Royal couple set for Canadian tour
Prince Charles and Camilla’s three-day visit to address Indigenous reconciliation, climate change
Charles and Camilla will stop in St. John’s, N.L., Ottawa and the Yellowknife area
Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, are set to begin a three-day tour of Canada this week that will focus on Indigenous reconciliation and climate change — and on connecting with a Canadian public that is increasingly skeptical of the monarchy.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will stop in St. John’s, N.L., Ottawa and the Yellowknife area during a visit that “will highlight an emphasis on learning from Indigenous Peoples in Canada as well as a focus on working with businesses to find a more sustainable way of living with global warming,” according to Clarence House, the couple’s official London residence.
In line with those priorities, they will attend a reconciliation event in St. John’s and will visit the First Nation community of Dettah in Yellowknife. There will also be a visit to the Dettah ice road, as well as discussions on the importance of sustainable finance in building an economy with net-zero carbon emissions.
The visit, which begins Tuesday, will be the 19th trip to Canada for Prince Charles and the fifth for Camilla.
It is a joyful occasion for royal fans, who are looking forward to the couple’s first visit to Canada since 2017. Robert Finch, the head of the Monarchist League of Canada, believes the tour in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee — her 70 years on the throne — couldn’t come at a better time.
“We’re just coming out of a pandemic that’s taken its toll on all of us, and we’re in the midst of more uncertainty economically, geopolitically, what have you,” he said in a phone interview. “So it’s nice to get those things that are kind of positives and the things that celebrate and bring people together.”
Besides the more serious meetings, the trip involves plenty of pomp and photo-ops, including visits to local businesses, ceremonies to celebrate the jubilee and a viewing of the RCMP musical ride — a performance on horseback.
Both supporters and critics of the monarchy say the visit will be a test of Charles’s ability to win over the Canadian public at a time of increasing scrutiny of the monarchy.
Opinion polls have suggested that support for the monarchy in Canada has been steadily dropping in recent years.
An online poll from Angus Reid released in late April that surveyed a representative sample of1,607 Canadian adults found that just over half — 51 per cent — felt the country should not remain a monarchy in coming generations, compared with 26 per cent who thought it should.