the south of them....
As I've already said, the Commonwealth has NOTHING to do with the Monarchy. South Africa is a member of the Commonwealth but it is a Republic.
THIRTY-ONE members of the Commonwealth - the majority of them, in fact - are republics and so don't have Queen Elizabeth II as a Head of State. Six members of the Commonwealth -
Brunei,
Lesotho,
Malaysia,
Samoa,
Swaziland, and
Tonga - are monarchies with their OWN monarchs rather than Queen Elizabeth II.
Of the 53 Commonwealth members - one-third of all the countries in the world - , Queen Elizabeth II is only the Head of State of just 16 of them.
And there is nothing "outdated" about the Commonwealth. It is a relatively modern creation.
Here's what Wikipedia says -
The flag of the Commonwealth
Info
Head of the Commonwealth - Queen Elizabeth II
Secretary General - Don McKinnon (since 1999)
Deputy Secretary General - Rainsford Smith
Date of Establishment - 1926 (as the British Commonwealth); 1949 (as just the Commonwealth)
Number of Member States - 53 (31 republics, 22 constitutional monarchies)
"The Commonwealth of Nations (CN), usually known as the Commonwealth, is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states, the majority of which are former colonies of the United Kingdom.
The largest members (by population) - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria
The largest members (by area) - Canada, Australia, India
Commonwealth's largest military spenders - Britain - US$48 billion, India at US$21 billion,Australia at US$10.5 billion, and Canada at US$10.5 billion.
Headquarters - London
It was once known as the
British Commonwealth of Nations or
British Commonwealth, and some still call it by that name, either for historical reasons or to distinguish it from the other
commonwealths around the world.
[1] The full name,
Commonwealth of Nations, is sufficient to distinguish the Commonwealth from other commonwealths such as the
Commonwealth of Independent States or the Commonwealth of Australia.
Queen Elizabeth II is the
Head of the Commonwealth, and as such is the symbol of the free association of its members.
This title, however, does NOT imply any political power over Commonwealth member states (many of which are Republics), and does NOT automatically belong to the British monarch. In practice Queen Elizabeth heads the Commonwealth in only a symbolic capacity, and it is the Commonwealth Secretary-General who is the chief executive of the organisation.
Although Queen Elizabeth is the
Head of State of sixteen members of the Commonwealth, called
Commonwealth Realms, the majority of the members of the Commonwealth have their own, separate Heads of State: thirty-one members are
Commonwealth republics and six members have their own monarchs (
Brunei,
Lesotho,
Malaysia,
Samoa,
Swaziland, and
Tonga). These members still recognise the Queen as Head of the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth is primarily an organisation in which countries with diverse economic backgrounds have an opportunity for close and equal interaction. The primary activities of the Commonwealth are designed to create an atmosphere of economic co-operation between member nations, as well as the promotion of democracy, human rights, and good governance in those nations.
The Commonwealth is not a
political union, and does not allow the
United Kingdom (UK) to exercise any power over the affairs of the organisation's other members.
Every four years the Commonwealth's members celebrate the
Commonwealth Games, the world's second-largest
multi-sport event after the
Olympic Games.
[edit] Membership
World map of the Commonwealth of Nations as of 2006. Current member states are coloured blue (wouldn't it be good if they were pink?).
The Commonwealth comprises 53 countries, almost a third of the world's countries, and has a combined population of 1.7 billion people, about a quarter of the world population.
[4] The total GDP is about
US$7.8 trillion (about 16% of the total world economy). The land area of the Commonwealth nations is about 12.1 million
square miles (about 21% of the total world land area).
The four largest Commonwealth nations by population are
India at 1.1 billion,
Pakistan at 159 million,
Bangladesh at 141 million, and
Nigeria at 137 million.
The three largest Commonwealth nations by area are
Canada at 3.8 million square miles,
Australia at 3.0 million square miles, and
India at 1.2 million square miles.
The four largest economies are
India at US$4,300 billion, the
United Kingdom at US$2,000 billion,
Canada at US$1,220 billion, and
Australia at US$700 billion based on purchasing power parity analysis; see
List of countries by GDP estimates for 2007 (PPP)
The largest military spenders are the
United Kingdom at US$48 billion,
India at US$21 billion,
Australia at US$10.5 billion, and
Canada at US$10.5 billion. The Commonwealth of Nations is not a military alliance. see :
List of countries by military expenditures
Tuvalu is the smallest member, with only 11,000 people.
Flags of the members of the Commonwealth near
The Mall, next to the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London.
Membership is open to countries that accept the association's basic aims and have a present or past constitutional link to a Commonwealth member. Not all members have had direct constitutional ties to the UK: some South Pacific countries were formerly under Australian or New Zealand administration, while
Namibia was governed by South Africa from 1920 until independence in 1990.
Cameroon joined in 1995 although only a fraction of its territory had formerly been under British administration through the
League of Nations mandate of 1920–46 and
United Nations Trusteeship arrangement of 1946–61. There is only one member of the present Commonwealth that has never had any constitutional link to the British Empire or a Commonwealth member:
Mozambique, a former
Portuguese colony, was admitted in 1995 on the back of the triumphal re-admission of
South Africa and Mozambique's first democratic elections, held in 1994. The move was supported by Mozambique's neighbours, all of whom were members of the Commonwealth and who wished to offer assistance in overcoming the losses incurred from the country's opposition to white minority regimes in
Rhodesia (now
Zimbabwe) and South Africa. In 1997, amid some discontent, Commonwealth Heads of Government agreed that Mozambique's admission should be seen as a special case and not set a precedent."
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Some conspiracy theorists believe that the British Empire didn't disappear but is still around and the Commonwealth is a way of masking it. That's a nice thought to believe.
