Know what? That simply reminds me that I need to play my classical guitar more often 
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So this actually DOES happen! A few years back, I simply woke up with full CTS and had NO idea why! This did not go away for about three months. I had to request help just to button my coat.
Emu meat really is a thing. Supposed to be like lean beef.
It’s a little pricey, but it’s delicious. Roo’s cheaper and IMO just as nice. Serve both for a coat-of-arms barbecue.
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What is a coat-of-arms barbecue? I thought there wasn’t a nobility class in Australia.
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It is a commonwealth realm of the United Kingdom. So there are ties to the monarchy.
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Ties, sure, but to the point where there’s a culture around coats-of-arms? In Australia? The barbecue part makes total sense, but what exactly is the celebration about?
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The Queen of course!
PS: I don’t understand why Australia and Canada are still realms of the UK. I’ve always been confused about it.
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They’re not. The UK is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (so, in alphabetical order: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales).
QEII is Canada’s Head of State, but not as the Queen of England, but as the Queen of Canada. The fact that she is also the Queen of England is not pertinent to the fact that she’s Canada’s Head of State.
There are still a bunch of countries that have the same Queen as their monarch (the Commonwealth realms). Australia and Canada are two of those realms.
As to why we still have a Queen (who lives as England) as our Head of State? Two major reasons:
- Tradition
- Because changing it would mean re-opening our Constitution, and no one (except Québec) wants that.
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I just don’t understand why be in a commonwealth realm. For the sake of tradition seems like a really paper thin excuse. Not wanting to re-open the constitution seems like a proper one though.
On the one hand, yes, it is. Tradition is used as a reason to support many actions and beliefs which should be consigned to the past.
On the other hand, it’s kind of part of our national identity, and a fairly harmless one. Coming up with a structure to replace the monarchy (either investing the Prime Minster with the powers of the Head of State, or creating a new Presidential office) would be a lot of hassle.
Yeah, put it this way. Back when HRH the Duchess of Cambridge was pregnant with her first child, all of the Commonwealth realms had to update their succession rules to match the UK’s; that is, that younger male siblings are not considered to be higher in the line of succession than older female siblings. This should have required a Constitutional change in Canada (maybe). Certainly, it would have been the most unambiguous way to do it.
But, even with such an uncontroversial, minimal change to the Constitution, they were unwilling to do it. Probably because, since it affects the office of the Queen, it would have required unanimous approval of all of the provinces, and thus Québec would have had a tremendous amount of leverage in the matter.
… Just fixing that as there are lots of people who will rightly be prickly about the distinction. 
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Fixed. That’s what I intended to write, but I guess the “Northern” got lost between my brain and my fingertips. Thanks!
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Entirely understood.
Do you reckon it’s time to confuse everyone within a 12 mile radius with a comprehensive guide to all this?
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Isn’t this comprehensive enough?:
(Yes, I know the UK line cuts a bit into Ireland where it shouldn’t).
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Wait… how did we got from carpel tunnel to talking about how Queen Elizabeth is the Canadian head of state?
I really love that we get off on these unexpected and educational tangents sometimes…
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Via barbecuing Kangaroo meat, of course.
Duh.
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Oooh no: Jersey and/or Isle of Man, for starters.
Plus that video covers Canada and the commonwealth as well if I recall correctly.
(It only has one teeeny error, in it, too – left as an exercise for the viewer)
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I know. When someone pointed out that there were Off-topic flags yesterday, I knew then that I was doomed and that is only a matter of time.
[Editted to add: But at least I’ll go down in good company. 
]
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