Canada’s top paper: We don’t want them
AS PRINCE Harry prepares to be reunited with his wife and son in Canada, the country’s biggest newspaper has told them they are not welcome to live there.
In a scathing editorial, The Globe and Mail said: ‘Canada is not a halfway house for anyone looking to get out of Britain while remaining a royal.’
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau tweeted before Christmas that Harry, Meghan and eightmonth-old Archie ‘were among friends, and always welcome here’.
But yesterday the nation’s most influential newspaper condemned the couple’s ‘vague and evolving plan to move to Canada while remaining part of the Royal Family’, adding: ‘The Trudeau government’s response should be simple and succinct: No.’
The Globe and Mail, a conservative paper that traditionally supports the monarchy, wrote: ‘If they were ordinary private citizens, plain old Harry and Meghan from Sussex, they would be welcome.
‘But this country’s unique monarchy, and its delicate yet essential place in our constitutional system, means that a royal resident – the prince is sixth in the line of succession – is not something that Canada can allow. It breaks an unspoken constitutional taboo.’
The editorial said Canada’s relationship to the monarchy was different from Britain’s, adding: ‘Our royals don’t live here. They reign from a distance. Close to our hearts, far from our hearths.
‘Canadians like their monarchy, and visits by the Queen and other members of the Royal Family tend to produce outpourings of public enthusiasm.’ But the royals should not ‘set up a home on the premises’, it said. ‘Princes are not shipped over here when no useful duties can be found for them on the other side of the Atlantic.
‘Canada welcomes people of all faiths, nationalities and races, but if you’re a senior member of our Royal Family, this country cannot become your home.’
The Globe and Mail said it was not a question of money, writing: ‘It goes deeper than the possibility of the feds having to find a few million extra bucks.’
Canadians are split over the royal issue, with some furious about reports their government has offered to pick up the tab for Harry and Meghan’s security – which will cost millions of pounds a year.
The Canadian finance minister has insisted that no such discussions have taken place.
Today, Prince Harry faces an awkward return to Buckingham Palace as he hosts the draw there for the Rugby League World Cup.
The Queen will not be in residence as her grandson undertakes his first major engagement since the royal crisis.
He has several meetings in the UK early next week, after which he is expected to fly to Vancouver Island where Meghan and Archie are staying in the £10.7 million villa where they spent Christmas.