National Post (National Edition)
Dutch princess returns to Ottawa
• Princess Margriet of the Netherlands is visiting Ottawa, the city where she was born during the Second World War.
The princess was born at the Ottawa Civic Hospital after the Dutch royal family fled to Canada to escape Nazi occupying forces in 1940.
On Thursday, the princess planted tulips at Stornoway, the house where she and her family lived when she was a child. It is now the residence of the leader of the Opposition.
She is set to meet the prime minister, Governor General and MPs and speak with Canadian veterans who helped liberate the Netherlands from the Nazis.
The princess is also planning to visit the Canadian Tulip Festival.
Tulips are considered a symbol of friendship between the Netherlands and Canada. Princess Margriet's mother, Princess Juliana, sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Canada in gratitude for its help liberating her homeland from German forces.
More than 7,600 Canadians died while helping to free the Netherlands in 19441945.
Princess Margriet met Liberal and Conservative MPs on Parliament's Canada-Netherlands friendship group on Thursday at the Ottawa residence of the Netherlands' ambassador.
Brad Vis, chair of the group, said the princess stressed her affection for Canada, the country of her birth, at the meeting.
“We had a wonderful discussion about Canada-Dutch relationships and Canadian and Dutch culture,” the Conservative MP said. “The Dutch princess has a special place in Canada given that she was born in Ottawa in the Second World War.”
Princess Margriet was born at the Civic Hospital in Ottawa in January 1943, the third daughter of Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard.
After the Netherlands was liberated in August 1945, Princess Margriet returned to the country.