Canadian royal tours have been taking place since 1786, and continue into the 21st century, either as an official tour, a working tour, a vacation, or a period of military service by a member of the Canadian Royal Family. Originally, official tours were events predominantly for Canadians to see and possibly meet members of their Royal Family, with the associated patriotic pomp and spectacle. However, nearing the end of the 20th century, such occasions took on the added dimension of a theme; for instance, the 2005 tour of Saskatchewan and Alberta by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was deemed to be a vehicle for the Queen and Canadians to honour "The Spirit of Nation Builders." The couple's tour in 2010 was themed "Honouring the Canadian Record of Service-- Past, Present and Future." Official royal tours have always been vested with civic importance, providing a regionalised country with a common thread of loyalty.
Also, junior members of the Royal Family began to undertake unofficial "working" tours of Canada; in this method, royal figures are invited by provinces, municipalities, and other organizations to events which the latter fund without assistance from the federal government. The Queen's children, The Prince of Wales, The Princess Royal, The Duke of York and The Earl of Wessex, as well as the Queen's cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, have all made several small tours in this fashion.
The first royal figure to be present in Canada was the future King William IV, who arrived on the country's east coast in 1786 while an officer in the Royal Navy. However, while his niece, Queen Victoria, never came to Canada, it was during Victoria's reign that her son, the future King Edward VII, initiated the traditional format of the Canadian royal tour: partaking in official engagements, meeting politicians and the public, and reviewing troops. While invitations had been regularly made since 1858 for the reigning monarch to tour Canada, it was in 1939 that George VI became the first to actually do so. During that trip, the King's wife, Queen Elizabeth, initiated the tradition of the "royal walkabout", though her brother-in-law, the former King Edward VIII, had been frequently meeting with everyday Canadian people in 1919; as he said: "Getting off the train to stretch my legs, I would start up conversations with farmers, section hands, miners, small town editors or newly arrived immigrants from Europe."
Royal tours can take upwards of a year to organize. The planning is coordinated by the Canadian Secretary to the Queen. What regions are visited is decided by a rotational formula. Modern tours have run with a theme, such as that of Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in 2010, which was intended to highlight "the Canadian record of service--past, present and future"; themes are decided upon by the Queen's secretary together with the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Office of the Prime Minister. In summer 2011, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge toured Canada in their first official overseas trip as a married couple.
Video Royal tours of Canada by the Canadian Royal Family
18th century
The Prince William (later William IV), made numerous visits to Halifax between 1786 and 1789 while serving as lieutenant and later captain of HMS Pegasus part of the Royal Navy's North American Station based at the Halifax Naval Yard. On 21 August 1786, he celebrated his 21st birthday on his ship in the waters off Newfoundland.
The Prince Edward (later father of Queen Victoria) served as military commander at Halifax from 1794 to 1800 (he was created Duke of Kent in 1799).
Maps Royal tours of Canada by the Canadian Royal Family
19th century
The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) undertook a two-month tour of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Upper Canada, and Lower Canada in 1860. He travelled through St. John's, there attending the St. John's Regatta. He landed at Charlottetown on 10 August 1860, where he was welcomed by Governor George Dundas and proceeded to Government House. There, he held audience with the Executive Council. Over the course of the visit, the Prince of Wales toured the countryside around Charlottetown, held a levee at Government House, and visited Province House, where he received the addresses of the Executive Council and later attended a ball that lasted until 3:00 am. Upon his departure, he left with the Governor £150 for charitable use. At Ottawa, the Prince laid the foundation stone of the parliament buildings. In Quebec, he stayed at the Governor General's residence at Spencerwood, dedicated the Victoria Bridge, and took a raft run of the timber slides of the Chaudière River. In Toronto, he opened Queen's Park before heading on to see Niagara Falls, which were illuminated for the first time for his visit. There, he rode on the Maid of the Mist, met at Queenston Heights with veterans of the War of 1812, dedicated a rebuilt Brock's Monument, as the original had been blown up years earlier by Fenian Raiders, and visited with Laura Secord, and in Hamilton dedicated and planted a tree in Prince's Square.
A year later, The Prince Alfred (later Duke of Edinburgh) took five weeks to tour the maritime provinces, Newfoundland, and Lower Canada. He was from time to time between 1878 and 1883 stationed in Halifax as Commander of the Royal Navy's North Atlantic Squadron.
