How can Canada be "sovereign" it if is under the control of the Queen of England?

Question

Canada is a sovereign nation, but why is it under the control of the British Throne? It has Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. How can this be? Same goes to all the Commonwealth countries (Australia, etc...)

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

The Queen is a figurehead. She exercises no control. Her representative in Canada is the Governor General, who is appointed by the Prime Minister, who leads the party who won the majority seats in the House of Commons.

We pick the PM, he picks the Governor General. We control our country. We are thus sovereign. The Queen represents our roots and gives our laws their legality.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

short but explains alot of what I wanted to know

Answer 2

Pfft! The queen of England holds no power really. It's all in Parliment. I'm amazed Britain still funds the royal family through taxes if they really do nothing at all.

Answer 3

Canada is more under control by the US than UK

Answer 4

The queen is just a figure. Every country has a president or some form of a leader, the difference is that all commonwealth countries have the same leader, the same queen. But it is just a figure cause all these countries have their own governments.

Answer 5

We're not under the Queen's control and haven't been since 1982. When Prime Minister Trudeau was in office.

Answer 6

The Queen of Canada has very little true power. She can theoretically strike down bills passed by parliament but in reality grants all of her power to the Governor General of the country and the Lieutenant Governors of each of the provinces. It's not clear whether, if she chose to disagree with a provisional law, her opinion would really even be considered. In practice, Canada is a constitutional monarchy.

The Queen of Canada is a position different from the that of the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Queen Elizabeth II holds both titles but she is the Queen of Canada as a result of Canadian law, not UK law. Canada and the UK are 100% independent of each other and both have equal standing in the Commonweath (of which she is also symbolic head).

To quote Wikipedia:

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor) (born 21 April 1926) is Queen of sixteen independent nations known as the Commonwealth Realms. These are the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. By the Statute of Westminster 1931 she holds these positions equally; no one nation takes precedence over any other.