King Charles III was given an enthusiastic welcome on Monday by Canadians who turned out in droves to see their monarch on his historic visit to open parliament, as part of the pushback against US President Donald Trump\u2019s annexation threats.<\/p>\n
The 76-year-old king, who is Canada\u2019s head of state as part of the Commonwealth, was greeted at the airport by Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has invited him to give an address opening Canada\u2019s new legislature on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis historic honor matches the weight of our times,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n
On their first stop in the Canadian capital, the royals visited a farmer\u2019s market, where they were cheered by thousands of Canadians. The king also dropped the puck for a street hockey game.<\/p>\n
The so-called throne speech outlining the government\u2019s priorities is typically given by the British monarch\u2019s representative in Canada, the governor general.<\/p>\n
Queen Elizabeth II, the king\u2019s late mother, delivered a throne speech in Canada just twice during her long reign, in 1957 and 1977.<\/p>\n
Charles, making his first visit to Canada since his coronation, has never commented on Trump\u2019s repeated talk of making Canada the 51st US state.<\/p>\n
But he will be closely watched for any comments on Canada\u2019s sovereignty, and on trade.<\/p>\n
Trump has slapped tariffs on Canadian goods including sector-specific levies on autos, steel and aluminum, rattling the Canadian economy, although he has suspended some of them pending negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u2018Momentous occasion\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n Queen Camilla is accompanying Charles on the 24-hour visit to Ottawa.<\/p>\n Carney has said his newly-elected government has been given a mandate \u201cto define a new economic and security relationship with the United States,\u201d a neighbor he believes Canada \u201ccan no longer trust.\u201d<\/p>\n He has promised to curb reliance on trade with the United States by boosting internal commerce while forging deeper economic ties with allies overseas.<\/p>\n The government\u2019s path to build up Canada and create new relationships will be outlined in Charles\u2019s speech, Carney said Monday.<\/p>\n A government statement described the visit as \u201ca momentous and historic occasion that underscores Canada\u2019s identity and sovereignty as a constitutional monarchy.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump repeatedly returned to his annexation musings during Carney\u2019s Oval Office visit earlier this month, insisting it would be a \u201cwonderful marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n Carney stood his ground, saying Canada was \u201cnever for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s envoy to Canada, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, dismissed the notion that inviting Charles to open parliament was an effective way to make a statement on annexation. According to him, the annexation issue is \u201cover.\u201d<\/p>\n But, among the throngs that showed up to welcome the royals, Robert Brown, 64, said: \u201cI think it\u2019s a very subtle form of diplomacy. A good one.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Once in a lifetime\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n After Charles and Camilla landed in Ottawa in the afternoon, they were received by Governor General Mary Simon and other dignitaries before meeting community organizations.<\/p>\n They also planted a tree at the governor general\u2019s estate, and Charles held audiences with Carney and Indigenous leaders.<\/p>\n At the Senate on Tuesday, the monarch will receive full military honors before delivering the throne speech.<\/p>\n Noah Marshall told AFP he couldn\u2019t miss this \u201conce in a lifetime opportunity to come see the royals.\u201d The 24-year-old also noted that because Trump seems to respect the King, \u201cthat\u2019s a good kind of signal to him.\u201d<\/p>\n Gaelle Hortop, 46, said she is \u201coptimistic that it\u2019ll be positive for Canadian morale\u201d too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"King Charles III was given an enthusiastic welcome on Monday by Canadians who turned out in droves to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7730,7731,1760,7710,519],"class_list":{"0":"post-612702","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-charles","10":"tag-charles-iii","11":"tag-king-charles","12":"tag-royal-families","13":"tag-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115664109313193691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612702","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=612702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}