In 1869, Queen Victoria's third son, Prince Arthur (later Duke of Connaught) arrived for training with the Rifle Brigade based at Montreal. It was not all work for the Prince, though; among other activities, Arthur attended an investiture ceremony in Montreal, met with Canadians at balls and garden parties, and toured towns throughout Ontario and Quebec, the entire trip documented in photographs that were sent back for the Queen to view.
Prince George of Wales was in 1882 stationed in the Maritimes as a midshipman on HMS Cumberland and, during his time there, drove the last spike into Newfoundland's first railway, the Harbour Grace Railway.
The Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, and her husband, the Governor General the Marquess of Lorne, in 1881 toured Ontario, becoming the first royals to attend the Queen's Plate, which had been founded by the Queen in 1860. They were also the first royals to pass through what is today Saskatchewan in 1882, and during a stop at the not yet named territorial capital, in the dining room of the Royal Train, Princess Louise named the new community Regina, after her mother, the Queen.
Princess Louise was visited by her family in Canada: her brother, The Prince Leopold (later Duke of Albany), came and reviewed the troops on the Plains of Abraham and fished on the Cascapédia River; and Prince George of Wales (later George V), Louise's nephew, was in Canada as a midshipman, visiting Niagara Falls, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax, and staying for a lengthy period at Government House in Ottawa. One of Louise's other brothers, The Duke of Connaught, with his wife the Duchess, visited Ontario in 1890.
1900s
As modern modes of transportations allowed for easier travel across the oceans, more of the Royal Family came to tour the King's northern Dominion. The first since Queen Victoria's death was the second son of the reigning king, Prince George (later George V) and his wife (later Queen Mary), the Duchess of Cornwall and York, arrived in Canada in 1901 aboard the RMS Ophir, which was chartered by the Admiralty. The royal party - which consisted of 22 people, including the Duchess' brother Prince Alexander of Teck - landed at Quebec City on 16 September, from where the group then travelled to Montreal - where separate Francophone and Anglophone welcoming committees caused confusion - and then on to Ottawa, where the Duke watched the lacrosse final for the Minto Cup, which he enjoyed so much he kept the ball that was used. They then shot the timber slide at the Chaudière River, watched canoe races, and picnicked in Rockcliffe woods, near Ottawa.
They passed through Ontario, creating "incredible excitement seldom seen since the visit of his father in 1860." Amongst other duties, the Prince dedicated the Alexandra Bridge in Ottawa, in honour of Queen Alexandra. The Duke and Duchess moved on to Manitoba where the former opened the new science building at the University of Manitoba, and then to Regina in the North-West Territories. In Calgary, they met with First Nations chiefs and viewed exhibitions. Westward, they ended up in Vancouver and Victoria, to turn back again towards Banff, where the Duchess went to Tunnel Mountain and Lake Louise while the Duke went to Poplar Point.
After passing back through Regina, they reunited in Toronto, welcomed by the Mendelssohn Choir, and attended concerts at Massey Hall. It was then around southern Ontario and back Montreal again, where the Duke opened the newly rebuilt Victoria Bridge. The tour ended with a trip through Saint John, Halifax, and then out of Canada to the still separate Newfoundland.
The Prince returned only once more before he became king, when he visited in 1908, by then as Prince of Wales, to celebrate the tercentenary of Quebec City's founding. Prince Arthur arrived in Toronto once again on 14 April, where he was greeted at the Canadian Pacific Railway station by 2,500 people, and three days later visited the Royal Ottawa Golf Club, moving between greens in a special electric car.
After the turn of the 20th century, Canada's Governor General, then The Duke of Connaught, in 1912 inaugurated the Legislative Building and laid the cornerstone of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, He also toured British Columbia and laid the cornerstone for the new Provincial Library at the provincial parliament building.
In September 1919, The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII), was in Ontario on a number of occasions; he first travelled throughout the province in 1919, laying the foundation stone of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, opening the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, meeting with the League of Canadian Indians at Sault Ste. Marie, and taking a three-day canoe trip down the Nipigon River to fish and hunt with two personal Ojibwa guides. The Prince then came to Saskatchewan and while there renamed a branch library in Regina as the Prince of Wales Library. He toured areas of greater Vancouver, attending a civic reception and military ball, as well as opening the New Westminster Exhibition. The Prince also went on to Victoria, where he laid the foundation stone of a statue of Queen Victoria on the grounds of the provincial parliament building.
