King Charles III, the British monarch, has arrived in Canada for a two-day visit that officials say aims to assert support for the country’s sovereignty amid President Donald Trump’s calls for annexing the United States’s northern neighbour.
The monarch’s trip, which started on Monday, comes at the invitation of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose party won the general election last month amid Trump’s threats.
Charles is the ceremonial head of state in Canada, which remained a Commonwealth realm after gaining independence from Great Britain in 1867.
The king is to open parliament in Ottawa on Tuesday with a “Speech from the Throne” – the first such address to be delivered by a British monarch in Canada since 1977.
While the British monarch has refrained from interfering in politics in recent decades and remained a symbolic figure, Charles is expected to deliver a message of support for Canada against Trump’s statements.
“The prime minister has made it clear that Canada is not for sale now, is not for sale ever,” Canada’s envoy to the United Kingdom, Ralph Goodale, told reporters last week.
“The king, as head of state, will reinforce the power and the strength of that message.”
Canadian officials have forcefully rejected Trump’s comments about making their country the 51st US state as a trade row between the two countries continues. During a visit to the White House this month, Carney told Trump that Canada is “not for sale”.
Charles’s trip, which he will make with his wife Queen Camilla, will be his first visit to the former British colony since becoming king in September 2022.
Governor General Mary Simon, the monarch’s ceremonial representative in Canada, said the royal couple’s visit holds “profound significance”.
“It reaffirms the enduring constitutional bond that has shaped Canada’s journey into a proud and independent nation,” Simon, who is the first Indigenous person to hold the position, said in a statement.
Justin Vovk, royal historian at McMaster University, stressed that the king is unlikely to make any explicit statements against Trump during his visit.
“If people are expecting to hear Donald Trump’s name mentioned or ‘the 51st state’ mentioned, they are going to be disappointed,” Vovk told Al Jazeera. “The King has a very small constitutional box that he has to operate in.”
He added that expressions of support for Canada will “be couched in very generic terms”.
On Monday, the royal couple will visit a park in Ottawa and meet vendors and artists, according to Buckingham Palace. The king will then participate in a ceremonial puck drop to launch a street hockey demonstration before planting a tree in another part of the city.
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