Prince Charles, who is most likely to become Canada’s king, despite many polls showing that few Canadians like the idea of him as head of state, has made a quick tour through much of the country. country with Camilla, his wife, this week. They come to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, stopping in Ottawa and eventually moving to Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, as well as the Yellowknives Cree First Nation community in Detah, before flying home.
When they arrived, I wrote about Canadians’ aversion to Charles succeeding Queen Elizabeth, his mother, to the throne, as well as about the constitutional and political difficulties surrounding any attempt to change the head of state of the country.
Among the people I spoke to was Philippe Lagassé, an associate professor at Carleton University and an expert on the role of the monarchy in Canada. He has some interesting suggestions for how the country could mediate disagreements between monarchists and supporters of a Canadian head of state without constitutional amendments.
I first reported on the royal tour in July 1981, when I was a student reporter for The Globe and Mail. The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret traveled all over Ontario for reasons I had long forgotten.
Most of the time, royal tours are mostly photos and videos of tourists shaking hands, then shaking hands more. Reporters often write relatively little about: Members of the royal family rarely speak during their visits, usually at most. In fact, Charles spoke to an enthusiastic crowd in Yellowknife just before departing on Thursday, about the need to fight climate change and achieve reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
Reporters are often kept at a distance at these events, making it impossible to eavesdrop on royal guests’ conversations with Canadians. Follow-up conversations with those they met often suggested that aristocratic guests mostly asked general questions, nodded, and listened.
Of course, interviews with royalty are unfounded. During Margaret and the Queen Mother’s 1981 trip, there was an unrecorded cocktail reception with them and reporters covering the tour. Warren Barton, The Globe’s subway editor at the time, rightly believed that, as front-reader, reporters shouldn’t gossip with aristocrats if they couldn’t. with readers about it. So I was ordered to stand outside the hotel reception room to protest silently.
But no one faltered when I was asked to rent a tuxedo to attend an art gala that Margaret opened.
On my most recent trip, I didn’t bring a suit, let alone a tuxedo. But the trip posed some of the same logistical challenges as my first tour, when some scheduling confusion left me stranded overnight in Timmins, Ontario. Because of my student finances at the time, I didn’t have a credit card nor cash to check out of the hotel. This week, only British media coverage of Charles and Camilla and some news agency photographers will be able to book a seat on a Royal Canadian Air Force Airbus tagged at the back of the plane carrying royal couple. Keeping up with aircraft movements on commercial flights was impossible, so I headed straight for Yellowknife.
This is for the second time since 2009 that I followed Charles for The Times. I also reported on Prince William, son of Charles and KateDuchess of Cambridge, on their first international visit, in 2011. And Dan Bilefsky and I have written extensively about it. Prince Harry and Meghan, his wife, during which they moved to British Columbia temporarily. In 2016, the first edition of this newsletter covered another visit by William and Kate to Canada.
But I was never assigned to deliver the first royal guest I saw. And with Queen Elizabeth’s health at 96 increasingly becoming a cause for concernNot sure I’ll get another chance to do so.
This week’s Trans-Canada section was compiled by Vjosa Isai, a Canadian news assistant at The New York Times.
-
Bruce Mau, one Famous graphic designersaid in an interview with The Times: “I don’t even know the word design, but the moment you have a specific outcome in mind, you become a designer. Systematic execution of an outcome To be design.” His life, including domestic violence, he experienced at his childhood home in Sudbury, Ontario and began his journey into the world of design in Toronto, Discovered in New Documentary “Quickly. ”
-
The Cannes Film Festival is in a week, and it will have Canadian director David Cronenberg competed for the Palme d’Or with its first film in eight years. Titled “Crime of the Future”, the film will premiere on May 23.
-
For Vancouver-born actress Sarah Goldberg, the leap from theater to television was tough. But Goldberg, 36, has found her niche, earning an Emmy nomination and creating buzz around her lead role. in HBO’s dark comedy “Barry.”
-
Public health authorities around the world are reporting cases of smallpox in monkeys, including some in Montreal.
-
The Maple Leafs finished their NHL playoffs, but Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames meet in the second round for the first time since 1991, the Last Battle of Alberta.
-
Chef Matty Matheson opened a New restaurant in Toronto’s trendy West Queen Street neighborhood. The scene, a sort of airy wooden church, signaled Matheson’s rise from the personality he developed in his cooking videos. “I am 40 years old and Prime Seafood Palace is a very mature, beautiful, thoughtful restaurant,” Mr. Matheson said in an interview with T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
-
In Opinion, writer Jane Coaston reflects on whether it is necessary to overcome fear and anxiety. She spoke with Martin Antony, a psychology professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and co-author of “The Anti-Anxiety Program.”
A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has covered Canada for The New York Times for the past 16 years. Follow him on Twitter at @ianrausten.
How are we doing?
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to nytcanada@nytimes.com.
Liked this email?
Forward it to your friends and let them know they can sign up this.
