Have you heard the good news?
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle – the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – have decided to step back from their senior positions in the Royal Family, and apparently will reside in Canada part-time.
I am by no means an avid fan of the monarchy. I don’t pay attention to their comings and goings. I could maybe name half a dozen of the members. I do enjoy it when they make fools of themselves.
I can think of far better directions for our tax dollars than the Royal Family, but ultimately, the cost of a referendum to ditch the monarchy is too much to make it worthwhile, especially since we all know the end result will be to keep them.
So you can imagine my ambivalent attitude towards the news that Harry and Megan want to live in Canada. If they want to come to the greatest country in the world, then that’s fine. They can come live here and realize why we live in such a great country.
And it would make sense for them to live in British Columbia, since it’s the most similar in a lot of ways to Great Britain.
If they want to remain in Britain full-time, or if they want to be in another country, then that’s their prerogative.
I wouldn’t care if I walked past them on the concourse of Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver for the B.C. Cup Day thoroughbred races, or if I was in a bar at the same time as them in Victoria.
Here’s what I do care about: the amount of money it could cost Canadians once they do move here, because you know that when it comes to the monarchy, it’s not going to be as simple as them living here.
I don’t want to see an extra dime spent on them, including on their security. I get that they’re going to need their own security detail once they arrive in Canada, or wherever else they live. You need to have people guarding the royal couple and their newborn baby.
But they can pay for it with their own money, or with the money from the Royal Family, not with our taxpayer dollars.
As for other expenses that the royal couple might incur – housing, food, communications, furniture, transportation and the host of other things that we all have to pay for with our hard-earned money – they can pay for those, too.
If they’re not willing to pay for these things, then they can go live somewhere else. I’m sure there is a Commonwealth nation out there that would be willing to spend big money to woo the new celebrity residents.
This is not a knock against Prince Harry and his wife. Actually, I have a lot of respect for the fact that they’re willing to distance themselves from the royal family, and the life of privilege and entitlement that the royals enjoy.
We just have other pressing needs for our taxpayer dollars.
Besides, the federal deficit is high enough as it is.
•••
I promise this will be the only time I write about the weather for the rest of the winter, unless I win the lottery, collect my lump-sum winnings, cash them, book a trip to somewhere warm (I hear Hawaii is really nice at this time of year) and go on the aforementioned trip, all within the span of two months. Then I’ll write a column to brag about the experience.
We all knew that this cold snap would come eventually. Even during the warmest of winters, there have been one or two stretches of really cold temperatures that have sent us scrambling for the block heater cords and the extra layers of clothing.
So we shouldn’t be surprised when the -30 C temperatures hit.
Yeah, it sucks, but truth be told, until the past week or so, the temperatures were pretty reasonable since early December.
We all know that when we live in Saskatchewan, we’re going to have chattering teeth from the cold temperatures at some point. The frigid temperatures, or the “Polar Vortex” as someone coined it a few years ago, will hit eventually.
Now, there are some people who genuinely enjoy the cold. I don’t know what’s wrong with them. And there are others who enjoy outdoor pursuits once there is enough snow on the ground, such as snowmobiling, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. (I hear the Woodlawn Regional Park is great for the latter two activities).
For the rest of us, we crank the heater up in our homes and watch TV or read a book, thinking to ourselves “I’m glad we can sit in a nice, heated home right now.”
I have the utmost respect for those who work outdoors in this weather, whether it be oilfield drillers, Canada Post employees, service station attendants or a host of others.
But newspaper carriers are likely my favourite among those who get the job done in these cold temperatures.
After all, it’s their grit in the cold that ensures our papers get to you on a weekly basis.
