| King in Right ofOntario | |
|---|---|
Provincial | |
 | |
| Incumbent | |
 | |
| Charles III King of Canada since 8 September 2022 | |
| Details | |
| Style | His Majesty |
| First monarch | Victoria |
| Formation | 1 July 1867 |
By the arrangements of theCanadian federation,Canada's monarchy operates inOntario as the core of the province'sWestminster-styleparliamentarydemocracy.[1] As such,the Crown within Ontario's jurisdiction may be referred to asthe Crown in Right of Ontario,[2]His Majesty in Right of Ontario,[3]the King in Right of Ontario,[4] orHis Majesty the King in Right of Ontario.[5] TheConstitution Act, 1867, leaves many functions in Ontario specifically assigned to the sovereign's viceroy, thelieutenant governor of Ontario,[1] whose direct participation in governance is limited by theconstitutional conventions ofconstitutional monarchy.[6]
The role of the Crown is both legal and practical; it functions inOntario in the same wayit does in all of Canada's other provinces, being the centre of a constitutional construct in which the institutions of government acting under the sovereign's authority share the power of the whole.[7] It is thus the foundation of theexecutive,legislative, andjudicial branches of theprovince's government.[8] TheCanadian monarch—since 8 September 2022, King Charles III—is represented and his duties carried out by thelieutenant governor of Ontario, whose direct participation in governance is limited by theconventional stipulations ofconstitutional monarchy, with most related powers entrusted for exercise by the elected parliamentarians, theministers of the Crown generally drawn from among them, and thejudges andjustices of the peace.[6] The Crown today primarily functions as a guarantor of continuous and stable governance and anonpartisan safeguard against the abuse of power.[6][9][10]
This arrangement began with the 1867British North America Act[1] and continued an unbroken line of monarchical government extending back to the early 17th century. Though it has its own government headed by the King, as a province, Ontario is not itself a kingdom.[11]
There is currently nogovernment house in Ontario. Aviceregal suite in theOntario Legislative Building inToronto is used both as an office and official event location by the lieutenant governor, the sovereign, and other members of theroyal family. The lieutenant governor resides in their own private residence, though may be provided accommodations by the provincial government if they are not from Toronto. The King and his relations reside at a hotel, usually theFairmont Royal York, when in Toronto.[12][13]
Those in the royal familyperform ceremonial duties when on a tour of the province; the royal persons do not receive any personal income for their service, only the costs associated with the exercise of these obligations are funded by both the Canadian and Ontario Crownsin their respective councils.[14]Monuments around Ontario mark some of those visits, while others honour a royal personage or event. Further, Ontario's monarchical status is illustrated byroyal names applied to regions, communities, schools, and buildings, many of which may also have a specific history with a member or members of the royal family; for example, Ontario has at least 47 distinct features named forQueen Victoria: one county, one township, 14 populated places, and 31 physical features.[15] Associations also exist between the Crown and many private organizations within the province; these may have been founded by aroyal charter,received aroyal prefix, and/or be honoured withthe patronage of a member of the royal family. Examples include theRoyal Hamilton Yacht Club, which is under the patronage ofCharles III and received itsroyal designation from Queen Victoria in 1891,[16] and theRoyal Conservatory of Music inToronto, which, though founded in 1886, was constituted through royal charter by KingGeorge VI in 1947.
The main symbol of the monarchy is the sovereign himself, his image (in portrait or effigy) thus being used to signify government authority.[17] Aroyal cypher or crown may also illustrate the monarchy as the locus of authority, without referring to any specific monarch. Further, though the monarch does not form a part of the constitutions ofOntario's honours, they do stem from the Crown as thefount of honour and, so, bear on the insignia symbols of the sovereign.
The modern Crown's place in Ontario results, in part, fromthe French monarchy's history inNew France (mostly in thePays d'en Haut region; todaysouthern Ontario), from the 16th century to thetransfer of the territory to the British Crown in 1763, and, in part, from the establishment ofRuperts Land byroyal proclamation of KingCharles II of England in 1670, which included what is nownorthern Ontario.
During and following theAmerican Revolutionary War, which took place between 1775 and 1783, some 46,000 American settlers loyal to the Crown, known as theUnited Empire Loyalists, fled north to theProvince of Quebec (formerly a part of New France, until the British were given control in 1763) and other colonies in the Canadas. The King-in-Council granted each family 0.81 square kilometres (200 acres) of land. From then, Ontario residents descended from these original refugees may use thepost-nominalsUE, standing forUnited Empire,[18] and theCanadian Heraldic Authority can grant them distinctivecoronets in theircoats of arms.[19]
Additionally, thousands ofIroquois and otherAboriginals were expelled from New York and other states, resettling under the protection of the Crown in what is now Ontario.[20] In particular,Governor of the Province of QuebecFrederick Haldimand issued a royal proclamation (known as theHaldimand Proclamation) granting land to theMohawk people who had served the British Crown through the revolution. The proclamation stated:
Whereas His Majesty, having been pleased to direct that, in consideration of the early attachment to his cause manifested by the Mohawk Indians, and of the loss of their settlement which they thereby sustained, that a convenient tract of land under his protection should be chosen as a safe and comfortable retreat for them and others of the Five Nations, who have either lost their settlements within the Territory of the American States, or wish to retire from them to the British, I have at the earnest desire of many of these, His Majesty's faithful allies, purchased a tract of land from the Indians situated between the Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron, and I do hereby, in His Majesty's name, authorize and permit the said Mohawk Nation and such others of the Five Nation Indians as wish to settle in that quarter to take possession of and settle upon the banks of the river commonly called Ours [Ouse], or Grand River.
