Monarchy in Newfoundland and Labrador

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Queen in Right of Newfoundland and Labrador
Monarchy
Provincial/State
Incumbent: Elizabeth II Queen of Canada
Style:	Her Majesty
First monarch:	George VI
Formation:	March 31, 1949

The Monarchy in Newfoundland and Labrador is a legal entity formally known as the Crown in Right of Newfoundland and Labrador, which serves as the institution from which the power of the state flows within the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, forming the core of the province's Westminster system of constitutional monarchy. The present Canadian monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, since February 6, 1952, who is known within Newfoundland and Labrador's legal jurisdiction as Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Newfoundland and Labrador. As the monarch does not reside in Newfoundland and Labrador, a vice-regal representative, the Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, is appointed to carry out all the monarch's duties in the province.

The Crown in Right of Newfoundland and Labrador was established with the British North America Act, 1949 (now Newfoundland Act), though the governments of the previous incarnations of the province, going back to the unification of the Island of Newfoundland in 1638, have been monarchical in nature, and historical links with the French and British Crowns extend back even further, to the late 1400s.

Contents 1 Constitutional monarchy in Newfoundland and Labrador 2 Symbols 3 Royal presence 4 History 5 First Nations and the Crown 6 Royal connections 6.1 Communities 6.2 Education 6.3 Landmarks 6.4 Royal designation and patronage 7 See also 8 External links 9 References

[edit] Constitutional monarchy in Newfoundland and Labrador

Within the Canadian constitutional monarchy system the headship of state is not a part of either the federal or provincial jurisdictions^{[citation needed]}; the Queen reigns impartially over the country as a whole. However, due to Canada's federal nature, each province in Canada, as with the federal government, derives its authority and sovereignty directly from the one Canadian monarch, meaning there effectively exists within the country eleven legally distinct crowns with one sovereign^{[citation needed]}. Thus, Newfoundland and Labrador has a separate government headed by the Queen; however, as a province, Newfoundland and Labrador is not itself a monarchy.

A lieutenant governor is appointed by the Governor General, on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada, to serve as the Queen's representative in the province, carrying out all the monarch's constitutional and ceremonial duties of state on her behalf. The viceroy is provided an official residence by the Crown: Government House in St. John's. The building belongs to the Crown, being held in trust for future rulers, and cannot be sold by the monarch. His Honour The Honourable John Crosbie‎ is the current Lieutenant Governor, having served since February 4, 2008.

The Crown in Right of Newfoundland and Labrador performs a vast number of functions and duties central to the provincial government, judicial system, and system of honours, as well as owning provincial Crown corporations and Crown Land.

Further information: Monarchy in the Canadian provinces

[edit] Symbols

Images of St. Edward's, the Tudor, and King's Crown are visible on provincial symbols such as police badges (see the Royal Newfoundland Constabulatory badge), and the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador, the latter illustrating the Monarch's place as the ceremonial head of the Canadian honours system. Portraits of the monarch are often found in government buildings, schools, and military installations. The Crown is also included on the Lieutenant Governor's personal flag, or vice-regal standard, visible above the shield of the Arms of Her Majesty in Right of Newfoundland and Labrador, which, in turn, is surrounded by ten gold maple leafs, symbolizing the ten provinces.

Monuments to members of the Royal Family are located across the province.

Further information: National symbols of Canada  and Canadian royal symbols

[edit] Royal presence

Main article: Royal tours of Canada

Members of the Royal Family have been visiting Newfoundland and Labrador since before Confederation, either as a royal tour, a vice-regal tour, or as a "working visit" (meaning in association with a charity or military organization instead of a state affair).

[edit] History

On August 5, 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert formally claimed Newfoundland as England's first overseas colony under Royal Prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I. The territories were mostly granted to English companies, and the colonists sent under Proprietary Governors who were in the employ of British merchants; John Guy was governor of the first settlement at Cuper's Cove. The first governor given jurisdiction over all of Newfoundland was Sir David Kirke in 1638.

