College

Bigfoot mystery

Milkman calls

Heavy hopes

Royal future

Home school

Down's Syndrome

Gay pride

STDs

Celtic revival

Masons:
100 years

Chef shortage

Woodcutters obsolete?

City Hall wired

Bootlegging: the Maritime way?

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FRONT PAGE

{By Tara Hencher
Editor
The morning was cold, dark and rainy. Thousands of people lined the streets of London, paying their last respects as the funeral procession passed by them.
The Queen Mother was dead at the age of 101 and people all around the world were mourning.
Mary Wilson, 82, was awake at 5:30 a.m. to watch the funeral. The Queen Mother's death was a great loss to Britain and the world, which is why Wilson felt she needed to wake up and show her final respects to the royal in the only way she knew how.
"The Queen Mum was a wonderful person who, I think, gained the royal family some respect," Wilson says. "Her death is going to have a negative effect on the family, but I don't think that's going to be the end of them. They're too important and too much apart of Britain to be abolished."
Wilson, who at one time lived in London, has seen first hand how much the people in Britain respond to the monarchy.
"I don't remember meeting anyone who didn't like the Queen Mum," she says. "Of course, nowadays, I'm sure there's more people over there who feel negative towards them. Especially after how they treated Diana. She was a lovely girl."
To Wilson, the monarchy represents her fantasys and dreams.
"I don't think you will find one woman who hasn't, at one time or another, dreamt of being a part of that family, of marrying a prince and becoming a princess and for years to come, little girls are going to continue dreaming of that because the royal family isn't going anywhere."
Merrick Harris, 19, also woke up early and watched the funeral with her friends. Although Harris says the monarchy is just a name, she felt she owed the Queen Mother some respect.
"I don't feel anything special about them because now, the family that's around, they're nothing special and they haven't done anything special since the Queen Mum. She was the last person that I looked up to."
Scandal plays a large role in Harris' view of the royal family. She says they're "a joke." her generation doesn't see them as royals, and the scandals are just a way to keep the royalty in the newspaper. She doubts they have much of a future.
"People still look back to the past royals in amazement and they know about them, but now people are becoming less interested in them."
Harris says she holds out hope for Prince William as king. She'd like him to become king instead of his father, Prince Charles.
"I think William might do something. I could see him doing some really good with the image of the royal family," she says. "Charles, I could see him doing nothing and just dragging (the royal family's image) into the dirt again."
Harris did like one member of the royal family. "One of the only royals that I respect, not including the Queen Mum, was Princess Diana. She was an amazing lady.
"She did things, not only for herself, but for the people around her as well. After her death, the family totally tried to trash her name and tried to show the world what she was really like. That was wrong to trash one of the only royals who was good and kind."
The royal family has an influence over people and if they used the influence correctly, they could accomplish many things, she said.
"They need to take a stand and help people, look back at their heiritage and see what others did in good and bad and follow or learn from that." Lt.-Gov. J. Leonce Bernard was in Ottawa the day of the funeral, but he got up early in the morning to watch the service.
He says he felt happy the Queen Mother had lived such a long and full life, but she would be missed. Bernard reads the papers and knows about the scandals which have dogged the royals, but he says the monarchy will never end.
"To get rid of the monarchy, you have to have 100 per cent of the whole public and I don't think the population of P.E.I and Canada are prepared to do that," Bernard says. "I can't say anything about years and years ahead of time, but I can see in the next number of years that the monarchy will still be around."
Scandal isn't exactly a new thing for the royals, although some people seem to think it is, Bernard says.

{Lt.-Gov. J. Leonce Bernard stands with a picture of Queen Elizabeth 11. Bernard is confident about the future of the monarchy. (Hencher photo)}

"Scandals that happened in the royal family are not new, but because it's royalty it becomes a public issue. "One of the children of Prince Charles (Prince Harry) made a faux pas and it became national news, and how many of these children in society do the same thing and it doesn't become national news?"
He adds, "We have to understand that one of the kings, before the Queen Mother, separated from his wife to marry another woman. That was nearly 100 years ago, so there were things happening, they just weren't a public issue like it is now."
The importance of the royal family isn't as visual as it used to be, Bernard says, but he still thinks the royal family's existence isn't in any danger.
Susan Brown, a history professor at UPEI, says in the media's portrayal of the family during emotional times, like the death of a beloved royal, there tends to be a fairly positive spin put on the person by the media and people respond to that. But, she says, opinions will differ.
"In Britain today, there is still obviously a great deal of public interest in the monarchy," Brown says. "I dont know that it's always affection. I think there's probably more affection in Canada."
Although some Brits may have a more critical view of the royals, Brown says there is still a sense of attachment.
"Clearly if you look at the long lineups, people waiting six-seven hours in the cold and in the rain to pass by the Queen Mother's coffin, one can't simply disregard the extent of some kind of attachment people feel."
Brown says not only do views of the royals differs among different generations, they also differ among countries.
"The British have a slightly more jaded view of the monarchy and aren't quite as dazzled by the pomp and ceremony (as Canadians are)."
Brown said the media plays a large role in how the royal family is viewed by society. Society`s view of the royals has changed over the years as the public has been given more access into the royal family`s lives thanks to advancements in media.
Now if something happens, people see everything that happens and their "dirty laundry" is revealed, she says.
This is a factor in why the younger generation doesn't seem as in awe of the royals, because now they know more about their private lives. In the past, many things have been reported about the royal family Brown thinks they would have rather kept quiet.
She said some people think this is new. It's not.
"It`s not that the royals today behave any worse then they did in the past. It`s just that we`re able to read about it more," she says. "Some people have suggested that as ordinary citizens get closer and closer access to the royal family, that somehow the magic is diminished."
But Wilson says there is still magic surrounding the royal family, It's not the same as when she was a child.
"When I was a child, the members of the royal family were the most facinating people in the world," she says. "Nowadays, the children either know nothing about the royals or they know the bad things, like the awful things that went on with Charles and Diana. But I think there's still some of the old royalty magic floating around out there or else there wouldn't be young girls screaming at just the sight of Prince William."
Wilson suspects the royal family will be around for a long time to come. Brown agrees with Wilson, but she predicts there will be some changes in the future.
"I think that perhaps there will be a more mature relationship between the public and the monarchy, that there won't be quite the same sort of fairy tale sort of images that people tried to revive when Diana joined the family farm, as it's called."
The future seems secure for the royals, says Brown. "I suspect this is a show that will run and run. You're not going to see the end of it."