On this land, the Crown in 1785 erected theMohawk Chapel, inBrantford, as a gift to the Mohawk people and their then-leader,Joseph Brant. At the same time, the King provided lands nearBelleville to the displacedTyendinaga Mohawks. There, too, a chapel was built, today known as theChrist Church Royal Chapel. The Mohawks brought there the silvercommunion set given to them byQueen Anne in 1711, as a symbol of the alliance between the Crown and the Mohawks. Further gifts from monarchs included a triptych in the Mohawk language and a bell from King George III, a royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom from KingGeorge V, a bible fromQueen Victoria, and a communion chalice from QueenElizabeth II (given in 1984 to mark the bicentennial of the Mohawks arrival in Ontario), in addition to a set of eight silver handbells. The churches are now two of the threechapels royal in Canada.
A few dozenBlack Loyalists also settled in the western region of the Province of Quebec; although, not nearly as many as those who located themselves inNova Scotia. The majority of black inhabitants ofPays d'en Haut were slaves brought into the colony by the Loyalists,[20][21] including Brant.
It was the attempted forced return to the United States of one of those slaves—Chloe Cooley—in 1793 that prompted the abolitionistJohn Graves Simcoe, then serving asKing George III's representative in Upper Canada (a territory formed out of the western portion of the Province of Quebec in 1791, because of the influx of Loyalists), to push for legislation abolishing slavery in the colony. Though he faced resistance from theLegislative Assembly, Simcoe, later that year, gaveroyal assent to theAct Against Slavery, making Upper Canada "the first jurisdiction in theBritish Empire to pass a law freeing slaves."[22][23]
Prince Edward, a son of King George III, visited Upper Canada eight months after its establishment, becoming the first member of the royal family to tour the area, seeingCornwall,Kingston,Prince Edward County,Niagara-on-the-Lake, going so far asFort Erie. Along the way, he met with Loyalists and various First Nations delegations, helping to foster a British identity for Upper Canada. Along with Simcoe, Prince Edward made a point of visitingForts Niagara andScholsser, getting himself involved in a boundary dispute with the United States in the process.[24]
The United States endeavoured to conquer the Canadas in theWar of 1812;[30] all the American parties involved assumed their troops would be greeted as liberators.[31] When theUS Army first invaded, crossing theDetroit River and landing at Sandwich (todayWindsor) on 12 July,[32] the commander,William Hull ordered all subjects of the King to surrender, telling them he desired to free them from the "tyranny" of Britain and give them liberty, security, and wealth, unless they preferred "war, slavery, and destruction."[33][34] The loyal among the Upper Canadians chose the King and war to defend him, whereas American immigrants who'd settled in Upper Canada merely for the free land chose neutrality, stating they would neither obey British orders to march against Hull, nor "a man would join Hull to fight against the King."[35] Hull retreated across the river on 7 August,[36] but, the US made repeated incursions into Upper Canada through to 1814 and the British regulars, warriors of theSix Nations andSeven Nations,[37] and free-African-[38] and European-Canadians (the volunteers who were colloquially said to be "taking the King'sshilling"[39]) reisited them at every try. By the time theTreaty of Ghent was signed on 24 December 1814, ending the war, the United States made no gains into the Canadas.
