Canadian Symbols of Authority
Maces, Rods and Chains of Office in Canada
Co-authored with Corinna PikePublished by The Dundurn Group
Purchase a Copy from the PublisherISBN-10: 1554889014
ISBN-13: 978-1554889013
Excerpt from Chapter OneOften we think of Canada as a very young country where both institutions and traditions are recent creations or inventions taken from other countries and applied to the Canadian context. Yet Canada has one of the longest histories of functioning and evolving democratic institutions in the world. Our federal Parliament and various provincial legislatures embody a democratic tradition that is as rich and diverse as the people of Canada.
Since the era of the Governors of New France and the Sovereign Council that aided in the governance of the fledgling colony, Canada has been a monarchy. For more than half a millennia Canada’s head of state has been a Sovereign, represented by a Governor or Governor General. Within this framework, which over time evolved to become a constitutional monarchy, the continuity of the Crown came to be fused with representative and responsible democratic bodies to form what is affectionately known in constitutional circles as Peace, Order and Good Government. Even our rebels, such as the Métis leader Louis Riel were intent on retaining the Crown as the locus of power.
This is the first book to examine the various symbols of authority used by The Queen, her representatives the Governor General and the Lieutenant Governors, and the federal, provincial and territorial legislatures. The parliamentary maces used throughout Canada, like the Crown, embody continuity in an ever changing political world. They are not symbols of a foreign land imposed upon Canada, but rather they are like old friends that are part of the Canadian symbolic and ceremonial lexicon. They have also adapted to the Canadian context and thus been made symbols of the nation.
Despite this rich symbolic and ceremonial heritage, little is known and even less understood about the various maces, chains of offices and batons that are used throughout Canada. Aside from a few pamphlets, the objects and offices discussed in this book have only been seen from a distance by Canadians, yet they comprise not only symbols of democracy and authority but are part of the rich heraldic and artistic heritage of Canada. Given that these symbols have been developed at different times over the past two centuries, each is a token of the age during which it was created. Similar in form, but unique in their symbolism, Canada’s chains of office and maces are physical representations of not only specific offices and legislative bodies, but are also an integral part of our ceremonial history. Sovereigns, Governors General and Prime Ministers come and go over time, but a number of maces, such as that used by the Senate, date back to a time when Canada was little more than a sparsely populated strip of land along the St. Lawrence.