However, the French Crown also laid claim to nearly half of Newfoundland by the mid 1660s, and Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville almost conquering the entire island in the 1690s. Plaisance was made the capital of the French colony in Terre Neuve until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 made the area a possession of the British Crown. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary was established in 1729. After the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, the King of France ceded control of the south and north shores of Newfoundland to the King George III, keeping only the nearby islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. With the geographic remoteness of its isolated harbours and convenience of year-round access to the fish stations without having to make the bi-annual voyage across the ocean, permanent settlement by British immigrants increased rapidly by the late 18th century, peaking in the early years of the 19th century. Prince William, later King William IV, celebrated his 21st birthday as captain of the Royal Navy frigate HMS Pegasus, in the waters off Newfoundland.^[1]

In 1825 a Royal Charter conferred provincial status on the colony, and an assembly was established seven years later. Still, there was a push by the Newfoundlanders for a responsible government, akin to what had been granted by the Crown to Upper and Lower Canada. This request was granted in 1854, and thenceforth the role of the Governor changed to being one of simultaneous representative of the Crown's sovereignty in Newfoundland as well as a representative of the Imperial Government at Westminster. Some decades later, in 1860, Prince Albert, Prince of Wales travelled through St. John's on his three month tour through the British provinces in North America.^[1]

Newfoundland remained a Crown colony until acquiring Dominion status on September 26, 1907, at the same time as New Zealand, and became the Dominion of Newfoundland. However, Newfoundland did not formally finalize the process of becoming a full-status Commonwealth Realm, by not ratifying the Statute of Westminster of 1931. Thus, King George V remained King of the United Kingdom in Newfoundland and Labrador, rather than separately King of Newfoundland and Labrador. Still, the Governor of Newfoundland, like the Canadian Governor General, was considered the direct representative of the sovereign in the Dominion for the brief period before the Commission of Government in 1934.

On April 1, 1927 the long-standing dispute between Newfoundland and Canada over the territory of Labrador was settled by King George V, through Imperial Privy Council in London, establishing the current borders of the province, though the Government of Quebec continues to dispute this ruling.

King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth became the first reigning British monarchs to set foot in their Newfoundland territory. The royal couple made the brief stop on the island on their way back to the United Kingdom at the end of their 1939 tour of Canada and the United States as King and Queen of Canada.^[2]

Following unrest in the Dominion, the Newfoundland Royal Commission, headed by Baron Amulree, and its report released in 1933, assessed Newfoundland's political culture as intrinsically corrupt and its economic prospects bleak, and advocated the abolition of responsible government on the island, to be replaced by a Commission of the British Government. Acting on the report's recommendations, the Dominion gave up its self-governing status, and the Commission of Government took its place. Following World War II, the Commission held elections for the Newfoundland National Convention which debated the Dominion's future in 1946 and 1947. Two referendums resulted, in which Newfoundlanders decided, 50.50% to 49.50%, to end the Commission and join Canadian Confederation in 1949.^[3]

Sir Albert Walsh became the first Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, but this was only a temporary posting to dispel suspicions of patronage towards Leonard Outerbridge, whom the Premier favoured as Lieutenant Governor. Walsh served for only five months before Outerbridge became the King's representative in the new province.^[4] This transition removed Newfoundland and Labrador from under the sovereignty of the British Crown for the first time in the island's existence; from then to today the province has been a territory of the legally distinct Canadian Crown.

Following in the footsteps of her parents, Queen Elizabeth II became the first Canadian monarch to set foot in her Newfoundland territory in 1953. The Queen returned to the province a number of times, including her 1997 trip, along with her husband, Duke of Edinburgh, to Bonavista to see the arrival of the Matthew, as part of the re-enactment of John Cabot's arrival on the island 500 years before. The couple also travelled to Labrador, to the North West River, Shetshatshiu, Happy Valley, and Goose Bay. To commemorate 50 years since the Queen's coronation, a new portrait of Elizabeth II was unveiled at Government House at a ceremony including Premier Roger Grimes, on June 2, 2003.^[5]

“	Queen Elizabeth is the best known and the most widely travelled Head of State in the world. She has received enthusiastic support at home and, wherever she has travelled, she has won the adulation of millions. Her several visits to Canada have taken her from sea to sea to sea, and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador have welcomed her a number of times.[6]	”
— Edward Roberts, Lieutenant-Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, Government House, 2002

The Lieutenant Governor, in 2002, called the Royal Commission on Renewing and Strengthening Our Place in Canada to conduct an assessment of Newfoundland and Labrador's strengths and weaknesses, and to bring forward recommendations as to how the province could renew and strengthen its place in Canada. The commission resulted in a call for more collaborative federalism, and action on the Crown's natural resources, including fishing, hydro, and offshore oil.

