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Poll: Most will ignore the coronation, back a Canadian republic

More than two-thirds of Village Media readers polled this week said they had no plans to watch King Charles's coronation. And a small majority say they'd vote in a referendum to make Canada a republic, if that question was on the ballot
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Britain's King Charles III inspects the 200th Sovereign's parade at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, in Camberley, England, Friday, April 14, 2023. Nova Scotia will mark the coronation of King Charles III with a series of events in Halifax that include a garden party, a flag-raising ceremony and the unveiling of the King's portrait. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dan Kitwood/Pool Photo via AP

More than two-thirds of Village Media readers polled this week said they had no plans to watch King Charles's coronation.

And a small majority say they'd vote in a referendum to make Canada a republic, if that question was on the ballot. 

In an equivalent British poll about watching the coronation, 46% said they planned to tune in. But for us, live coverage starts at 4 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, so possibly this is part of the issue.

Saturday's coronation will be the first event of its kind in 70 years. Queen Elizabeth II's 1953 coronation was one of the first live TV events to be shown to a large audience. 

In general, readers in northern Ontario have less interest in the coronation:

 

You don't vote for kings, Monty Python reminded us, but what if we could?

In a separate poll this week, we asked you how you would vote if Canada held a national referendum on the future of the monarchy. A modest majority, about 56%, said they'd vote for Canada to become a republic. 

That's in line with conventional polls, which show about a third of Canadians favour keeping the monarchy for the long term, a number which has fallen over time. Polls in both Britain and Canada show a sharp generational difference on the issue, with few younger voters supporting the institution. 

Within Ontario, readers in northern cities were much more inclined to favour a republic:

(As a constitutional project, making Canada a republic would require the consent of both houses of Parliament and all ten provincial legislatures, a standard that is widely seen as impossible to meet. Apart from the inherent difficulty of tinkering with the constitution, and how the Crown is part of the deep wiring of the Canadian state, a comfortable majority in Atlantic Canada backs keeping the monarchy.)

 


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Patrick Cain

About the Author: Patrick Cain

Patrick is an online writer and editor in Toronto, focused mostly on data, FOI, maps and visualizations. He has won some awards, been a beat reporter covering digital privacy and cannabis, and started an FOI case that ended in the Supreme Court
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