In the face of the US president’s goading, imposition of tariffs, and threats to annex his northern neighbour, Charles III warned Canada was facing unprecedented challenges in the postwar era in a world that has never been more dangerous and unstable.
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“As the (national) anthem reminds us, The True North is indeed strong and free,” he told parliament, citing a line from O Canada.
The 76-year-old monarch, making his first visit to Canada since he became the country’s King in 2022, also reflected on the efforts of the country’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, to dial down the rhetoric since his election victory in April and sent a quiet, diplomatic message to Trump about Canadian values of mutual respect, while also emphasising Canada’s sovereignty.
King Charles III reviews the departure guard as he walks to board an aircraft while departing after a two-day visit in Ottawa (Photo credit: Patrick Doyle / POOL / AFP)
However, his 26-minute speech, written largely by the Canadian government but redrafted after several discussions with the Royal Household about tone, did not shrink from the shockwave that Trump has sent through the two countries’ longstanding relationship.
“Freedom and democracy were under threat,” he said. “Today, Canada faces another critical moment. Democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, self-determination, and freedom are values which Canadians hold dear, and ones which the government is determined to protect.”
He warned: “The system of open global trade that, while not perfect, has helped to deliver prosperity for Canadians for decades is changing. We must be clear-eyed: the world is a more dangerous and uncertain place than at any point since the Second World War. Canada is facing challenges that are unprecedented in our lifetimes.”
But it was also hailed by royal watchers and political observers as a triumph of diplomatic language that achieved the monarch’s aim of standing up for Canada amid its newfound tensions with the United States while seeking to stop short of torpedoing Britain’s efforts to tread more softly with Trump.
In the 1980s, for example, Queen Elizabeth sided with Canada’s then-prime minister Brian Mulroney and other Commonwealth leaders to throw her support privately behind efforts to use economic sanctions to try to end apartheid in South Africa, despite opposition from her then-British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and the US president Ronald Reagan.
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Trump will have known that the King’s speech was essentially written by Carney’s government but often that does not diminish the soft power of the message coming from the monarch.
In a 61-word statement on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II in March 2021, Buckingham Palace acknowledged Prince Harry and Meghan’s complaints in an Oprah Winfrey television interview, expressed the family’s love for them and challenged their allegations of unconscious racism inside the monarchy with one withering put down – “while recollections may vary”.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla board their plane at Ottawa Airport at the end of the royal two-day visit to Canada (Photo credit: Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror/PA Wire)Three years earlier she set the seal on the peace process across the Irish Sea with a speech at Dublin Castle during a momentous state visit to Ireland. After speaking in Gaelic to the delight of her hosts, she alluded to the assassination in 1979 of Prince Philip’s uncle, Lord Mountbatten, and acknowledged the pain of all who had suffered loss in the Troubles, expressing her regret. “These events have touched us all, many of us personally, and are a painful legacy. We can never forget those who have died or been injured or their families,” she said.
Trump’s aggressive assertions that the country should become the US’s 51st state have led to a surge in Canadian nationalism and a consequent rallying around the monarchy. A poll at the weekend showed that more Canadians – 45 per cent to 39 per cent – now support remaining a constitutional monarchy. That is a complete turnaround from the position when Charles acceded to the throne in 2022 and, interestingly, the Pollara poll suggests that supporters of the centre-left Liberal Party are now more in favour of the monarchy than Conservative voters.
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