bitchy | King Charles will head to Canada this month, his first trip to Canada as king

On the same day that Prince Harry lost his security-case appeal, Buckingham Palace made a big announcement: King Charles and Queen Camilla will be heading to Canada this month. The timing of this announcement was possibly partially to do with Sussex drama, but the visit itself is more about politics and the strained alliances between the Confederacy of Trumplandia versus the UK, Europe and Canada. Donald Trump is still warmongering and threatening to invade Canada, and Canada’s Conservatives just got destroyed in their general election. So the new prime minister, Mark Carney, invited Charles to attend the opening of Canada’s Parliament.

The King and Queen will visit Canada later this month when Charles will travel to Ottawa to open the country’s parliament, Buckingham Palace has confirmed. It will be the King’s twentieth visit to the Commonwealth realm, but his first since ascending the throne.

The royal visit comes at a critical time for Canada and its relationship with the US, after Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won the election. Pierre Poilievre, Carney’s rival and the populist Conservative leader, had initially been leading in the opinion polls until President Trump took aim at Canada by launching a trade war and issuing threats to annex the country as the 51st state.

In his victory speech, Carney, the former Bank of England governor, told Canadian voters that Trump wanted to “break us so that America can own us”. He added: “That will never happen.”

The timing of the King and Queen’s visit to Canada is significant, as it comes before the UK hosts an inward state visit for President Trump. He has been offered a second state visit, unprecedented for a US president. It is now scheduled for September and the president has described it as a “fest”.

Meanwhile, Charles’s relationship with Carney goes back to the latter’s time with the Bank of England. The King, who serves as the head of state for Canada, held an audience with Carney in March.

The King and Queen last visited in May 2022 when they made a three-day visit to St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ottawa, Yellowknife and Dettah, and Northwest Territories.

Again, it’s remarkable that Charles never went on a world tour after his accession to the throne. I will keep pointing that out because the British outlets refuse to point out how weird that is. A world tour was always the plan, Charles was supposed to consolidate the commonwealth power or, at the very least, visit all of the realms of which he is still head of state. The fact that he’s been king since September 2022 and this will be his first time (as king) on Canadian soil is bonkers and not the way it was supposed to be. Also remarkable: Prince William, the Prince of Wales, has not stepped foot on Canadian soil since 2016.

Anyway, there’s some chatter about “why is Charles available to fly to Canada last minute but he can’t fly to California to see his grandchildren.” Sure, he could do that. But he doesn’t want to. Because he does not give a sh-t about seeing or spending time with his grandkids.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.