At times, I get a little annoyed at United States' citizens feeling ashamed of their Northern neighbors supposed progressiveness. There are parts of the United States' poltics and culture that bother me, or disgust me, but our own decisions, for right and wrong, are still made as a sovereign people. At very few points in the history have people been forced to take loyalty oaths in order to hold a job, although you must to become a citizen. But I don't know if at any point in our country we have ever required people to take an oath of allegiance to a specific individual in order to work in the government. Yet in Canada, that is what people must do:
I, __________, do swear (declare) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors.
So help me God.
source:
http://www.gg.ca/media/fs-fd/P3_e.asp
What part of democracy involves taking an oath of allegiance to a hereditary monarchy? Also, the Queen of England is not just a monarch, but a theocrat. Does it make sense in a modern, pluralistic, democratic society that Catholic, Muslim or members of other religions must swear an oath of loyalty to a theocratic ruler who considers their religion beneath her?
These are things United States citizens should remember when anyone brings up the phrase "constitutional monarchy"