The Platinum Jubilee

 

I am startled to discover that 2022 is Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne. I had not been aware.

This is a big deal. No other monarch of Canada or of Britain or perhaps anywhere else has ever achieved a Platinum Jubilee. Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee was notable enough that they held a Festival of Empire in her honour.

And what has Canada planned to mark this epochal event? Apparently, an ice sculpture on Sparks Street Mall for Ottawa’s Winterlude. 

That almost sounds like an insult. As though her reign was written on water.

We can do better. Moreover, if the spring and summer of 2022 marks the end of a dread pandemic, we could all use a big party.

The federal government may have no time for the Queen, but it she is popular in much of Canada―in large part because the monarchy is the one thing that, historically, distinguishes us from the USA.

Surely Ontario or Toronto can do something significant. Time may be short, but here’s a thought. The City of Toronto, in its wisdom or lack thereof, has decided that Dundas Street must be renamed. Why not rename it in honour of the Jubilee?

It’s a significant street, right downtown, so the gesture is more than trivial. But essentially costs nothing, since we were going to rename it anyway.

We can’t call it Elizabeth Street. We already have one. We can’t name it Queen Street; ditto. But we could call it Jubilee Street.

It’s a cheerful name. It should be especially popular in Chinatown, which centres on the street. The Chinese place value on names with happy connotations. But surely any business would be happy to say they are on “Jubilee Street.”

The official renaming could be done in a grand public ceremony in Dundas Square on the 24 of May holiday. We could have a weekend of live free performances by big-name artists; televised. We could have a parade down the length of the street, then close the street for a street party the rest of the long weekend.

Some will inevitably grumble that honouring the Queen is not properly multicultural. They are exactly wrong. The point of having a monarchy is that it provides a unifying symbol other than ethnicity. Nor is the Queen of any particular ethnicity. Royal families marry exogamously as a matter of course. Her husband is Greek, and she is German. At the outset of the First World War, the king of England, the Kaiser of Germany, and the Czar of Russia were first cousins. Except that she is purely European, Elizabeth Windsor is the perfect image of multiculturalism.

We could of course have attendees at the ceremony to represent all the nations of the Commonwealth. She is, after all, head of the Commonwealth. Canada’s First Nations also claim a special tie to the Crown, and would no doubt be happy to send representatives. 

It could all make a great parade, a great concert, and a great street party.