TORONTO --
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was a prince by any measure.
Born a member of the Greek and Danish royal families in a time when intermarriage between royal families was in decline, he could well have expected to lead a life of gilded idleness after his family went into exile shortly after his birth.
Instead, he fell in love with a distant cousin and threw himself into a life of service to the peoples of the Commonwealth, becoming the longest serving consort in our history.
A crusty character on occasion, Prince Philip irritated some and confounded others while defying political correctness in his often brusque and sometimes insensitive attempts at levity in small talk. No group escaped his gaffes -- or wit, depending on one’s perspective.