Toronto – King Carlos III comes to Canada to deliver a message: Canada is a sovereign nation other than the United States.
The repeated suggestion of the president of the United States that the United States Annex your northern neighbor He promoted the new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to invite Charles to give the throne speech on Tuesday, where he will establish the agenda of the Canadian government when the Parliament reopens.
The monarch is the head of state In Canada, which is a member of the British Commonwealth of ancient colonies.
“Canada has a firm defender in our sovereign,” said Carney when he announced the visit earlier this month.
It is extraordinarily rare for the monarch to deliver what is called the throne speech in Canada. Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, only did it twice in her 70 -year reign. The last time was in 1977.
The Canadians are largely indifferent to the monarchy, but Carney has been anxious to show the differences between Canada and the United States and said that the King’s visit clearly underlines Canada’s sovereignty.
The Americans had a revolution to obtain the independence of Great Britain. Canada remained a colony until 1867 and continued from then on a constitutional monarchy with a British parliamentary system.
“We are different,” said Quebec Prime Minister Jean Charast. “We are not the United States. It sounds simple, but that is what the visit says.
“We don’t have the same institutions. We don’t have the same story,” Charest said. “We are a different country with a different option in terms of how we built, and King Charles tells that story.”
This will be Charles’s first visit as a monarch. He visited Canada 19 times as Prince. The King has been showing his support for Canada in recent months, including the exhibition of Canadian military medals in his chest during a visit to an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy.
Historian Robert Bhwell said that King’s speech in Parliament “is a gesture of solidarity and identity that can be interpreted as a gesture of support.”
But the new United States ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, said sending messages is not necessary.
“We are delighted that the king is here. If there is a message there, you know, there are easier ways to send messages. Just call me. Carney can call the president at any time,” Hoekstra told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “But I know what the involvement is. It is, oh, about … State 51, it’s over. And, you know, keep going.”
The speech establishes the legislative agenda for a new session of Parliament. It is not written by the king or his advisors in the United Kingdom, since the king serves as a non -partisan state manager.
The King will read what the Prime Minister of Canada and his team will put him before him. The speech is generally read by the Governor General of Canada, the representative of the monarch in Canada. The general governor has a constitutional position but above all ceremonial and symbolic.
“It is unlikely that King Charles directly comments on the number 51 of the State. However, his introductory comments could submit broad statements about the integrity and sovereignty of Canada. At least this is what many Canadians would like him to do,” said Daniel Béland, professor of political science at McGill University in Montreal.
The former prime ministers and generals of Canadian governors will attend the speech. Then, the king will present his respects in the National War Memorial before a Flyby of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Béland said that the monarchy has been unpopular during the majority of French -speaking of Quebec, and some nationalist voices in the province have been criticized with the decision of Carney’s government to invite the king to pronounce the discourse of the throne.
“If the separatists become a foam on this frankly, I don’t care. I don’t think the Quebes worry a lot,” said Charest, the former Quebec prime minister. “He may not like the monarchy or what they would like to read in it, but the British institutions have served us very well.”
