Canadian Civil War

The Canadian Civil War (French: Guerre civile canadienne) was a major domestic armed conflict which lasted from 28 March 1995 to 10 June 1998. It was fought over the issue of whether Canada should remain a constitutional monarchy or become a republic, with the Royal Canadian Legion (RCL) the main power on the monarchist side and the Canadian Republican Forces (CRF) the main power on the republican side, with both sides supported by many foreign powers (the major powers being the United Kingdom on the former side and the Republic of Ireland on the latter, with the United States remaining neutral in the conflict due to its close relationship with the UK despite its republican political system). The civil war resulted in a total of 244,357 military deaths and 156,540 civilian deaths, and was thus one of the most destructive events in Canadian history. It also caused over 1.33 million internally displaced persons, although only an estimated 86,000 left or attempted to leave the country as refugees, with most resettling in parts of the country relatively untouched by the fighting, most of which occurred in and around urban areas. The six territories of Canada saw no fighting other than a handful of special operations in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon; out of the 12 provinces, Ontario followed by Quebec experienced the most fighting (338 and 279 battles, respectively), while British Columbia experienced the least (28 battles).

The civil war ended in June 1998 with the Treaty of Providence, which followed over a year of near-continuous CRF victories; the treaty was thus favourable to the republican side, while making concessions to the monarchist side due to its willing to sue for peace rather than see the war through to its end, which demonstrated a degree of rationality in spite of the seemingly inevitable republican victory. The main stipulations or the treaty were that the Parliament of Canada would pass an act making Canada a republic with an elected Canadian as head of state while preserving the country's Westminster system of government and the executive primacy of the head of government (the Prime Minister of Canada).

The office of Governor General, which under the constitutional monarchy represented Elizabeth II as head of state, was renamed President of Canada and made head of state in its own right, severing all ties with Elizabeth II and the royal family in London, and also become a popularly elected office with a term of six years. Monarchist symbology and terminology remained an important part of the political system, with virtually all government agencies beginning with the word "royal" retaining the title, and the term "Crown" continuing to be used to represent the state, such as public prosecutors being referred to as "Crown counsel". Most of these changes were enacted in July 1998 with the passage of the Acts of Republic 1998. This was followed by the Reconciliation Act 1998, which officially disarmed all paramilitaries and merged the professional military forces of the RCF and RCL into a unified Canadian Armed Forces, with a similar process applying to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; provinces also passed similar bills to reunite their provincial police and transform provincial governments from constitutional monarchies to parliamentary republics.