"AN AMERICAN president once said, 'the buck stops here.' But the buck [only] stops with the presidency for a few years.With a monarch, it stops for life," says Sean Palmer, third-year creative writing student and loyal member of the Monarchist League of Canada.

Actually, having our very own Crown rep only costs about 74 cents per Canadian per year, according to a report Palmer wrote in 1999 (see the League's Web site at www.monarchist.ca/archives/costs.htm). He spent a month researching financial statements from the G-G's office in Ottawa and the offices of the lieutenant-governors in each of provinces to come up with the figure.

More important than dollars and cents is the Crown's symbolic value, he maintains. For Palmer, knowing one person - the Queen - is in charge is a necessity, not only to prevent dictatorship but to act as a focal point of unity. "The Prime Minister can't be the centre of unity because nearly half the country voted against him. This is part of the brilliance of the structure of a constitutional monarchy. Nobody voted against the Queen."

But even Palmer acknowledges the monarchy isn't exactly top-of-the-mind stuff for most Canadians, and that many of us doubt royal figureheads are a necessity at all in Canada.

He insists it's a question of how much art we want in our society. "One of the best ways to look at the monarchy is like the art of government. There's something remarkable about having an entire nation focus attention on a single person. I think there's an intangible value in this colour and ceremony and the general excitement that royalty produces in the public. It raises morale."

Palmer says we really can't find a better or more cost-effective form of government. "I would be astonished if anybody could find a way to make a president and 10 state governors equal 74 cents per person per year."

Palmer photo: Susan King