The British monarchy is well represented in the media, on our coinage, and in the halls of Parliament, but — except for one senator’s efforts and a recent PMO press release — the country’s French kings are seldom recognized in Canada.

Queen Elizabeth II will surpass Queen Victoria as Canada’s longest-reigning monarch this year — unless, as the PMO noted last weekend, one counts Louis XIV.

“On September 9, Her Majesty’s reign will officially surpass that of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, making her the longest reigning sovereign in the modern era of our country,” read the PMO’s statement. “In the entire history of Canada, only the reign of King Louis XIV was longer at 72 years.”

Senator Serge Joyal, who in 2004 personally paid for the French kings’ portraits to be displayed in Parliament (they now hang in the Francophonie Room and the Senate foyer), tells iPolitics that last weekend’s press release was “the first time ever” this PMO recognized the French monarchy’s history in Canada.

“It is fundamentally important to recognize the history of the French monarchy in Canada,” he says, “because it was under the sovereignty of French monarchs since 1534, when explorer Jacques Cartier claimed sovereignty over Canada in the name of the King of France; and continuously remained so under successive French kings until 1763, when it was ceded by King Louis XV to the British king.”

He adds, “That makes Canada the oldest monarchy in both North and South America.”

But few monarchies remain in the Americas to challenge Canada for this distinction; only Belize (which also recognizes Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state) and a sparse constellation of Caribbean islands still share Canada’s system.

Sen. Joyal believes that greater official recognition of the French monarchy’s history in Canada could improve the image of the current institution in Quebec, where republicanism prevails (against growing monarchist sentiment in the rest of Canada).

“The Quebec flag reproduces the white cross, the blue colour and the fleur de lys that were all emblems of the French monarchy,” he says. “In other words, the Quebec flag is … an amalgamation of monarchical emblems, rooted in its history.”

And the long-reigning Louis XIV’s legacy persists in our system to this day. “In 1664, King Louis XIV decreed that the judicial system known as the Custom of Paris was to be the system of civil law for New France,” notes Sen. Joyal. “This has remained the foundation of civil law in Canada to this date.”