The Prince of Wales in 1923 and 1924 spent time at his ranch in Alberta, touring as well various towns and cities; in the latter year, he stopped at Rideau Hall for various official functions and again frustrated his staff by disappearing for dancing and golf. In 1926, the Prince's brother, The Prince George (later Duke of Kent), arrived in Canada and actively took part in squash, badminton, and tennis games played in Rideau Hall's Tent Room; the Governor General, The Marquess of Willingdon, said of the Prince: "Such a nice boy, but shy, & as mad ib exercise as the P. of W."
In August 1927, the Prince of Wales and the Prince George opened Union Station in Toronto, the Princes' Gates at Exhibition Place, and dedicated the Peace Bridge across the Niagara River.
1939 royal tour
The 1939 royal tour of Canada was a cross-Canada royal tour by George VI and Queen Elizabeth. It was one of the first visits of a reigning monarch to Canada (in 1926, Queen Marie of Romania also visited the country). It began 17 May 1939, and saw the couple visit every Canadian province as well as the United States and the Dominion of Newfoundland.
The King and Queen arrived in Quebec city, and travelled west by rail through the country visiting most of the major cities and finally arriving in Vancouver. They then visited three destinations in the US: Washington DC, New York City and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's private dwelling in Hyde Park, New York, along with Prime Minister Mackenzie King. The tour ended with a visit to the Maritimes and Newfoundland, departing from Halifax.
This tour marked the first time that the sovereign's official Canadian birthday was marked with the monarch himself present in the country; the occasion was marked on Parliament Hill with a celebration and a Trooping of the Colour. Later, during a tour of Canada, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother stated in a speech: "It is now some 46 years since I first came to this country with the King, in those anxious days shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. I shall always look back upon that visit with feelings of affection and happiness. I think I lost my heart to Canada and Canadians, and my feelings have not changed with the passage of time."
By 1945, Alan Lascelles, the private secretary of George VI, and Shuldham Redfern, Secretary to the Governor General of Canada, were discussing the idea of the King making regular flights to Canada to open parliament and perform other constitutional and ceremonial duties. The notion was eventually forgotten.
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother went to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to celebrate Canada's centennial in 1967.
On a visit in 1985 to Toronto and Saskatchewan she noted, "It is now some 46 years since I first came to this country with the King, in those anxious days shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. I shall always look back upon that visit with feelings of affection and happiness. I think I lost my heart to Canada and Canadians, and my feelings have not changed with the passage of time."
Mary, Princess Royal
The Princess Royal (Countess of Harewood), toured Canada in 1955 visiting Québec, Montréal, Kingston, Ottawa, Hull, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Malton, Winnipeg, St. Boniface, Victoria, and Vancouver.
HRH once again toured Canada in 1962 (Victoria, Vancouver, Trenton, Kingston, Toronto, Ottawa, Québec) - She presented new colours earned in Second World War by Canadian Scottish Regiment and visited the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals as she served both as Colonel-in-Chief.
HRH returned to Canada in 1964 and marked the 50th anniversary of the departure of the first contingent of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment from St. John's to the battlefields of World War I.
Princess Alexandra
Princess Alexandra, The Hon Mrs Angus Ogilvy toured Canada for its centenary in 1967, and also arrived in Halifax in 1973 to mark the bicentennial of the arrival of the Hector, the first ship to land at Nova Scotia with Scottish colonists.
Elizabeth II
The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, and her husband, The Duke of Edinburgh, made their first appearance in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Alberta in 1951, on behalf of her ailing father. The couple toured New Brunswick; after the Princess and Duke arrived at Fredericton's Union Station on 6 November, they were there greeted by both Lieutenant Governor David Laurence MacLaren and hundreds of well-wishers, and moved on to tour the University of New Brunswick, Christ Church Cathedral, and the Legislative Assembly Building. It was then on to Saint John, where the royal couple travelled in a motorcade watched by some 60,000 people, visited a veterans' hospital, and attended a civic dinner at the Admiral Beatty Hotel, where the silver flatware designed specifically for the 1939 visit of the King was used. After an overnight on the royal train, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh made whistle-stops in Moncton and Sackville before departing the province. In Toronto, she took in a Toronto Maple Leafs game at Maple Leaf Gardens and greeted Ontarians at numerous official functions.
