When King Charles III and Queen Camilla visit Canada later this month for the monarch’s reading of the speech from the throne, it will kick off two days of pomp and ceremony across the capital.
The King’s visit will mark the third time a British and Canadian monarch has read the speech from the throne in Canada, with Queen Elizabeth ll having delivered the speech in 1957 and 1977.
Arriving at Macdonald-Cartier International Airport in Ottawa on May 26 at about 1:15 p.m. ET, King Charles and Queen Camilla will be greeted by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, Prime Minister Mark 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 for which King Charles is colonel-in-chief. The Canadian Armed Forces band will also be there to perform.
The upcoming visit will mark King Charles’s 20th trip to Canada and Queen Camilla’s sixth, but it will be the monarch’s first visit as King.
The King and Queen will travel from the airport directly to Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, where they will meet with members of the community and take some time to speak with the public.
During the event at Lansdowne, the couple will meet with vendors and local artisans as music and dance performers work to create a festival atmosphere.
The King will then participate in a ceremonial puck drop to launch a street hockey demonstration.
Queen Camilla to be sworn into King’s Privy Council
King Charles and Queen Camilla will then make their way to Rideau Hall, where they will participate in a ceremonial tree planting 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 Queen Camilla is sworn in as a member of the King’s Privy Council for Canada.
The swearing-in allows the Queen to give formal advice to King Charles in his role as the King of Canada, and once sworn in, she maintains membership for life, senior government officials explained.
The late Prince Philip, who was the Duke of Edinburgh, was also sworn into the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada for the same reason, the officials said.
Ralph Goodale, high commissioner for Canada in the United Kingdom, talks about the 100th anniversary of Canada House in London — and explains why he thinks King Charles’s presence for the opening of a new session of Parliament will be a ‘very powerful statement in itself.’
On May 27, the King will fulfil his royal duties in opening Parliament by reading the speech from the throne in the Senate.
Every new session of Parliament is opened by a throne speech, a document that lays out the government’s expected direction and goals, and how it plans to achieve them.
Just before 10 a.m. ET, the King and Queen will travel to the Senate in Canada’s State Landau — the ceremonial horse-drawn carriage used for royal and viceregal transport in Ottawa — from outside the Bank of Canada on Wellington Street.
The carriage will be drawn by 28 horses of the RCMP Musical Ride, with 14 horses travelling in front of the carriage and the rest following behind.
At the Senate, the King will receive full military honours, including a 100-person guard of honour from the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, an inspection of the guard and the band, followed by a 21-gun salute.
King Charles will then deliver the speech from the throne at about 11 a.m. ET, marking the opening of the 45th Parliament of Canada, in what is expected to take between 20 and 25 minutes.
Four sketch artists will each capture a different element of the entire ceremony, including the King’s arrival, the Senate leadership, the procession into the chamber and the speech itself.
After the speech, the King and Queen will pay their respects and lay a wreath and flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial.
There will then be a Royal Canadian Air Force flypast before the royal couple return to the airport for their departure.
Earlier on Tuesday, the King and Queen paid a visit to Canada House in London’s Trafalgar Square to visit Canada’s diplomatic mission to the U.K. on its 100th anniversary.
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