The republican agitations ofLouis-Joseph Papineau in Lower Canada in the late 1830s spread quickly to Upper Canada. These met with agreeable circumstances in western colony, including a politically active lieutenant governor,Francis Bond Head, who had, since 1834,[40] thwarted the efforts of theReform party-dominated Legislative Assembly,[41] to the point the Executive Council resigned and Head actively campaigned for the Tories in the subsequent election,[42] equating voting for that party with showing loyalty to the Crown.[43] The Reformers' leader,William Lyon Mackenzie, attempted to petition the King to have the election declared invalid, but, was dismissed by theColonial Office inLondon. Meanwhile, the now Tory majority in the Upper Canada parliament passed laws that were self-serving to Tory parliamentarians and burdensome on farmers, increased the colony's debt,[44] and continued the legislative session even after the death of William IV in 1837.[45]
On 9 October of that year, Mackenzie received a message from Papineau'sPatriotes in Lower Canada, informing him that therebellion there was about to begin.[46] A month later, Mackenzie published a satirical piece in his magazine, theConstitution, that included a draft republican constitution for the "State of Upper Canada"[47] and he printed handbills declaring independence, which were distributed to citizens north of Toronto.[48]Actual armed rebellion broke out in Upper Canada on 5 December.[49] Of it, the new Queen,Victoria, wrote in her diary, "the news are, I grieve to say, very bad from Canada; that is to say, rumours and reports by the papers; though, we have no official reports. But [Prime Minister] Lord Melbourne hopes it may not be so bad as it is rumoured. There certainly is open rebellion."[50]
The Queen need not have worried about Upper Canada, however, as the uprising was put down within a matter of days. Mackenzie and 200 supporters fled toNavy Island in theNiagara River and declared it theRepublic of Canada on 13 December. That sustained until 13 January 1838, when, under attack by British armaments, the rebels fled, with Mackenzie running to the United States mainland, where he was arrested for violating theNeutrality Act.[51] In the wake of the disturbances, the Queen called on her people in Upper Canada to eschew vengeance on the perpetrators in favour of justice and,[52] as a mark of goodwill with which to begin her reign and to commemorateher coronation, the Victoria used herroyal prerogative topardon many of the rebels, continuing to do so through the 1840s.[53]
The Queen's representative in British North America,the Earl of Durham, penneda report containing recommendations for change following the Lower and Upper Canada Rebellions. Based on that document, theAct of Union 1840 was passed by the parliament atWestminster andproclaimed in effect by Queen Victoria on 10 February 1841, thus renaming Upper and Lower Canada asCanada West (today Ontario) andCanada East (today Quebec), respectively, and merging them to form theProvince of Canada, with agovernor general to represent the monarch and housed atMonklands, inMontreal. Five years later, theLegislative Assembly of the Province of Canada made Victoria's birthday, 24 May, a public holiday calledVictoria Day.[53]
When, in 1848,Robert Baldwin andLouis-Hippolyte Lafontaine were reappointed asJoint Premiers,responsible government was implemented in the colony, with the backing of Queen Victoria.[54] This meant the governor general was to act on theadvice of his co-prime ministers, who were responsible to the elected parliament. The first test of this came in the same year, when theRebellion Losses Act was put to Governor Generalthe Earl of Elgin for royal assent. Elgin had strong misgivings about the bill, and was pressured by theTories to refuse assent, but he gave it approval, regardless, on 28 April 1849. As a result, the Anglophone population of Montreal (where the legislature was located) became incensed, the Governor General was assaulted,[55] theparliament building was burned,[56] and theMontreal Annexation Manifesto was issued, calling for the absorbption of the Province of Canada into the United States.[57]
Still, all was not lost: The portrait of Queen Victoria that hung in the parliament, painted byJohn Partridge,[58] was saved from the fire bySandford Fleming (and hangs in the federalParliament of Canada today[58]),[59][60] the colony did not join the US, and responsible government remained a part of the Province of Canada's constitutional order.
The Queen's eldest son and heir, Prince Albert Edward (later KingEdward VII) for four months toured the Maritimes andProvince of Canada in 1860, setting the cornerstone of theparliament building inBytown (today Ottawa) and officially openingQueen's Park inToronto.[61] AtDundurn Castle, inHamilton, Albert Edward met withAllan MacNab, a formerjoint premier of the Province of Canada. In a twist of fate, the Prince's great-great-grandson, KingCharles III, marriedCamilla Shand (now Queen Camilla), the great-great-great-granddaughter of MacNab. The Prince also crossed the border to pay a visit toPresident of the United StatesJames Buchanan at theWhite House.[61]
Sectarian tensions were high in Canada at the time and Prince Albert Edward was cautioned not to do or say anything that might exacerbate the situation.The Duke of Newcastle, who accompanied the Prince, instructed theMayor of Toronto to ensure Albert Edward's procession would not pass under anyOrange Order arches. AtKingston, the Duke ordered the royal yacht not to dock, as theOrangemen had erected a welcoming arch on the pier, with an image ofWilliam of Orange on one side and a depiction of the Albert Edward with the anti-Catholic revolutionaryGiuseppe Garibaldi on the other. Orangemen thereafter protested the Prince's steamer along part of its route.[62]
The province of Ontario was created from the boundaries of Canada West followingCanadian Confederation in 1867. The next year, on 26 May,Queen Victoria issued aroyal warrant granting the provinceits coat of arms.[63] Several areas were incorporated into Ontario in the mid 19th and early 20th century, with Ontario reaching its final size in 1912.
Prince Albert (later KingGeorge VI), toured Ontario in 1913, while serving as a midshipman aboard theRoyal Navy cruiserHMS Cumberland,[64] visiting Toronto and Niagara Falls.[65]
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