Editors Note: this publication was originally titled “Riel Republicans” in 2022 before being rebranded as Canadian Republican Network in 2025. Some of the information detailed here is now outdated to the current publication.
“Canada is a fake country.”
An epithet often said about Canada, but there is a historical truth to this, as Canada fundamentally has a lack of sovereignty rooted in the formation of the country, as a Dominion of the British Empire.
As of this month Elizabeth II, the Queen of England passed at 96. Not only was she the Monarch of Great Britain, but she was also the Queen of Canada, and many other countries in the “Commonwealth.”
She presided over the decline of the British Empire with its collapse into the American Empire following World War II which became the singular world power after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The British Empire, of which Canada is a Dominion
The Queen also witnessed a period of "decolonization" in the immediate post-war years with nominal independence or “flag nationalism” granted to former colonies in the Global South. This involved relinquishing direct administration in favor of a neo-colonialism facilitating financial control with cooperation from a comprador class in those nations.
In addition, many former British colonies were granted a “Dominion” status, allowing a level of domestic governance while retaining the British Monarch as the head-of-state, hence giving the British Crown power to veto any and all legislation coming from the Dominion’s Parliament.
In the 2020s, around the passing of both Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Phillip, we are witnessing a new wave of republicanism in the Commonwealth as the British Empire is evaluated once again by people across the world yearning for greater sovereignty.
Earlier this year, Barbados became a republic, and Jamaica is well on its way. As the Caribbean Commonwealth countries make the break from the Dominion form of government, the Canadian government laments the loss of this Monarch from the British Isles.
Unlike the Caribbean islands which were direct plantation colonies powered by the labor of enslaved Africans, Canada was a series of settler colonies of the British Empire. It is important to note, the formation of Canada was not mythologically “bloodless” just because there was no violent revolution against the British Crown like in the United States of America.
The British Empire consolidated their power in North America through a process of settler-colonialism which involved the forced displacement and genocide of Indigenous peoples.
What The War 1812, an attempted reconquest by the British Empire
Canada’s confederation was hastened to prevent American expansionism. It is by no coincidence that Canada confederated in 1867, the same year that America purchased Alaska from Russia.
America itself was a breakaway nation formed from the Thirteen Colonies that separated from Britain in 1776. Then ruled by a domestic oligarchy, America sought to challenge the British Empire for the status of the preeminent imperial power in the American Hemisphere.
Throughout the 19th Century, this inter-imperial rivalry played out in North America — the War of 1812, the American Civil War, the race for the railroads — for who would achieve “Manifest Destiny.”
However, the Anglosphere would reunite to form a trans-Atlantic system, ushered in at the Bretton Woods conference after World War II.
The Dominion of Canada’s role is neither as an imperialist leader or colonized nation, but something of a middle-manger.
This role continues to this day, as a distinct Canadian foreign policy simply does not exist outside of the wider agenda of Anglo-American Empire.
The Old Dominion Flag of Canada
Everywhere you go in Canada, the British Imperial presence is felt, from all the Crown Corporations and Crown Land, to the Union Jack being on the majority of Provincial flags.
Prior to the adoption of the Maple Leaf flag in 1965, the old Dominion flag also had a Union Jack, similar to that of Australia or New Zealand.
There have been mild aesthetical changes to try and give the feeling that Canada is a sovereign country, but they are surface thin, at best, and foreign policy begs to differ. There is a direct line between this lack of sovereignty and the feelings everyday people have of their lives being out of their control and accompanying gnawing feeling of being “not a real country.”
Neo-Liberal policies of “free trade” and deindustrialization and merciless have left countless regions destitute. The opioid epidemic ravages countless families, cutting across all communities. As well, the last few years being punctuated by COVID-19 which caught the country poorly prepared to proactively deal with a global pandemic.
Historical struggles are ever-present, with land theft of the First Nations in an ongoing colonial war waged by state agents on behalf of Bay Street.
Could there be a push for republicanism in Canada?
Just as Constitutional Monarchy benefits the British Crown and the Cabal of Global Finance, we must then ask, who would the new republic serve?
It’s time for a new era for all working Canadians, Québécois, Inuit, Métis, and First Nations to live with dignity and greater prosperity than ever before! We believe in a new republic for all the people in the North to continue the vision of the Honourable Louis Riel and the original resistance state of Manitoba. We look forward to joining you in this journey together.
Onwards to a Northern Continentalism!
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