I must admit, when I first arrived in Canada many years ago, I was rather startled to find there was a public holiday to mark Queen Victoria’s birthday. “What?”, I thought, “hasn’t she been dead lo these many decades?”. I knew that Ray Davies and the Kinks had recorded a song about the same monarch, but why a public holiday for Victoria’s birthday? Having enjoyed that holiday two Mondays ago, I can say I do appreciate the day off (not that newspapers have that luxury), and it got me thinking about the lady and why Canadians might want to remember her.
Of course, until the reign of Elizabeth II, recently deceased, Victoria had been the longest reigning monarch in British history, but that’s not really it. I don’t see Canada establishing a holiday to mark Elizabeth’s birthday. What is amazing is the influence Victoria had on Canada and its story. Looking back, it’s surprising how many pivotal events took place while she was Queen.
Victoria ruled from June, 1837, until January, 1901, and her reign saw tremendous changes in both Canada and the world at large. It was in that time that the British Empire reached its zenith, culminating with Victoria being pronounced Empress of India in 1876. Colonisation was official policy, as Victoria herself said: “It is not in our custom to annexe countries, unless we are obliged and forced to do so.” She embodied the racist view that the British, more specifically the English, were a superior race responsible to spread their superiority around the globe.
That attitude created the Indian Act, the Reserve system, and all the other punitive measures taken against Canada’s Indigenous peoples. The Kinks song refers to this empire-building aspect of Victoria’s reign: “Canada to India, Australia to Cornwall, Singapore to Hong Kong. From the West to the East, from to the rich to the poor, Victoria loved them all.” The Irish might disagree with that last phrase, and it’s not surprising that Ireland is not listed in the song. There, she is known as “the Famine Queen”, ruling through the Great Hunger of 1845-48, when over a million people on the island died of starvation, and another million plus were forced to emigrate to survive. And although she graciously donated money to the relief of the famine, she had done nothing in the years before or after to ameliorate the awful conditions that led to genocide (and I use that word deliberately).
She was quite willing to inflict war and suffering whenever the Empire, as a “Great Power”, considered it necessary: “If we are to maintain our position as a first‑rate Power”, she wrote, “we must … be Prepared for attacks and wars, somewhere or other, CONTINUALLY.” (Upper case is in the original).
Victoria survived a number of assassination attempts, though at times these were more gestures than actual attempts, guns being unloaded or merely waved in her general direction. So, why is she celebrated in this country? Largely, it is said, because when was the Queen at the time of Confederation, when the Dominion of Canada came into being in 1867. She was also the monarch who a few years prior to Confederation, had chosen Ottawa, then known as Bytown, as the capital of Canada. She was the monarch when Canadians were first sent abroad to fight in the Empire’s wars, when they went to South Africa to take part in the Boer War. She was Queen the last time Canadians died defending their country from invasion. This was in 1866, when the Fenians, an Irish revolutionary organisation, sent veterans of the American Civil War into Canada to demand freedom for Ireland. Another great Canadian story.
Ironically, Victoria gave her name to an era and an image representing strict values in sexual and family life. “Victorian” attitudes stand for severe repression and original “family values” attitudes. This is ironic as it fails to represent the monarch’s own family. Her sons were known womanisers, with many mistresses and children born “out of wedlock”. This has remained a characteristic of the ruling family of Britain ever since. Interestingly, the current King’s own mistress, before they married, is a descendant of the mistress of Victoria’s eldest son, and future King Edward VII.
All in all, a fascinating character to provide Canadians with a public holiday.
