The Throne Speech: nice staging, crummy dialogue

This week’s Speech from the Throne was a brilliant bit of theatre. Former prime ministers and governors-general mingled. King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived in a horse-drawn carriage. Inviting the King himself to open Parliament sent an unmistakable message: This is not the 51st state and never will be. We have our own practices and traditions, founded on centuries of history. Anyone who thinks that all that separates us is a line on the map has another think coming.