Monarchists hopeful King Charles will deliver Carney government's first throne speech
'It would show a certain president to the south that we are truly independent and sovereign,' royalist says
Monarchists in Canada are hopeful King Charles will deliver the new Liberal government's first speech from the throne when Parliament returns at the end of May. They say it would be an important gesture from the country's head of state as Canada stares down U.S. President Donald Trump and his 51st state taunts.
GZERO Media, citing sources in Canada and the U.K., reported Wednesday an invitation is "rumoured" to have been extended to Charles.
When asked by CBC News Thursday, a Buckingham Palace source did not deny there was an invitation from Prime Minister Mark Carney to Charles to deliver the throne speech. The Prime Minister's Office did not respond to a request for comment on the potential visit.
But monarchists in the know say there has been a concerted push to get Charles here for a visit — something he hasn't done since he was in Canada to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in 2022 — and there are strong signals it could happen sometime around May 26 when the House returns.
"I think the timing would be perfect," said Robert Finch, the chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada.
"It would be a great show of sovereignty. It would remind Canadians who the head of state is and it would show a certain president to the south that we are truly an independent and sovereign country with King Charles III, a man he respects, as our monarch," he said.
Charles just addressed the Italian Parliament in Rome last month and referenced Canada's Second World War efforts, a rare gesture by the King when speaking outside of Canadian or Commonwealth settings. Charles has maintained a limited travel schedule since undergoing treatment for cancer.
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.
The House of Commons and the Senate cannot go ahead with any business until the monarch or their representative, the Governor General, delivers that speech — a nod to the vital role the Crown plays in Canada's parliamentary democracy.
The speech is read from the throne reserved for the King in the upper house, which is how it gets its name.
The last time the speech was actually read by Canada's head of state was when Queen Elizabeth delivered it in 1977.
'It would be a huge moment'
"This was almost 50 years ago. It was a completely different Canada," said Nathan Tidridge, a high school teacher in Waterdown, Ont., and expert on Crown-Indigenous history and the vice-president of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada.
"It would be a huge moment. This would be the King truly acting as the King of Canada and it would be an assertion of our sovereignty at this moment where we're trying to define what is Canada, what is confederation. It could potentially be the King's legacy in this country," he said in an interview.
A royal visit would also be Charles's latest Canadian gesture.
In the last two months since the Trump trade war erupted, Charles has met with both Carney and former prime minister Justin Trudeau for private audiences, wore his Canadian medals during a high-profile military visit, planted a red maple leaf tree on the grounds of Buckingham Palace and granted his personal Canadian liaison and senior protocol officer in Parliament a sword.
"The King has this desire to support the Canadian realm, to act as the King of Canada," Tidridge said.
"It would send a powerful message to not only Canadians, but also to Trump," he said of the potential visit, citing the president's reverence for the monarchy.
"The King's been doing these nods to Canada outside of the country. Imagine what it would be like if he were here — it's a tremendous opportunity" to bolster the Crown's role in Canada at such a perilous moment, he said.
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