Further information: History of monarchy in Canada

[edit] First Nations and the Crown

Newfoundland and Labrador's First Nations view their treaties as being agreements directly between them and the Crown, not with the ever-changing government of Canada. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 made clear that the First Nations were autonomous political units and affirmed their title to lands.

A modern demonstration of the relationship between the First Nations and the Crown was seen in 1997, when the Innu people of Quebec and Labrador presented a letter of grievance over stalled land claim negotiations to Queen Elizabeth II, rather than to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, while the two were visiting Sheshatshiu, Newfoundland and Labrador.^[7] After speaking with Tanien Ashini, Vice-President of the Innu Nation, the Queen handed the list to the Prime Minister for the Cabinet to address.

[edit] Royal connections

Newfoundland and Labrador's monarchical status is illustrated via associations between the Crown and many private organizations within the province, as well as through royal names applied to a plethora of regions, communities, schools, buildings, and monuments, many of which may also have a specific history with a member or members of the Royal Family.

[edit] Communities

The Crown's presence at the most local levels is demonstrated in part by royal and vice-regal namesakes chosen to be incorporated by communities across the province. Communities with royally or vice-regally associated named include:

Towns/cities named for Canadian sovereigns include:
Community	Named for
Georgetown	King George III
King's Point
King's Cove
Queen's Cove
Victoria	Queen Victoria
Victoria Cove	Queen Victoria
Towns/cities named for members of the Canadian Royal Family include:
Community	Named for
Charlottetown	Queen Charlotte
Other:
Community	Named for
Holyrood	Holyrood Palace, the monarch's residence in Scotland

[edit] Education

Schools across the province are also named for Canadian sovereigns, royal family members, or either federal or provincial viceroys.

Schools named for Canadian sovereigns include:
School	Location	Named for
Queen Elizabeth High School	St. Edwards	Queen Elizabeth II
Schools named for members of the Canadian Royal Family include:
School	Location	Named for
Prince of Wales Collegiate	St. John's	Prince Charles, Prince of Wales
Queen Elizabeth Regional High School	Conception Bay	Queen Elizabeth

[edit] Landmarks

A number of buildings, monuments and geographic locations are named for Canadian monarchs, members of the Royal Family, or federal or provincial viceroys.

A number of public parks are named for members of the Royal Family, including the King George IV Ecological Reserve, located 90 kilometers north of Burgeo, which contains the King George IV Lake, and was established under the Wilderness and Ecological Reserves Act, in 1996. Located in St. John's are the Prince of Wales and Feildan Gardens, along with the King George V Park soccer stadium.

Structures include the Queen Elizabeth II bridge, built in 2003 as a part of the Trans Canada Highway between Glenwood and Appleton, as well as the Queen Elizabeth II Library at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[edit] Royal designation and patronage

Organizations in Newfoundland and Labrador may be founded by a Royal Charter, receive a "royal" prefix, and/or be honoured with the patronage of a member of the Royal Family.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary was first established in 1729 as a police force for the colony of Newfoundland, however it did not receive the designation "royal" until 1979, when Queen Elizabeth II conferred it on the police force, making it one of only six police forces in the Commonwealth to receive such an honour.

In 1993 the Royal St. John's Regatta, which has taken place since 1816, was granted royal patronage and permission to use the royal prefix by Queen Elizabeth II, and was granted new Arms by the Canadian Heraldic Authority. It has been attended by various members of the Royal Family, including Prince Albert in 1860, and Queen Elizabeth II in 1978. It has been cancelled due to the death of any Monarch, and any year a Coronation has taken place, or a milestone Jubilee celebrated, the Regatta has been held in honour of the relevant Sovereign. The first race, and the arrival of the boats that took part, was announced in the Royal Gazette.

Further information: Monarchy in the Canadian provinces: Royal designation, charter and patronage

[edit] See also

• Monarchy
• Federation
• The Canadian Crown and First Nations, Inuit and Métis
• Debate on the monarchy in Canada
• Symbols of Newfoundland and Labrador

[edit] External links

• Office of the Lieutenant-Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador

[edit] References

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