The 2022 celebration of Queen Elizabeth's remarkable 70-year reign measured Canadians’ long-standing attachment to the monarch. At the same time, the Platinum Jubilee milestone underscores that a succession eventually is in the offing. David Smith, Christopher McCreery and Jonathan Shanks observe in their excellent new book that this change in the monarchical representative will take place alongside the ongoing Canadianization of the Crown. Central to Canadian politics and society, the Crown remains a terribly understudied and misunderstood institution (4). Part of the authors’ mission is to remedy our ignorance through illuminating some of the subtle ways in which Canada's Crown is the “load-bearing structure of an entire system of government” (25). This lucid, eloquent work concerning the deep Crown leaves the reader with a more substantive understanding of the foundation of Canada's legal and political system.

A product of three authors, the book's argument is cohesive, and the sections are well integrated. Lead author David E. Smith is the country's foremost expert on the Crown. Fans of his 1995 opus The Invisible Crown: The First Principle of Canadian Government (Toronto: University of Toronto Press) will appreciate how superbly this new work complements and extends some of his original insights into the Crown's dignified and efficient aspects. At the same time, Christopher McCreery, who is private secretary to the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia and executive director of Halifax's Government House, clearly informs the analysis in important areas. Similarly, the study is enriched by Jonathan Shanks's constitutional law perspective. Shanks is employed as senior counsel to the Privy Council Office Legal Services Sector of the Department of Justice. The combination of each author's perspective helps to create an engaging study that communicates important information about today's Crown, as well as the shape of the transition to the future Crown once the Elizabethan era concludes.

The study is organized within an introduction and seven chapters. The authors begin by setting out some of the social and political challenges facing Canadians and underscoring the Crown's close proximity to the search for solutions, such as how to come to terms with past government practices and relations with the country's Indigenous peoples (5). They note the complexity that federalism contributes to the system: owing to Canada's compound monarchy, the vice-regal “family” contains, in fact, 11 members, whose average term is about five years (7). An important theme throughout the work is time; the authors juxtapose the ancient and the modern, emphasizing the Crown's deep roots alongside its contemporary roles (10).

Chapter 1 discusses the Crown as metaphor. The authors aim to sketch the many dimensions of the institution, firmly asserting it is not, nor has ever been, linear (17). They assert the Crown's presence beyond its legislative role—its “demonstration effect”—has grown over the last 50 years. This is taken up in the next chapter, “A Realm of Opposites,” where the authors illuminate the institution's many facets via its paradoxical aspects. It is personal and institutional, British and Canadian, hereditary and democratic, a symbol of colonialism and also of independence. The third chapter moves from the level of abstraction to study the institution's central role in the dispersal of power. Noting the Crown's non-statutory powers are among the most enduring but the least studied (49), the authors focus on the history, definition and limits of the royal prerogative. The relationship of the royal prerogative with Parliament and the courts also is explored. This is a masterful analysis.

Discussion in the fourth chapter turns to examine the agentic modern Crown in light of Walter Bagehot's “dignified and efficient” categorization of constitutional functions. The authors argue this illusory dichotomization only adds to confusion in the Canadian case. This is because, in fact, there is a unity that exists between the Crown and its elected advisors, a dynamic that is well established and that contributes to the political system's coherence and harmony (79–80). Chapter 5, titled “The Vice-Regal Family,” is devoted to tracing the increasing diversity common among the Queen's 11 representatives (95–96), explaining key administrative supports and underscoring how the vice-regals serve the public. Such service includes playing a direct role in the recognition of thousands of exemplary citizens every year (102). The next chapter takes up a discussion of the importance of the symbols of the Crown. The authors argue that there is a multidirectional and reinforcing relationship between symbols and the monarchy that is deeply woven into the Canadian state and that reflects the needs of its citizens (124–25).

The final chapter considers the legal, constitutional and symbolic effects of the demise of the Queen of Canada. Noting the outpouring of public emotion and media attention that will accompany this event, the authors remind us we will share the transition with 15 other countries (127). Eventually, the period of mourning will end, and a new sovereign will be crowned King. In this final section, as throughout the work, the authors successfully convey how the reassuring permanence of the Crown does not imply stagnation or irrelevance: the story of the Crown concerns the ongoing Canadianization of an institution that has proven to be stabilizing as well as adaptable.

While this book probably will not be popular among those who prefer to dwell on Canada's imperfections and deficits, it will certainly inform readers who seek to understand the source of the institutional quality of its government, which has been consistently reflected in the relative happiness of its population and the stability of its democracy among peer nations (7).