head of state<\/a> in Canada, which is a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies. <\/p>\n\u201cCanada has a steadfast defender in our sovereign,\u201d Carney said when he announced the visit earlier this month. <\/p>\n
Why is Charles visiting Canada?<\/p>\n
It is extraordinarily rare for the monarch to deliver what\u2019s called the speech from the throne in Canada. Charles\u2019 mother, Queen Elizabeth II, only did it twice in her 70-year reign. The last time was in 1977.<\/p>\n
Canadians are largely indifferent to the monarchy, but Carney has been eager to show the differences between Canada and the U.S. and he said that the king\u2019s visit clearly underscores the sovereignty of Canada. <\/p>\n
The Americans had a revolution to gain independence from Britain. Canada remained a colony until 1867 and continued thereafter as a constitutional monarchy with a British-style parliamentary system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re different,\u201d former Quebec Premier Jean Charest said. \u201cWe are not the United States. It sounds simple, but that\u2019s what the visit says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have the same institutions. We don\u2019t have the same history,\u201d Charest said. \u201cWe are a different country with a different choice in terms of how how we built ourselves, and King Charles tells that story.\u201d<\/p>\n
This will be Charles\u2019 first visit as monarch. He visited Canada 19 times as prince. The king has been showing his support for Canada in recent months, including displaying Canadian military medals on his chest during a visit to a Royal Navy aircraft carrier.<\/p>\n
Historian Robert Bothwell said that the king\u2019s speech in Parliament \u201cis a gesture of solidarity and identity that can be construed to be a gesture of support.\u201d<\/p>\n
But new U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said sending messages isn\u2019t necessary. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled that the king will be here. If there\u2019s a message in there, you know, there\u2019s easier ways to send messages. Just give me a call. Carney can call the president at any time,\u201d Hoekstra told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. \u201cBut I know what the implication is. It\u2019s, oh about … the 51st state, it\u2019s over. And, you know, move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is the speech from the throne?<\/p>\n
The speech sets the legislative agenda for a new session of Parliament. It\u2019s not written by the king or his advisers in the U.K., as the king serves as a nonpartisan head of state.<\/p>\n
The king will read what is put before him by Canada\u2019s prime minister and his team. The speech is usually read by Canada\u2019s governor general, the monarch\u2019s representative in Canada. The governor general holds a constitutional but mostly ceremonial and symbolic position. <\/p>\n
\u201cKing Charles is unlikely to comment directly on the 51st state issue. Yet, his introductory remarks could feature broad statements about Canada\u2019s integrity and sovereignty. At least this is what many Canadians would like him to do,\u201d said Daniel B\u00e9land, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.<\/p>\n
Former Canadian prime ministers and governor generals will attend the speech. The king will then pay his respects at the National War Memorial before a Royal Canadian Air Force flyby. <\/p>\n
What will the French in Quebec think?<\/p>\n
B\u00e9land said the monarchy has long been unpopular among Quebec\u2019s French-speaking majority, and some nationalist voices in the province have been critical of the Carney government\u2019s decision to invite the king to deliver the throne speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether the separatists work themselves into a lather over this frankly, I don\u2019t care. I don\u2019t think Quebecers will care a lot,\u201d said Charest, the former premier of Quebec. \u201cThe may not like the monarchy or whatever they\u2019d like to read into it, but British institutions have served us very well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 King Charles III is coming to Canada to deliver a message: Canada is a sovereign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,943,32955,63903,7730,7731,63900,32,77,4179,63902,1760,518,2129,60204,285,1763,63901,7710,519,7796,15,49,5213,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-149301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canada-government","11":"tag-canada-king-king-charles-iii","12":"tag-charles","13":"tag-charles-iii","14":"tag-daniel-bland","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-jean-charest","19":"tag-king-charles","20":"tag-king-charles-iii","21":"tag-mark-carney","22":"tag-peter-hoekstra","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-queen-elizabeth-ii","25":"tag-robert-bothwell","26":"tag-royal-families","27":"tag-royal-family","28":"tag-royalty","29":"tag-united-kingdom","30":"tag-united-states","31":"tag-united-states-government","32":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114607828944103094","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}