Then-Prince Charles during a visit to Canada's Northwest Territories in May 2022. Photo / Aaron Vincent Elkaim, The New York Times
The British monarch‘s trip to Canada is his latest foray into the realm of diplomatic symbolism.
It was a call that Canadians had never been able to shout on their own soil to their new monarch: “God Save The King.”
And many of the people who had gathered at a sports and shopping complex in Ottawa made full use of it when King Charles arrived on Monday (Tuesday NZT) for a whirlwind tour of Canada’s capital more laden with symbolism than most royal visits.
Charles and Queen Camilla are in Canada at the invitation of Prime Minister Mark Carney. Charles will open Canada’s Parliament on Tuesday in a ceremony laden with pageantry and pomp before winding up his two-day visit. It is Charles’ first visit to Canada since he was crowned two years ago.
Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, invited Charles earlier this month just days after he had led the Liberal Party to victory in federal elections.
Without saying so explicitly, Carney suggested that he was taking the unusual step of having the monarch open Parliament to emphasise Canada’s distinct heritage from the United States, at a time when President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Canada to become the 51st US state.
“Canada has a steadfast defender in our sovereign,” Carney said this month.
That sentiment was echoed by many people who had waited in Lansdowne Park for about two hours before the royal couple arrived in a blue BMW limousine (previous royal visits relied on American-made Lincolns).
“The point is to show them that we have a longer history that doesn’t involve America,” said Katlyn Caldwell, who was wearing a hockey jersey with the slogan “Elbows Up”, a term from the sport that Carney has used as a response to Trump’s annexation threats. “We have a long history that often involves trying to run in the other direction from America.”
When Canada was formed in 1867, it retained many ties to Britain, including adopting that country’s monarch as its own sovereign and head of state.
But in 1947 the monarch’s duties were largely delegated to a governor general, a role currently held by Mary Simon, the first Indigenous person to be appointed to the position.
One of the governor general’s responsibilities is to open new sessions of Parliament with the reading of “the speech from the throne”.
Its presentation is more ceremonial and solemn than the more raucous mood that surrounds the State of the Union addresses given by US presidents to Congress.
While King Charles will deliver the speech as if it were his own words, it will actually be written by the prime minister’s office. It will broadly lay out the government’s legislative plans. It is expected to contain, in carefully crafted, diplomatic language, an assertion of Canada’s sovereignty.
The speech has only twice been previously read by a monarch, in both cases Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
For Charles, the trip to Canada is his latest foray into the realm of diplomatic symbolism. In February, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain harnessed the King’s star power by delivering an embossed letter from Charles to Trump, inviting the American president to make a rare second state visit to Britain.
Less than a week later, Charles hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after Zelenskyy’s bitter exchange with Trump in the Oval Office. While the king, by custom, stays out of politics, his warm welcome of Zelenskyy at his country residence, Sandringham, reinforced Europe’s embrace of the Ukrainian leader.
Charles has also had an unusual amount of face time with Canadian leaders recently.
A day after meeting Zelenskyy, the king welcomed Justin Trudeau, the former Canadian prime minister, to his country estate. Trudeau said in a social media post that they had discussed “matters of importance to Canadians — including, above all, Canada’s sovereign and independent future".
While polls long showed strong support and respect for Queen Elizabeth in Canada, Charles was deeply unpopular while he was next in line to the throne.
But the near impossibility of amending Canada’s Constitution meant there was also no movement to end the monarchy in Canada following the queen’s death.
After Charles’ divorce from Princess Diana, crowds were often sparse during his visits to Canada as prince. Many recent immigrants to Canada come from areas such as South Asia, where the British Crown is widely seen as a symbol of colonial oppression. And the monarchy provokes mixed reactions within Indigenous communities.
The monarchy has long been deeply unpopular among many French-speaking residents of Quebec.
A poll released on Monday by the Angus Reid Institute, a non-profit polling firm, found that 83% of respondents said they felt indifferent about this week’s royal visit.
On Monday, a farmers’ market normally held on weekends was set up for royal inspection. The portion inside a security perimeter included a falafel stand at which Ahmad Altaouil, a refugee from Syria, was busily tossing dough into the air.
In what may have been a subtle sign of solidarity with Mexico, another of Trump’s trade targets, a traditional Mexican dance troupe was on hand for the King and Queen.
While Monday’s crowd did not rival those of most sports events at the complex, people did fill an area Charles entered to see displays by various charities and Indigenous groups. With the exception of two men holding handwritten signs stating that Charles was not their king, the crowd was largely warm and welcoming.
While many people said they had come mainly because they lived nearby, two women with hats imprinted with Union Jacks said that they had made a four-hour drive from Bobcaygeon, Ontario, to catch a glimpse of the royal couple.
Next to them was Rushad Thomas, a self-described monarchist who had come even farther, from Hyattsville, Maryland, to see the king and queen.
Thomas said he believed the royal visit would send a message to the Trump administration about Canada’s sovereignty.
“Canada has different political traditions and a different culture,” he said, wearing a cap with a maple leaf and the word Canada on it. “Donald Trump needs to listen to that. I’m grateful to Canada and Canadians for all that they’ve done for the United States.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Ian Austen and Mark Landler
Photographs by: Aaron Vincent Elkaim, Doug Mills and AFP
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
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