The royal visit to Canada at the beginning of November has created a media buzz around the relevancy of the British monarchy to our country.

On Nov. 6, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, made an official appearance in Victoria at the legislative buildings.

The queen’s head is on our money and half of B.C.’s flag is taken up by the British union jack. The song “God Save the Queen” was even our national anthem until 1980.

But a recent poll, obtained by CBC, discovered that more than half of Canadians believe that our country no longer needs a queen or king as Head of State.

Commissioned by Friends of the Royal Family, the survey posed 41 questions regarding the monarchy in Canada to people over the age of 24.

The poll also found that 64 per cent of Canadians thought Prince Charles was not “ahead of his time” and that only one in five Canadians would make an effort to see him, even if he was nearby.

Bruce Hallsor, the past president of the Victoria Branch of the Monarchist League of Canada, thinks it has been interesting watching the media put a spin on the poll results.

“I think [one in five] is a pretty good number,” said Hallsor. “People have busy lives.”

Hallsor believes that the polls have been pretty consistent in finding these types of results in the past 10 years.

“If the Dalai Lama came, it would probably bring similar numbers,” he said.

Canada is a constitutional monarchy. In 1982, the British North America Act was replaced by the Constitutional Act.

This gave Canada separation from the Crown, as we no longer had to pass laws by the consent of the British Parliament.

The Queen is the Head of State and she delegates her powers to the Canadian Governor General — Michaëlle Jean.

“The monarchy is a unifying form that helps us celebrate our nation in a non-political way,” said Hallsor. “To change it would be a huge exercise in futility, for no reason.”

The Citizens for a Canadian Republic (CCR) is an organization committed to promoting an elected Canadian citizen as Head of State, instead of the Queen.

According to the CCR website, the not-for-profit and non-partisan organization questions whether we “really need a wealthy aristocrat who only visits us every few years as our Head of State.”

The CCR wants Canada to attain full-fledged status as a democratic republic.Going through with this, according to UVic History Professor Penny Bryden, would mean having to replace our current system of government — something Canadians “aren’t very good at.”

Bryden said the problem with the poll results lies in the confusion between governance and celebrity.

“People who are members of the royal family are sort of like celebrities — you’re either interested in their antics or you’re not,” said Bryden. “I gather lots of Canadians don’t really care all that much about what the royals do and, as a result, are indifferent to the monarchy.”

But, on a constitutional level, it’s a different story.

“The idea of getting rid of the Queen as the Head of State in Canada would demand that the whole constitution be reinvented and, while we might be able to agree on the first part, I can’t imagine us agreeing on what that new constitution would be like,” said Bryden.

Eric Sager, a UVic professor who specializes in Canadian labour and family history, agrees.

“I think it unlikely that a federal government would invest the effort to make such a radical constitutional change,” Sager said.

“I predict that the Monarchy will continue for a long time to prompt a variety of responses, from fierce opposition to fond affection to total indifference. And that’s very Canadian, eh?”