Ottawa — Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has defended John Manley's antimonarchist comments, saying they were his personal opinions, but the Prime Minister added there is no appetite in Canada for a serious debate on the monarchy.

And while Mr. Chrétien was defending his Deputy Prime Minister to British Broadcasting Corp. television, Mr. Manley was joking about the issue in the House of Commons.

Addressed as "King John" by Progressive Conservative Leader Joe Clark, Mr. Manley replied, "Mr. Speaker, I've always thought of the king as Elvis."

In an interview with BBC television, Mr. Chrétien waded into the controversy sparked by his Deputy Prime Minister, who evoked a wave of criticism by suggesting last Friday that Canada would be better served with a home-grown head of state.

"He said it is a personal view — it is not a position of the government," Mr. Chrétien told his British interviewer.

"In a government, I have to tell you, madam, we have a lot of personal views. At the end of the day, the policy of the government is the one that is enunciated by the Prime Minister. He says it was his personal view and he has a right to that."

Mr. Chrétien noted that Australia had a referendum on the monarchy, but those who favoured the republican position could not agree on how to replace the Queen as head of state.

"It's not a problem I intend to tackle because for me it is not a big problem at all," he said.

Officials in the Prime Ministers' Office had expected that the interview would be shown only in Britain and were caught off guard when it aired on the CBC at about the time a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister told reporters travelling with the Queen that Mr. Chrétien would have no comment on Mr. Manley's statements.

The spokeswoman also said that the Prime Minister would not change the plan for Mr. Manley to escort the Queen from the Ottawa airport on the weekend.

If the furor retains its intensity, it may prove an awkward 20-minute car ride to Rideau Hall.

Opposition politicians and royal watchers continued yesterday to demand that the Finance Minister excuse himself as the Queen's government escort after his remarks last Friday, the first day of the monarch's national tour.

But an official speaking for the Prime Minister's Office said Mr. Manley and his wife will "absolutely" be greeting the Queen and Prince Philip at the Ottawa airport on Saturday evening.

"The Deputy Prime Minister will greet Her Majesty with all the courtesy that her Royal Highness deserves," the official said.

Both Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen Harper and Mr. Clark said Mr. Manley should pass the job to someone else.

"It would just be wiser for the Prime Minister to have someone who had not gone out his way to be rude to Her Majesty," Mr. Clark said.

Several Liberal colleagues have said Mr. Manley's timing was inappropriate, including Environment Minister David Anderson and Liberal backbencher Roger Gallaway, who reminded the Finance Minister that he had taken an oath to the Queen when he became an MP. (On that front yesterday, Liberal MP Eugene Bellemare retabled his private member's bill to add Canada to the oath, which currently requires allegiance only to the Queen.)

Mr. Manley has said that he wishes he'd been "more skillful in not answering a question" on Friday when he said in Montreal that while the Queen has done a "good job," the monarchy should be replaced with a Canadian institution.

<nm>neew <nm> "I would very much regret it if somehow this was [viewed as] being intended to take away from the display of affection Canadians are making for the Queen, which I think is quite appropriate," Mr. Manley told CBC after Question Period.

<nm>end new <nm> John Aimers, dominion chairman of the Monarchist League, who fired off a letter to Mr. Chrétien demanding he find a new escort for the Queen, worries that further embarrassment is possible if the crowd gives in to a "strong temptation" to boo Mr. Manley.

As the itinerary stands now, the Deputy Prime Minister and his wife are scheduled to greet the Queen and Prince Philip at the Ottawa airport, and accompany the royal pair to Rideau Hall, where they will spend the night. The Manleys are also slated to travel with the Queen the next day. Writing about the tour last week, the Scotland Herald pointed out that Mr. Manley's role as the Minister in Attendance, brings the Queen into close quarters with "the federal cabinet's most ardent opponent of royal rule."

Even so, Mr. Anderson said that Mr. Manley need not worry about getting a scolding from the Queen en route to Rideau Hall. Although he refused to say whether the issue had come up during the 24 hours he spent escorting the Queen around British Columbia, he said: "The Queen is an extremely gracious person, with great skill and diplomatic tact. I'm sure it will be a very pleasant experience."