[Eric]

The Queen and the monarchy is part of the British political system, in the same way that the Presidency and the President) is part of the American system. Both are democracies, and both have much more in common than most people are prepared to admit. Elizabeth ll has done her job well ... and it is as Granny Claret says, a difficult job ... she reigns but she doesn't rule; she has been a staunch figure of continuity in a troubled world. She may be a little old fashioned, but only in the sense that duty, honor, and patriotism have become old fashioned. She has put her personal interests second to the good of the country. And, by the way, she is Queen of Canada and is popular in most of the country outside of Quebec. (And even there she is tolerated rather than villified.) Our war planes still bear the logo RCAF, our ships are HMC ships, the bulk of our armed forces in Afghanistan belong to the Royal 22nd Regiment (which, by the way, is a francophone unit ... while the French in Afghanistan are repeating their heroics of 1940, the only french soldiers fighting are Canadians) supported by the guns of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, the tanks of the Royal Dragoons, and the CF-18s of the Royal Canadian Air Force.