Halifax Tar said:
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Remember the the Navy didn't get the "Royal" prefix just for cocktail parties and pretty white shoes. It was a honor that was earned in blood, sweat and tears, and that honor was striped for no valid reason. It does a dishonor to those who came before us to let this go on further with out so much as a fight. Have no doubt the vast vast majority retired members of the old RCN would have no issue with the Royal coming back to our name. I would also hazard a guess that the current Naval members would either be indifferent or be supportive of the move.
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Please, and with all respect for you and your service, let’s not play fast and loose with history: the title Royal Canadian Navy was
not, as
Hailfax Tar suggests,
“earned in blood, sweat and tears;” in fact the Canadian Naval Service (established in 1910) asked King George V for the name change in 1911 and it was granted. That’s what some (most?) army corps and regiments did, too.
But that’s just a quibble: the Royal Canadian Navy
was, like the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, a separate, legally defined (by the Parliament of Canada) entity until 1966 when all three were, by another Act of Parliament,
wiped out, so to speak, and replaced by the Canadian Armed Forces - and all serving members of the RCN, CA(R) and (M) and RCAF were, compulsorily transferred to the new CF. To resurrect the RCN would require a
complete revision to the most basic parts of the National Defence Act and would,
de facto, almost certainly require recreating a Canadian Army and Air Force too. This is not a minor undertaking and, I
suspect it is one that has virtually no support amongst the flag and general officers in the CF today and even less amongst the senior bureaucrats and the politicians they
direct advise. I doubt many members here have any idea, at all, about the enormous amount of staff work required to amend the National Defence Act. No matter how strongly retired members may feel and no matter how supportive, or at least indifferent, serving members might be, it, a proposal to recreate the Royal Canadian Navy is simply not going to get on the Department’s
executive’s agenda.
Now, as a practical matter, it would take far, far less work, probably less than was required to bring back the executive curl, to change the current policies and
decide to put the national flag at the bow and the Canadian Navy jack (or whatever it is properly called) at the stern and wherever else the “white ensign” goes according to Anglo-Canadian tradition.
There is another possible tack: convince LGen Leslie, the chap doing the “transformation” or whatever it is called, to recommend re-establishing three “services” within the CF: The Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Canadian Army and
joint commands and then, after a horrendous amount of staff work and much “buying in” by very senior people in Ottawa, the Canadian Navy could apply to the Queen for a “royal” prefix, à la 1911.
But recreating the RCN would be neither simple nor easy.
