Monarchy in British Columbia

The role of the Crown is both legal and practical; it functions in British Columbia in the same way it does in all of Canada's other provinces, being the centre of a constitutional construct in which the institutions of government acting under the sovereign's authority share the power of the whole. It is thus the foundation of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the province's government. The Canadian monarch—since 8 September 2022, King Charles III—is represented and his duties carried out by the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, whose direct participation in governance is limited by the conventional stipulations of constitutional monarchy, with most related powers entrusted for exercise by the elected parliamentarians, the ministers of the Crown generally drawn from amongst them, and the judges and justices of the peace. This arrangement began with an 1871 Order in Council by Queen Victoria and continued an unbroken line of monarchical government extending back to the late 18th century. Government House in Victoria is owned by the sovereign only in his capacity as King in Right of British Columbia and is the official residence of both the lieutenant governor and the sovereign, when in British Columbia. A member of the Royal Family has owned property in British Columbia in a private capacity: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, owned Portland Island, though this was offered on permanent loan to the Crown in Right of British Columbia. ==Royal associations==

Those in the Royal Family perform ceremonial duties when on a tour of the province; the royal persons do not receive any personal income for their service, only the costs associated with the exercise of these obligations are funded by both the Canadian and British Columbia governments. Monuments around British Columbia mark some of those visits, while others honour a royal personage or event. The main symbol of the monarchy is the sovereign himself, his image (in portrait or effigy) thus being used to signify government authority. A royal cypher, crown, or the provincial arms (known as the Arms of His Majesty in right of British Columbia) may also illustrate the monarchy as the locus of authority, without referring to any specific monarch. Additionally, though the monarch does not form a part of the constitutions of British Columbia's honours, they do stem from the Crown as the fount of honour, and so bear on the insignia symbols of the sovereign. File:Fairmont Empress, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada 08.jpg|The Empress Hotel in Victoria, both of which were named for Queen Victoria File:MtAlfred.JPG|Mount Alfred, named in honour of Prince Alfred File:Princess louisa inlet view.jpg|Princess Louisa Inlet, the name of which remembers Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll File:Main entrance to Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, British Columbia 02.jpg|The Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria Image:Strait of Georgia.jpg|The Strait of Georgia, named for King George III File:Queen Elizabeth Secondary (on 136 Street).jpg|Queen Elizabeth Secondary School in Surrey, named for Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) File:Queen Elizabeth Theater Vancouver BC.JPG|The Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, named for Queen Elizabeth II ==History==

In 1959, Premier W.A.C. Bennett desired that the Queen of Canada read the Speech from the Throne at the opening of a session of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. This request was turned down on the grounds that it was "constitutionally impossible". The validity and logic behind the refusal was later a matter of debate. , Queen of Canada, at City Hall in New Westminster, 1971 The Queen was again in British Columbia to mark the centennial of the province's entry into Confederation. In 2002, Elizabeth toured Victoria and Vancouver as part of her Golden Jubilee as Queen of Canada. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (now Charles III, King of Canada), along with his great-uncle, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma, then the President of United World Colleges International Council, opened Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific in 1975. Prince Charles established the Prince of Wales Scholarship and would visit the college again between 30 March and 3 April 1980 and 29 to 31 October 1982. He also toured British Columbia with his then-wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, from 30 April to 7 May 1986, opening Expo 86 in Vancouver and visiting Victoria, Prince George, Kamloops, and Nanaimo, and took a ski holiday at Whistler with his sons, Princes William and Harry, also visiting Vancouver with them. In 2009, Charles returned with his second wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (now Queen Camilla), visiting Vancouver and Victoria, where he met with then-Director of Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific David Hawley and four Prince of Wales Scholarship recipients, one each from Kenya, Romania, Nicaragua, and Canada. ==See also==