Posted by Peter G
on September 14, 2009, 11:08 am, in reply to "Re: The "Country" and The Flag"
99.249.151.82
I think this is genuinely at the heart of the problem. Canadians live immersed in the American frame of reference; in the US national mythology, monarchies and empires are evil, and the metaphors for the state are highly abstract, like a document or a flag. In British and old regime French traditions, the state is human and tangible.
The worse aspect of adopting an abstraction like the "flag" is that only the most 'Americanized' minority would actually accept it - although some people might genuinely be uncomfortable with monarchy, there is no other tradition that could take its place with any kind of legitimacy. It would mean the loss of a centuries-old institution leaving only a vacuum behind.
Responses: