The whole point of Canada being a democracy while retaining a hereditary monarch as her head of state is that the monarch is above politics. That idea is built on a lot of wishful thinking, but it isn’t without some truth either. At the moment there’s no better way to demonstrate the benefits of monarchy than having Her Majesty visit Saskatchewan and Alberta regardless of what is going on in Ottawa. And, besides, if she visits now for a week she will have come and gone long before Election Day rolls around.

There are a lot of people doing a lot of work to organize performances and events for the Queen’s visit. It severly overvalues the politicians to postpone or cancel those events on their account. If the government falls during her Majesty’s visit then Paul Martin and crew simply don’t get any royal photo ops. I’m pretty sure the only people who might have a problem with that are members of Mr. Martin’s cabinet.