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Close call (lemmy.ca)
submitted 4 days ago by theacharnian@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

That seems like a great reason to not like the guy. He takes our money whenever he visits. If I visit another country they don't pay for anything.

The monarch visits about once a decade. The King came by for 2 days recently to open Parliament. The last visit by a monarch before that was a 1 week visit by the Queen in 2010. One estimate I've seen is that the entire funding of anything Royal in Canada, including every expense related to the Governor General amounts to about $50m/year. That's about 0.01% of the Federal Budget. If Canada had a president (even a ceremonial one) instead of a Governor General those costs would barely change. A ceremonial president would cost roughly the same. Germany has a largely ceremonial president and his office costs the country 30m euros per year.

Basically, the amount spent on the royals / the governor general is tiny compared to the entire federal budget. Is it worth it? Who knows. The GG basically acts as an ambassador for the country and I'd argue many of them have been useful, and that's where almost the entire royal-related budget goes.

If Canada decided to switch to a republic without even a ceremonial president, the cost of that change would be equivalent to decades worth of spending on the GG / royals.

"Soft power" is another term for influence, so the king still has power.

Yeah, but so do TikTok influencers.

this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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