In chess the king hangs back – symbolic, powerful and only rarely deployed. In international diplomacy his role depends on who is bringing him into play.
While Sir Keir Starmer has been making use of King Charles III to get closer to Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is using the monarch to repel him.
A British monarch has not delivered Canada’s throne speech – effectively a state opening of parliament – since 1977 and has not opened a brand-new session of parliament since 1957. The monarch’s visit is not a coincidence.
Carney won the Canadian election by rejecting Trump’s suggestion his nation become America’s 51st US state. Trump’s tariffs also jeopardised Canada’s economy, since the US is its biggest trading partner. Carney is using the willing King to make a point.
At Carney’s invitation during the King’s two-day visit to Canada he will deliver the government’s legislative agenda. Like a state opening in the House of Lords in London, Charles will read out a list of bills. However, in Ottawa he will also have some leeway to add a few thoughts of his own. In a suit, not ermine, the monarch’s address will be closely scrutinised for any hint of a rebuke to the US President.
Carney’s recent White House meeting with Trump included a firm declaration of Canada’s independence, a sentiment the King’s address, drafted by the Canadian government, will likely reiterate. The Queen will also be sworn into the Canadian Privy Council in a brief ceremony.
Last month, Carney described the upcoming visit as “a historic honour befitting these momentous times” and emphasised that the King’s visit powerfully underscored his nation’s sovereignty.
While you might expect Canadians to be ambivalent at best about the monarchy, two recent polls suggested feelings are warming towards the British throne.
Unlike some other nations, Canada’s separation from the monarchy has been a slow process, and its connections have never been entirely severed. Canada’s parliamentary system is based on the Westminster system. While formally the head of state, the monarch’s Canadian responsibilities are usually delegated to the governor-general.
Canada has, let’s say, a mixed attitude to the monarchy. Carney is a Liberal politician. His predecessor, Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau, famously replaced the late Queen’s portrait with two artworks from a Quebec painter. The symbolic gesture undid his Conservative predecessor’s 2011 decision to put Elizabeth’s portrait on the wall. That itself had caused a row as Canadians saw it out of touch with its move towards independence, even as it remains within the Commonwealth.
Now, in yet another sign of how Trump has upended the world order, a Liberal prime minister has decided the King is back in fashion again; or at least useful.
If you’re a fan of symbolic messaging, the King has been signalling his support for Canada like a lighthouse. When he visited aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, he sported a set of Canadian medals. In February Canada’s 60th anniversary of its maple leaf flag might usually have gone unremarked, but the King sent a warm message praising the nation’s resilience, pride, and compassion.
Buckingham Palace hosted a formal ceremony where the King presented Canada with a ceremonial sword, and at a tree planting ceremony in the Palace, the monarch chose a maple. The two-day visit to Ottawa is the latest icing on the symbolic cake.
Carney is himself an Anglophile; he met his British wife playing ice hockey at Oxford University in the 1990s. The Canadian premier’s second stop on his European tour after winning office was to see Starmer and the King in London.
square CANADA The King is walking a diplomatic tightrope between Trump and Canada
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But that hasn’t meant Starmer’s love-bombing diplomacy of Trump going down well in Ottawa. When Starmer presented the US President with the invitation from the King for a second state visit to the UK, it undermined Canada’s clear messaging to the White House regarding the threats against its sovereignty. The monarch’s visit could go some way to clearing up the conflicting signals.
On Monday, as the 76-year-old monarch, still undergoing treatment for an undisclosed cancer, arrives with Camilla, he will hold a meeting with Carney.
On his arrival, Charles is also expected to be welcomed by indigenous groups, who are pushing for redress of colonial injustices, including apologies, financial restitution, and repatriation of cultural objects including from the British Crown.
Consecutive UK governments, like most former colonial powers, have rejected calls for reparations. Starmer has ruled out apologising for the UK’s historic role but said he was open to engage with leaders who want to discuss it. In October the King said Commonwealth members should pursue “creative ways to right the inequalities that endure”.
Back at home in the UK, officials are thrashing out the details of Trump’s second state visit – expected in September. Traditionally, second-term US presidents are not offered a state visit and have instead been invited for tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle. With Buckingham Palace out of action for redecoration, savvy diplomats can rely on a variety of UK venues to host Trump, who is likely to draw large protests.
Red faces could be saved by combing Trump opening another golf course in Scotland with hosting the President at Balmoral. The castle, set in 50,000 acres with its own golf course, is splendidly far from any noisy protests that could mar his visit but provides a sufficiently grand backdrop for photos.
Diplomacy, like chess, is thinking three steps ahead. The UK needs to flatter Trump; it’s already paying dividends on tariffs.
Sometimes like the Canadian trip, diplomacy can be lighthouse-bright. When the US President visits the UK this year, discretion may be the better part of valour.
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