Summary: American Roman Catholic scholar Edward Feser tweeted the following regarding the King’s recent speech before the American Congress: “Gravitas, genuine wit, magnanimity, intelligence, reverence for the rule of law, Christian faith that is confident without being performative. The king is the voice from a lost world.” His is not, however, “a voice from a lost world,” but as we take on this High Tory mantle, a voice from the North of North America.
As a Canadian living and serving as clergy in the Episcopal Church south of the 49th parallel, I note with more than passing interest when Canada makes the news here, which was the case when the King of Canada made his state visit to the United States in April. It was HRM’s speech to Congress that drew the most attention. Why this was so illustrates one of the marked contrasts between these two North American ideas: between Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, and our High Tory commitment to Peace, Order and Good Government. But even more so, it was the content of the King’s Speech that warmed this Red Tory’s heart.
Time did not permit me to watch the King’s speech live. It was the next day when I read a tweet from American Roman Catholic scholar Edward Feser that I knew the mark the monarch had made: “Gravitas, genuine wit, magnanimity, intelligence, reverence for the rule of law, Christian faith that is confident without being performative. The king is the voice from a lost world.” To which I replied: “Not lost, just north.”
Of course, I know there are republican voices in the North. There are also those Canadians so immersed in American popular culture that they are unaware somehow of the history of British North America, the great inheritance of the Westminster parliamentary system, our constitutional monarchy, and of Canada’s King. As High Tories who happily accept the moniker of Red Tory, this Canadian republicanism and the lack of awareness of our inheritance provide an opportunity to graciously teach and celebrate our distinctly Canadian tradition. In Ron Dart’s The North American High Tory Tradition, the first of his articulated High Tory principles states that Tories “are concerned about the wisdom of tradition.”1 Canada’s King in his speech to Congress, and the praise of American thinkers like Edward Feser, reminded me of what CS Lewis made clear to be at stake if we ever lose the monarchy:
“Monarchy can easily be ‘debunked’; but watch the faces, mark well the accents, of the debunkers. These are the men whose tap‑root in Eden has been cut: whom no rumour of the polyphony, the dance, can reach—men to whom pebbles laid in a row are more beautiful than an arch. Yet even if they desire mere equality, they cannot reach it. Where men are forbidden to honour a king, they honour millionaires, athletes, or film‑stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.2
We Canadian Tories we remind ourselves, our fellow Canadians, and our neighbours that new Canadians swear an Oath of Citizenship that begins: “I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty, King Charles the Third King of Canada, his heirs and successors.” The Government of Canada itself explains the oath to the Crown in this way:
In Canada, we profess our loyalty to a person who represents all Canadians and not to a document such as a constitution, a banner such as a flag, or a geopolitical entity such as a country. In our constitutional monarchy, these elements are encompassed by the Sovereign (Queen or King). It is a remarkably simple yet powerful principle: Canada is personified by the Sovereign just as the Sovereign is personified by Canada.
And, as a particularly “red” Red Tory, the King’s speech to the US Congress was also heartening to me in what it contained. As Ron Dart’s articulation of High Tory principles also makes clear: “the Tory tradition has a deep and abiding respect for the land.”3 King Charles’ lifelong commitment to the land was evidenced in his speech:
Even as we celebrate the beauty that surrounds us, our generation must decide how to address the collapse of critical natural systems which threatens far more than the harmony and essential diversity of nature. We ignore at our peril the fact that these natural systems, in other words, nature’s own economy, provide the foundation for our prosperity and our national security.
Speaking in a legislative chamber, HRM offered both a Tory critique and call, a reminder that the institutions of government that have a responsibility to guard the land for the common good of all its citizens. All said, of course, with what Professor Feser underlined: “Gravitas, genuine wit, magnanimity, intelligence, reverence for the rule of law.” His is not, however, “a voice from a lost world”, but as we take on this High Tory mantle, a voice from the North of North America.
Although living in the United States and serving a clergy in the Episcopal Church, I still pray for our King from the Daily Office of the 1962 Canada Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church of Canada:
LORD our heavenly Father, high and mighty, King of kings, Lord of lords, the only Ruler of princes, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers upon earth: Most heartily we beseech thee with thy favour to behold our most gracious Sovereign Lord, King Charles; and so replenish him with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that he may alway incline to thy will, and walk in thy way: Endue him plenteously with heavenly gifts; grant him in health and wealth long to live; strengthen him that he may vanquish and overcome all his enemies, and finally after this life he may attain everlasting joy and felicity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayer is effectual.