King Charles III and Queen Camilla look at the Key to Canada House which was presented to the King by High Commissioner for Canada, Ralph Goodale, during a visit to Canada House, in London, on May 20.Arthur Edwards/The Associated Press
King Charles III‘s first visit to Canada as monarch next week will be marked by spectacle and pageantry, including a 100-person guard of honour and a 21-gun salute.
The historic occasion, during which the King will open Parliament by delivering the Speech from the Throne, will demonstrate Canada’s sovereignty, senior government officials said in a background briefing for journalists on Tuesday, where details of the visit were provided.
Twenty-eight horses of the RCMP Musical Ride will accompany the state landau bearing the King and Queen Camilla from outside the Bank of Canada to the Senate, where he will deliver the speech in the presence of Prime Minister Mark Carney, Governor-General Mary Simon, former prime ministers and parliamentarians.
At the Senate, the King will receive full military honours, including a royal salute, a guard of honour from the Royal Canadian Regiment, and an inspection of the guard.
The King has visited Canada many times as Prince of Wales, including on five official tours. As a 26-year-old in the mid-1970s, he dove beneath the ice north of the Arctic Circle, and in 1970 he and other members of the Royal Family took a short break from a tour at a Manitoba potato farm to relax and go riding.
The King’s decision to deliver the Throne Speech in person is being seen as an important gesture after President Donald Trump’s repeated statements that he wants to turn Canada into the 51st U.S. state.
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Throne speeches, setting out the government’s priorities, are usually delivered by the governor-general, the monarch‘s representative in Canada. This will be the third time in Canadian history that a monarch has delivered the Throne Speech in Ottawa. The last time was in 1977, when Queen Elizabeth II read the speech as part of her Silver Jubilee tour. In 1957, she did so to mark her first visit to Canada as Queen.
The King, who last visited Canada as Prince of Wales in 2022, has been undergoing treatment for cancer. A Canadian doctor will be on hand during the royal visit, senior government officials said, as a British doctor cannot practise in Canada.
Mr. Carney, who invited the King to open Parliament, remarked when he announced the royal visit earlier this month that “Canada has a steadfast defender in our sovereign.”
Andrew Heard, an emeritus professor at Simon Fraser University and an expert on constitutional issues, said that “the King’s presence is a direct signal to President Trump, who appears to have some respect for the British monarchy.”
“There is some hope that the content of the Speech from the Throne will receive much more attention in Washington precisely because it is delivered by the King,” he said.
Former prime ministers of Canada and governors-general will be among those attending the opening of Parliament, along with MPs and senators who may have to fight for space to watch the occasion in person.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who lost his seat in the general election and is preparing to stand in a by-election in a bid to re-enter the Commons, may have to watch from the public gallery.
While in Ottawa, Queen Camilla is due to be sworn in as a member of the King’s Privy Council for Canada, giving her the authority to advise the monarch on Canadian issues. (She is already a member of the British Privy Council.) The swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall confers the position on her for life.
High Commissioner for Canada Ralph Goodale (at the left of King Charles) and Chief Perry Bellegarde (at the right of King Charles) stand on a large map of Canada during a visit to Canada House.Arthur Edwards/Reuters
As on previous royal visits to Canada, there will be a strong Indigenous presence. Before the King reads the Speech from the Throne, a young Métis fiddle player will perform and an Inuk elder will light a ceremonial fire.
Indigenous leaders will also welcome the royal couple at the airport alongside Mr. Carney and his wife, Diana Fox Carney; Ms. Simon, the Governor-General; and Edith Dumont, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario.
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The King is colonel-in-chief of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, and an honour guard from the armoured regiment will greet the royal couple at the airport.
On Monday, the King will plant a blue beech tree, which is native to Ontario, during a visit to Rideau Hall, where he will hold audiences with the Governor-General and the Prime Minister.
The royal couple will also attend an informal community event in Ottawa and meet local stall holders, musicians and dancers in what government officials say will prove a festive occasion. They will also watch a street-hockey demonstration, where the King will be invited to drop the puck.
“This visit offers an opportunity to showcase the special relationship between Canada and the Crown, while also highlighting the strength, diversity and unity that define us on the world stage,” Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity, said in a statement.
Before leaving Ottawa, the King and Queen will lay a wreath and flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial.
On Tuesday, the King and Camilla visited Canada House in London to mark the 100th anniversary of the site of the Canadian High Commission in Trafalgar Square.
In what is seen as another symbolic gesture after Mr. Trump’s comments about annexing Canada, a gigantic map of the country was laid out on the floor. Ralph Goodale, Canada’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, and Perry Bellegarde, former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, toured the map with the King, pointing out Canada’s national parks and other notable sites.
The map had been flown over specially by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS), folded up in a hockey bag.
Mr. Bellegarde, honorary president of the RCGS, said the King pointed out the site in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, where he undertook the perilous dive beneath the ice as a young man.
Speaking to The Globe, Mr. Bellegarde said that the King’s decision to come to Canada to deliver the Throne Speech next week sends “a very powerful message.”
“Canada is a constitutional monarchy, and we are totally different from the USA in that regard, and we are a strong, independent, sovereign nation,” he said.
John Geiger, the RCGS’s chief executive officer, said the King’s stroll across the map sent a powerful message about Canada’s sovereignty.
“It was hugely symbolic in the context of these insults and threats that the country has been experiencing for many months now and which have been quite relentless,” he said. “His role as king is one of the tools that the federal government seems to have very wisely deployed to counteract this ongoing threat to the sovereignty of our country.”
Share your thoughts on King Charles' visit to Canada
King Charles III is making his first official visit to Canada as monarch next week, and is set to deliver the Throne Speech to open Parliament. We want to know your thoughts. Are you welcoming the visit with open arms, do you think it's an outdated custom, or are you somewhere in the middle? Let us know.