Nearly 55 years before King Charles III’s historic first visit to Canada as monarch this week, he embarked on a tour of the country as a young Prince of Wales.
It was early July, 1970. Charles was 21.
The Queen Elizabeth, Princess Anne, Prince Charles and Prince Philip are accompanied by RCMP officers, Inuit leaders and local children as they walk the muddy main street of Tuktoyaktuk on July 6, 1970.John McNeill/The Globe and Mail
Joining his sister, Princess Anne, with parents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Charles was given his official introduction to royal duties outside Britain. As he travelled from Ottawa, through the Northwest Territories and Manitoba, both of which were marking the 100th anniversary of their entry into Confederation, he began to learn about his important role in Canadian history.
The country has changed plenty since then, and so has the King.
Canada has evolved as a constitutional monarchy – metamorphosing with different population dynamics, economic structures and social values as a country increasingly connected to global politics. Its relationship with Indigenous peoples has also undergone a complex maturation, from colonial subjugation to a more collaborative approach, albeit with continuing challenges.
Over the course of his 19 previous visits across Canada, the King has witnessed these shifts firsthand.
As Prince, he was alone on many of his voyages. Safety protocols prevented him from travelling on the same aircraft as his mother, so he explored Canada separately from his parents for most of his life, experiencing the country from coast, to coast, to coast.
Photographers captured the Prince taking off on a snowmobile to the Inuit hamlet of Pangnirtung in Nunavut; controlling a military Hercules airplane over the Canadian Arctic Archipelago; wearing Canadian Olympic mittens at the athletes’ village for the Vancouver Winter Games; playing a game of shinny with kids at a school in Saint John; and serving with the Royal Navy at ports in Halifax and Montreal.
When he comes to Ottawa with Queen Camilla again this week, opening Parliament by delivering the Speech from the Throne, he will be a changed man.
In between his many visits, he married, had two sons, divorced, remarried, lost both of his parents, and became King. And now, a Canadian doctor will trail him, as the King has been undergoing treatment for cancer.
Britain's King Charles holds an audience with Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney at Buckingham Palace, London, on March 17.AARON CHOWN/AFP/Getty Images
But much like that first tour in 1970, the world will be watching closely. Except, this time, the stakes are higher, and the King’s broadcast is expected to have a special audience in Washington. His speech is being seen as a means for Canada to bolster its sovereignty in the face of annexation threats from the United States.