Dillonbuck;
Good evening to you again sir, thanks for the reply and kind words, I appreciate both.

The issue of our relationship with the monarchy is, as Steve mentioned, a thorny one to say the very least. It might, I should note, be one of the few places where most of the west and Quebec agree in that we no longer require linking to any monarchy whatsoever.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I had to go to the inner webs to ask why it is we send the money to the royal family and the official reason seems to be stated thusly, "The sovereign similarly only draws from Canadian funds for support in the performance of her duties when in Canada or acting as Queen of Canada abroad".

Again to be clear sir, it's tough for me as a western prairie born and lifelong western Canuck to get too excited about anything related to the Queen or monarchy, so all that to say it might/could be a regional thing? There is no question that I am biased against it so it's tough for me to give anything other, you know?

The interesting thing about Quebecois folks who move out of their home province is that they're not happy with the folks back home as rule either. For all the years we had horses, I think 15 or 17 - our farrier was originally from Sorel, QC and had moved first to the Ottawa Valley shoeing hunter/jumpers and then moved west to work on cow horses and mountain horses.

He was always good for a chuckle when the subject of what Quebec was up to nationally came up. He'd look at me with fire in his eyes and over a lit smoke say, "Where do dey tink the money from de Unemployment Cheque comes from? Idiots!!"

Interestingly though, when our eldest and her husband did a cross Canada trip, they had good luck in the more rural parts of Quebec as far as being made welcome, so hopefully that's changing for the better now? I don't know and can't say for sure.

Hopefully that was useful and if you think of any more questions, please feel free once again.

All the best to you all this fall.

Dwayne

The most important stuff in life isn't "stuff"