{"id":405,"date":"2022-09-20T22:59:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T22:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/?p=405"},"modified":"2023-02-17T17:17:42","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T17:17:42","slug":"on-the-heels-of-lukewarm-grief-comes-doubt-over-the-crowns-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/writing\/reportage\/on-the-heels-of-lukewarm-grief-comes-doubt-over-the-crowns-future\/","title":{"rendered":"On the heels of lukewarm grief comes doubt over the Crown\u2019s future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Mourners sign the Book of Condolences at the MacDougall Centre in Calgary on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept. 7, after a historic 70-year reign. (Photo by Iris Young\/SAIT)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With only two days left before Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s interment, the book of condolences, on display at the McDougall Centre until Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022, is seeing visitors not in droves but mere trickles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to lifelong Calgarian Josh Kavanaugh, people don\u2019t really care about the Royal Family. \u201cBut I\u2019ve come to learn that people really, really like the Queen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Josh Wong, a public servant and recent transplant to Calgary, the Queen\u2019s passing is the end of an era. \u201cIt has been quite a historic reign. There\u2019s a sense of sorrow, but it is as expected,\u201d said Wong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carmen Brockbank is not as apathetic. Supported by her husband and two daughters, the 62-year-old made the solemn trip downtown on Saturday to pay her respects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s the only queen that we\u2019ve ever had. I grew up with her being queen, so I looked up to her,\u201d said Brockbank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dismal attendance may be a harbinger of Calgarians\u2019 cooling ardour for the monarchy, particularly for the new man on the throne, King Charles III.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrankly, I don\u2019t want Charles to be king,\u201d said Brockbank. \u201cBeing that he\u2019s been divorced once and he married a divorc\u00e9e, he should not have the right to be King of England. He shouldn\u2019t have the right to be the head of the English church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy main concern is people want to move away from the monarchy, which I understand,\u201d said Kavanaugh. \u201cBut there are so many treaties with the Aboriginal people that would become null and void if we did that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, Treaty-Crown relations are a pressing concern in the succession, with Indigenous leaders expressing worry that reconciliation efforts will come to standstill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the King should focus more on reconciliation and on the whole Crown-Indigenous relationship and what we can do in promoting the betterment of basic life needs for the Indigenous community here,\u201d said Wong. \u201cAfter all, the Treaties were signed between them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI might not be completely happy with the person who\u2019s coming on the throne right now, but I think, after all, we are loyal to the system, not to the person,\u201d Wong added. \u201cI wish him well, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s book of condolences, on display at the McDougall Centre, is seeing visitors not in droves but mere trickles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reportage"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":523,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions\/523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iriswrites.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}