Why does Canada have the queen on their money? Australia’s flag? As an American another countries figures on your countries money / flag is strange.
In: Culture
They are in a “personal union”.
What that means is they are all constitutional monarchies, which have the same person as their monarch.
The UK doesn’t rule over them or anything like that though. They are all independent nations who just “happen” to have the same monarch.
Obviously the reason they do share the UK’s monarch is because they used to be ruled by Britain. But they gained independence by mutual agreement, and so far have decided to keep the monarchy.
Technically being ‘Queen of Canada’ or ‘Queen of Australia’ is a separate “job” to being Queen of the UK. In practice the actual head of state duties are left to each country’s Governor General (except the UK), but the Queen remains the official head of state.
They are also all members of the Commonwealth of Nations, however only 16 of the 53 members share the UK’s monarchy. These 16 are known as the Commonwealth Realms.
Latest Answers