He was amazed that the Prince was so well versed in the subject. It should be remembered that the Queen is Head of State of both countries. During the course of the evening, he and Prince Philip discussed the merits and otherwise of the Canadian and Australian political systems. (Amen to that!) I remember a story he told of a dinner he had at Buckingham Palace. As a Canadian, he retains a soft spot for constitutional monarchy, claiming that it’s a good thing for the politicians to have somebody over them. Mark Steyn is a native of Canada, but now lives in New Hampshire. He is often interviewed on FoxNews (which we don’t even get, as we don’t have cable) and replaced Rush Limbaugh frequently as host of his radio program. Mark Steyn is one of my favorite commentators. (Admittedly, she never went to Afghanistan and I doubt she would have gotten very far!) She could not have done this without the support of Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years. The Commonwealth comprises 54 of the world’s 195 nations. She constantly pushes Commonwealth nations to follow the democratic path. She did this in Ghana to great effect in November 1999, successfully facing down the dictatorship of Ft. Whereas Americans had sent thousands of troops to their deaths, with little or nothing achieved, the queen went everywhere preaching that democracy is best and nudging countries in the right direction. It was written by an American and claimed that the Queen had done more to advance the cause of democracy than any other personage on the global stage. I remember an article in Newsweek magazine twenty years ago, on the occasion of the Queen’s 5oth anniversary. Many comments were along the lines of “I don’t see the point of it all,” a view of the monarchy that shows appalling ignorance. A great deal of ignorance was expressed on television over the death of Prince Philip.
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