Shortly after lunchtime today, King Charles and Queen Camilla will arrive at the Ottawa International Airport to take part in two days of official duties crafted to remind U.S. President Donald Trump that Canada is not an American state in waiting, but its own country with its own identity, culture and history.
The highlight of the trip takes place Tuesday when the King will deliver the speech from the throne in the Senate. Every new session of Parliament is opened by a throne speech, which lays out the government’s expected goals and how it plans to achieve them.
It will be the third speech from the throne delivered by a monarch: Queen Elizabeth delivered the speech in 1957 and 1977.
Shortly after Mark Carney became prime minister he met with Charles and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London, where he invited the King to travel to Canada to open Parliament.
“I think the prime minister wants to make much more news with this and to send … ceremonial but … subtly real messages to the United States that we are different from them,” David Johnson, a retired political science professor in Cape Breton, N.S., told CBC News last week.
“We have a completely different constitutional order, we are a different nation, we have sovereignty, and the King is the symbolic manifestation of the Canadian Constitution and the Canadian government.”
Pete Hoekstra, the newly minted U.S. ambassador to Canada, told CBC Radio’s The House in an interview that aired Saturday that despite Trump’s repeated claims he wants to absorb Canada — including again during hCarney’s Oval Office meeting May 6 — the annexation saga is “over.”
“Move on. If the Canadians want to keep talking about it, that’s their business. I’m not talking about it, Donald Trump is not talking about it. We’ve got too much on our plate to move forward because we’re all about increasing America’s prosperity, safety and security,” Hoekstra told host Catherine Cullen.
Hoekstra said the U.S. government will be listening closely to “the content of the speech because it is the platform of the ruling party.” King Charles will deliver the speech at about 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday, and it’s expected to take between 20 and 25 minutes.
Arriving at Macdonald-Cartier International Airport at about 1:15 p.m. ET today, Charles and Camilla will be greeted by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, Carney and his wife Diana Fox Carney.
Also present at the airport will be Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak; Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami; and Victoria Pruden, Métis National Council president.
The royal couple will also be greeted by an honour guard of 25 Royal Canadian Dragoons, a regiment of which King Charles is colonel-in-chief. The Canadian Armed Forces band will also be there to perform.
From the airport, Canada’s King and Queen will head directly to Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, arriving just before 2 p.m. There they will meet with members of the community, vendors and local artisans as music and dance performers create a festival atmosphere.
The King will then participate in a ceremonial puck drop to launch a street hockey demonstration.
Today’s official duties will then see the King and Queen travel to Rideau Hall to participate in a ceremonial tree planting at 2:50 p.m. on the grounds of the Governor General’s official residence.
The first day of the visit will conclude with a short reception for lieutenant-governors from each of the 10 Canadian provinces, and territorial commissioners from the three northern territories. The King and Queen will then meet with Carney and Simon before Camilla is sworn in as a member of the King’s Privy Council for Canada.
CBC News chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault, along with royal historian Carolyn Harris, will host live coverage of the first day of the royal visit.
CBC News will analyze the meaning behind every symbolic moment as King Charles makes his mark here. That’s on Monday starting at 12:30 p.m. ET (9:30 a.m. PT, 10:30 a.m. MT, 11:30 a.m. CT, 1:30 p.m. AT, 2 p.m. NT) on CBC TV, CBC News Network and everywhere you stream CBC News: CBC Gem, CBCNews.ca, the CBC News app, YouTube channel and on your smart TV.
On Tuesday CBC News chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton, together with Power & Politics host David Cochrane, will provide special live coverage of the throne speech delivered by King Charles.
CBC News’s coverage begins at 9 a.m. ET (6 a.m. PT, 7 a.m. MT, 8 a.m. CT, 10 a.m. AT, 10:30 a.m. NT) on CBC TV, CBC News Network and everywhere you stream CBC News: CBC Gem, CBCNews.ca, the CBC News app, YouTube channel, and on your smart TV.
CBC Radio also has live coverage of the speech from the throne. Tune in at 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday on CBC Radio, CBC Listen, Sirius and the CBC news app.