Aside from a brief stop-over for refuelling in Gander, Newfoundland in 1953-- during which the Queen decided, after being roused from sleep at 3:20 am by their singing of "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow", to address the crowd gathered outside,
Her Majesty returned to Canada in 1957, there giving her first ever live television address, appointing her husband to her Canadian Privy Council at a meeting which she chaired, and on 14 October, opening the first session of the 23rd parliament. About 50,000 people descended on Parliament Hill to witness the arrival of the monarch. Due to the financial austerity of the times, the pageantry was muted in comparison to what would be seen at a similar event in the United Kingdom. June Callwood said in her coverage of the tour for Maclean's: "The Queen's role in Canada, it appeared to some observers, hinged on calculated pageantry, just enough to warm the pride of Canadians who revere tradition and stateliness above state but not so much as to antagonize those who consider royalty a blindingly off-colour bauble in an age of lean fear." In Saskatchewan, the Queen inaugurated the natural gas-fired Queen Elizabeth Power Station on the South Saskatchewan River.
Two years later, the Queen returned and toured every province and territory of the country; Buckingham Palace officials and the Canadian government opted to dub this a "royal tour", as opposed to a "royal visit", to dispel any notion that the Queen was a visiting foreigner. Controversy arose in the run-up to the visit when CBC personality Joyce Davidson, while being interviewed by Dave Garroway on NBC's Today Show, said that as an "average Canadian" she was "pretty indifferent" to the Queen's forthcoming visit. Davidson was lambasted in the Canadian press and by many indignant Canadians for her comment. Regardless, the Queen toured the entire country, specifically directing that events she attended should be public, rather than closed luncheons or receptions; further, popular Canadian athletic stars were invited to royal events for the first time, so that during her tour the Queen met with Jean Béliveau, Sam Etcheverry, Maurice Richard, Punch Imlach, and Bud Grant.
One of the most important events of this trip was the official opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, along with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, where, in Prescott, Ontario, The Queen made her first live appearance on Canadian television. During this tour, the Queen paid numerous visits to Canadian industries, and again made a visit to the United States as Canada's head of state, stopping in Chicago and Washington, D.C., with Diefenbaker as her attending minister. The Prime Minister insisted that the Queen be accompanied at all times by a Canadian Cabinet minister, being determined to make it clear to Americans that the Queen was visiting the United States as the Canadian monarch, and that "it is the Canadian embassy and not the British Embassy officials who are in charge" of the Queen's itinerary. Her Majesty's speeches in Chicago, written by her Canadian ministers, stressed steadily the fact that she had come to call as Queen of Canada. In this vein, the Queen hosted the return dinner for Eisenhower at the Canadian Embassy in Washington.
Her Majesty returned to New Brunswick, at the end of her pan-Canada tour. The sovereign presided over a Queen's Scout recognition ceremony in Fredericton, visited the veterans' hospital in Lancaster, and undertook a walkabout in Victoria Park, Moncton. At Pointe-du-Chêne, the royal couple visited briefly with the families of fishermen who had died the previous month in a storm off Escuminac, making a donation to the New Brunswick Fisherman's Disaster Fund that was established in honour of the deceased.
Unknown to all involved, the Queen was pregnant with her third child. Prime Minister Diefenbaker urged her to cut the tour short after her disclosure to him at Kingston, Ontario, but Her Majesty swore him to secrecy and continued the journey, leaving the public announcement of the upcoming birth until she returned to London.
Once the news was released, criticism of the tour that had simmered during its progress unleashed in full: Diefenbaker was blamed for pushing the Queen to carry on a grueling continent-wide trip, and the brevity of stops necessary to complete such a journey, combined with the formality and inaccessibility of events, led to calls for a cease to that format of royal tour. The Albertan stated: "The fact is that royalty has no roots in Canada. And if roots must be put down, they certainly should be of a different kind than those which are historically proper for Britain." Prior to the tour, the President of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, with the support of the Mayor of Quebec City, requested of the tour officials that, on the evening of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, Her Majesty light the main bonfire in celebration. Though the Queen did lay a wreath at the James Wolfe Monument on the Plains of Abraham, the Queen's Canadian Secretary at the time, Howard Graham, left the bonfire off the itinerary, leading to complaints. Successes were also noted, especially in the Crown's assistance in entrenching the newly emerging Canadian identity; the Queen ensured that the Red Ensign (then Canada's national flag) was flown on the Royal Yacht, and she stood to attention for the duration of each playing of "O Canada", the country's then still unofficial national anthem, sometimes even joining in the singing.
