One for the Queen

I feel like I’d be completely remiss as a veteran blogger if I didn’t write about her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

While I never met her personally, I do feel that I have a significant connection to her.

My first recollection of the Queen was that she was some sort of big deal. The details are fuzzy because I was in kindergarten at the time, but I recall everyone in Westcliffe Composite School being very excited about her. She was coming to visit our region, and there was an electric energy in the air that was practically palpable. The older kids were loaded onto buses and ferried 30 minutes east to Kindersley, Saskatchewan to see her. The picture for this post is from that visit.

What I do remember clearly from all those years ago was that we sang ‘God Save the Queen’ and ‘O Canada’ at least once a week in kindergarten, possibly even daily. My Grandma, Helen, would sit at the piano in our classroom and smile at us along with our teacher, Mrs. Sonmor, and together they would lead us in singing both songs. Even then it always gave me goosebumps.

Fast forward 12 years to Jan 2001 and I am a nervous and excited 18-year-old pacing about the recruiting centre in Saskatoon about to enroll in the Canadian Armed Forces. After what seemed like an eternity, the recruiting officer called me and one other candidate into the room where we would do the swearing in and I remember very clearly standing at attention, with my hand on the bible and saying:

“I John William Thomson, do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her heirs and successors according to law. So help me God.”

I made that vow whole heartedly and believe that I fulfilled it to the best of my abilities. I still observe it to this day, although technically I’m no longer bound by it in an official capacity.  

After that the Queen, through her regulations and orders (QR&O’s) essentially dictated my conduct, ethics, required performance and the consequences should I be derelict in them, for the next 20 years.

During those 20 years, every building I entered had her Majesty’s official portrait in the foyer. It was always front and center and always above all the other prominent politicians and officers. As the years slipped by the other portraits changed frequently, but never hers. Queen Elizabeth II and her watchful, regal, eyes never faltered. They observed thousands of her loyal members of the Canadian Armed Forces. She stared out a challenge to all who passed her gaze to uphold her standards, to never pass a fault.

I also did a lot of push-ups for her Majesty. I have fond memories from my first posting at 2 Field Ambulance in Petawawa where a very fitness focused and hard charging Master Corporal, Steve Koppang, would end a hard run with push-ups. Those push-ups almost always concluded with “one more for the Queen!” Steve, if you’re reading this, those were awesome, and I always loved that extra push-up for her Majesty, even as corny as it sounds.

Later In 2012 I was honoured to be 1 of 60,0000 Canadians who received the Queens Diamond Jubilee medal to mark the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne. It was surreal to have been recognized as worthy to be able to wear that medal, especially considering all the other incredible Canadians who were awarded it, and when so many others were undoubtedly much more deserving. I still find it humbling and that “Vivat” & “Regina” (Long Live the Queen) adorns it.

Fast forward to the present, the Queen is dead, (Long live the King) and I feel a deep sense of loss. As if a long-held truth, like the earth is round, has been disproven. It’s not unlike the sensation you get when you learn the foundation of your house needs repair. I want nothing more than to fix it, but there is no repair for the two large cracks in my perceptions of the Queen, and the CAF, that now cloud my thoughts in the aftermath of her death.

The first is that her Majesty wasn’t perfect. I had hoped to see Canadians share and express a similar sense of loss but was naïve to the fact that there are many mixed emotions regarding her reign. This is especially the case for many Indigenous Canadians to whom she never acknowledged her role in the harm they suffered from our government as its constitutional monarch. They’re right, and their feelings are justifiable and warranted. I never considered it, but I am now.

The second is that the Canadian Armed Forces doesn’t hold the Monarch as loftily as it espouses. I had hoped to see the entirety of the CAF, every single member capable of donning their DEU’s, drilling on a parade square, or with their units exercising their respective Freedom of the City and parading in her honour. But I knew, with dread in my heart, it would only be a token acknowledgement. The word is it will be but a few hundred personnel on parade, at a couple locations across the country, one fly past and an artillery salute. The rest of the tens of thousands of CAF members who swore or afirmed an oath to her, will simply get a day off.

Both these cracks have hurt my perceptions of the Queen, but for me the latter is the worst given my personal experience and perceived connection. I find it a paltry and insulting effort, barely worthy of the oaths and affirmations taken by the senior leaders of the organization, and fully eclipsed by immense shadow cast by the service, dedication and grace that Her Majesty personally demonstrated over 70 years as the organizations Commander-in-Chief.

Alas, no reign lasts forever, and while her late Majesty’s isn’t without some controversy, I hope God sends her to heaven victorious, happy and glorious, for she reigned long and honourably over us; and I was proud to serve her in return.

God Save the King.