Majority of Canadians support abolishing monarchy after Queen’s death: survey

As Queen Elizabeth II marks her 96th birthday, a new survey finds a majority of Canadians would support severing ties with the British monarchy once her reign comes to an end.

The Angus Reid survey finds that while 55 per cent of Canadians support remaining a constitutional monarchy as long as the Queen is alive, support for King Charles and Queen Camilla drops to 34 per cent in this country.

Six in 10 Canadians continue to hold a favourable view of Queen Elizabeth with only Prince William, second in line for the throne, viewed as favourably as his grandmother. Prince Charles, who will ascend the throne when Elizabeth dies, is viewed unfavourably by more than half of Canadians (54 per cent).

Three in five Canadians say they will be affected when the Queen dies, with the majority of those aged 55 and older expressing strong feelings of melancholy.

Putting aside the personal feelings for the Queen, half of Canadians feel the Royal Family is irrelevant to them personally with 49 per cent saying they represent outdated values.

Fifteen Commonwealth countries – including Canada – continue to operate with the Queen as head of state, however, 58 per cent of Canadians say its the right decision for countries to sever ties with the monarchy. Barbados declared itself a republic and cut ties with the Crown in November 2021 while Jamaican officials made it known that they too will pursue cutting ties with the monarchy.

In order to remove the Queen as head of state, there would need to be unanimous consent in the House of Commons, the Senate and each of the provincial legislatures. While that could create a constitutional quagmire, an overwhelming majority (92 per cent) want Ottawa to open the potential Pandora’s box in order to cut ties with the monarchy.

The survey of 1,607 Canadians was conducted online from April 5 to 7 and carries a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.