Dear Canadians,

Australia, our Commonwealth cousin has declared that all Australians will get a one-off public holiday on the national day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II later this month.

Meanwhile in Canada, it has been decided that only our federal parliamentarians will not return to their parliamentary duties until after Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. 

Regardless of whether or not every single Canadian would prefer their head of state to be a monarch or that we should become a republic (we know that Australians are split on this issue as well), the fact remains that Queen Elizabeth was, and King Charles now is our head of state. The monarchy are the head of state for all Canadians and not just our parliamentarians. 

To that end, we the citizens of Canada ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Governor General of Canada, Mary Simon, and the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez to declare Monday, September 19th, a national public day of mourning, to allow all Canadians to pay their respects for the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, not just the privileged few.

Please join me (Canadians and all our Commonwealth cousins) in making our voices, the peoples’ voices heard by signing this petition. 

Thank you for your support.