Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa.

[Lallans]

The Queen came , too, so HRH won't be alone and out on the prowl!

( The Queen is "Her Majesty"--HM; Princes of the Blood Royal, and others, are Royal Highnesses. The Duke of Edinburgh, then, is HRH etc. )

I should have known, I should have known, I should have known not to try and use a throwaway term referring to royalty on this website. But I did think I was safe in that single instance! I stand corrected, but with the excuse that almost every Canadian would do the same.

EDIT: Hey waitaminnit! She's the Queen Of Canada in this country- are you sure you're not imposing British usage on us? Do Brits invite her to BBQs?

[toadinakilt]

I should have known, I should have known, I should have known not to try and use a throwaway term referring to royalty on this website. But I did think I was safe in that single instance! I stand corrected, but with the excuse that almost every Canadian would do the same.

EDIT: Hey waitaminnit! She's the Queen Of Canada in this country- are you sure you're not imposing British usage on us? Do Brits invite her to BBQs?

Do Brits even KNOW about BBQ?

[ronstew]

Yes, it is the Canadian usage. Hence, Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Ottawa.

Yours, aye,

[ThistleDown]

Canadians can actually get away with referring to her as Your Grace when talking with her in person; or Your Majesty, but never Your Highness. In an informal setting Ma'am (pronounced a bit like Muum) is acceptable, too.

[Beertigger]

Canadians can actually get away with referring to her as Your Grace when talking with her in person; or Your Majesty, but never Your Highness. In an informal setting Ma'am (pronounced a bit like Muum) is acceptable, too.

No matter your nationality, Friend Elizabeth is always acceptable, as well.

[McClef]

Canadians can actually get away with referring to her as Your Grace when talking with her in person; or Your Majesty, but never Your Highness. In an informal setting Ma'am (pronounced a bit like Muum) is acceptable, too.

It should be Ma'am as in ham not Ma'am as in harm. The convention is to use "Your Majesty" once in a conversation with the Queen and "Ma'am" thereafter.

I am surprised at the usage of "Your Grace" as this is the form of address for a Duke/Duchess or an Archbishop. The highest title always takes precedence so although the Queen is Duke of Lancaster and Duchess of Edinburgh, Majesty tops Grace just as the Duke of Edinburgh is Highness which tops Grace. It would be an archaic usage for a monarch in direct address in any case though indirectly "The Queen's Grace" or "Her Gracious Majesty" were used in past times.

No matter your nationality, Friend Elizabeth is always acceptable, as well.

I appreciate your sentiments but I wouldn't call the President of the USA "Friend Barack" but "Mr President."

Such a familiar form of address is not acceptable in protocol for any head of state, royal or otherwise.

[Downunder Kilt]

It should be Ma'am as in ham not Ma'am as in harm. The convention is to use "Your Majesty" once in a conversation with the Queen and "Ma'am" thereafter.

Looks like different accents and pronunciation on different sides of the Atlantic, call for different ways to say Ma'am. In Australia it's done the way that ThistleDown suggests, without any emphasis on the A's

[Beertigger]

It should be Ma'am as in ham not Ma'am as in harm. The convention is to use "Your Majesty" once in a conversation with the Queen and "Ma'am" thereafter.

I am surprised at the usage of "Your Grace" as this is the form of address for a Duke/Duchess or an Archbishop. The highest title always takes precedence so although the Queen is Duke of Lancaster and Duchess of Edinburgh, Majesty tops Grace just as the Duke of Edinburgh is Highness which tops Grace. It would be an archaic usage for a monarch in direct address in any case though indirectly "The Queen's Grace" or "Her Gracious Majesty" were used in past times.



I appreciate your sentiments but I wouldn't call the President of the USA "Friend Barack" but "Mr President."

Such a familiar form of address is not acceptable in protocol for any head of state, royal or otherwise.

For a member of the Society of Friends, addressing someone by a title and not by their name isn't acceptable.

Coincidentally, I ran across this amusing anecdote a while back:

FWIW, I have it on good authority that HM the Queen gets as informal as is practical when out of the public eye. (A friend of mine was an officer on whatever ship it was she and HRH Prince Philip stayed on when they visited Canada in 1982. Philip showed up in the officer's wardroom (is that the right term?) and bought the officers a drink. She showed up a few minutes later, had a gin & tonic, told the men "Oh, please don't. Just call me Ma'am if you really must call me anything but Elizabeth," and then they toddled off to bed.)

[Macman]

I should have known, I should have known, I should have known not to try and use a throwaway term referring to royalty on this website. But I did think I was safe in that single instance! I stand corrected, but with the excuse that almost every Canadian would do the same.

Hey, don't feel too bad. I knew the HM thing, but Sandy taught me something I didn't know about the Dominion on another thread. That's why I love XMTS - I learn a lot!

[Lallans]

Well I saw the Queen on the Hill yesterday but we didn't meet personally so the question of how to address her didn't come up. The crowds were stupendous, 400,000 by some accounts, answering a question I had about how many people on July 1 would be too many (100,000 would be more typical). By lurking with the huge crowds on the exit route I got to see Her Majesty within about 1.5 metres as she went by in the usual armoured limo with the three inch glass, and once safely past me in my UK , she even rolled down her window to give her trademark wave to everyone.

The local media coverage of Her Majesty's presence makes me suspect the political fix is in aganst the monarchy, since TV news had the crowd at a mere 75,000 and her speech from the ceremony was given perhaps 10 seconds of air time. For sure, from the conversations all around us, the threefold increase in crowd numbers involved people wanting to see Her Majesty on perhaps her last visit to Canada (but given her mother's record in old age, I suspect most people are underestimating HRM. I hope so anyway.)