TORONTO — A non-profit citizen group advocating for democratic reform has launched a campaign to elect TV host Stephen Colbert as King of Canada.
Ottawa-based Democracy Watch hopes to collect 100,000 names on a petition posted online to convince Colbert — host of The Colbert Report — to visit Parliament Hill this summer and be crowned King.
“It’s time to tell the British Monarchy to take off, eh?,” explains a message on the petition site. “We need an elected head of state.”
The group argues that Colbert understands Canadians. “Buys his milk in bags. He’s truthy, and he lives right next door.”
Democracy Watch hopes the satirical campaign will encourage Canadians to take a serious look at the current system.
“Queen Elizabeth and her representatives are purely symbolic officials who don’t have the legitimate democratic power needed to stop abuses of power and lead our country,” said Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch, in a release. “We need Canadians to come together in support of an elected Head of State who has the democratic authority to enforce the constitution and uphold the public interest.”
Sommers said campaign to make Colbert the country’s next head of state is “a spirited way to get attention and spark discussion.”
According to Democracy Watch, a Harris-Decima poll conducted in May 2012 showed only 34 per cent of Canadians want to continue with a member of the British royal family as Canada’s head of state.
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