The Queen also celebrated the centennial of the Confederation Conferences in Charlottetown in 1964.
1970s to today
In 1971, the Queen was in British Columbia to celebrate the centennial of the province's entry into Confederation. She toured Alberta and Saskatchewan in July 1973, to celebrate the centennial of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, opening the new RCMP museum building in Regina, and in 1978, to open the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton. In Saskatchewan, Her Majesty dedicated Queen Elizabeth Court, in front of Regina's city hall.
28 June - 6 July 1976: Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward joined the Queen and Prince Philip for the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Princess Anne was a member of the British equestrian team competing in the Olympics in Montreal. The royal family also stopped by Nova Scotia and New Brunswick during the visit. Her Majesty arrived at Fredericton, New Brunswick, on 15 July, after which she travelled to Woolastook Provincial Park to visit the Boy Scout Jamboree campsite, picniced with 3,500 schoolchildren, toured the Kings Landing Historical Settlement, and attended a provincial dinner with fireworks following. The Queen's second day in New Brunswick brought her to the Miramichi area, where she attended a provincial lunch, visited Chatham and Newcastle, and toured the Burchill Laminating Plant in Nelson-Miramichi.
The Queen also journeyed to New Brunswick to celebrate the province's bicentennial in 1984, touching down, along with Prince Philip, at Moncton airport on 24 September, from where the royal party travelled to Shediac, Sackville, Riverview, and Fredericton over the course of three days. While at the Legislative Building, the Queen issued a Royal Warrant augmenting the province's coat of arms with its present crest, supporters, compartment, motto. She also, when in Fredericton, unveiled a plaque in Wilmot Park that honoured Edward Wilmot and recounted the dedication of the park by the Queen's great-grandfather.
The Queen opened the University of Northern British Columbia in 1994. In 2002, for her Golden Jubilee celebrations, Elizabeth II toured Canada.
In 2005, the Queen was in Alberta again to mark the province's 100th anniversary of entry into Confederation, where she attended, along with an audience of 25,000, a kick-off concert at Commonwealth Stadium, re-designated the Provincial Museum of Alberta as the Royal Alberta Museum, and addressed the Legislative Assembly, becoming the first reigning monarch to do so. The Alberta Ministry of Learning encouraged teachers to focus education on the monarchy and to organize field trips for their students to see the Queen and her consort, or to watch the events on television. In Saskatchewan, the Queen presided over the main events for the centennial of Saskatchewan's creation, as well as touring the Canadian Light Source Synchrotron and the University of Saskatchewan, where, in the Diefenbaker Canada Centre, is stored correspondence between former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and the Queen.
In 2010, Elizabeth II visited Ontario and Manitoba as part of the 2010 royal tour of Canada. Arriving in Ottawa 30 June 2010, she toured the Canadian Museum of Nature and met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The following day, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh joined the festivities for Canada Day on Parliament Hill. The Royal Tour of Canada ended as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh departed for New York on 6 July 2010, following visits to Toronto and Waterloo.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
The Duke of Edinburgh has made more than 70 visits to Canada. His earliest visit in his official capacity was in 1951, as a part of Princess Elizabeth's royal tour of the country. Prince Philip has joined Elizabeth II in 19 Canadian royal tours.
In addition to the royal tours with Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh has also toured Canada on his own for a number of different reasons. The Duke visited Canada on his own to open several events, including the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1960, 1962, 1978, 1979, 1980, and 1998, the Duke toured Canada and chaired the Commonwealth Study Conference, which was hosted in Canada during those years. The Duke has also made 11 trips to Canada in relation to The Duke of Edinburgh's Award.
Charles was appointed the Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Canadian Regiment on 8 December 1953, he presented the 3rd Battalion's first colours on Parliament Hill in 1973. Prince Philip presented the 3rd battalion its second colours on 27 April 2013.
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
The Queen's sister, The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, toured Nova Scotia and British Columbia in 1958. In BC, the Princess opened the new floating bridge in Kelowna, with two plaques marking the ceremony. She also presided over the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Saskatchewan's entry into Confederation.
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales
The Prince of Wales and The Princess Anne presided over the 1970 celebrations of the centennial of Manitoba's entry into Confederation.
The Prince and his first wife, The Princess of Wales attended the bicentennial in 1983 of the arrival of the first Empire Loyalists in Nova Scotia, and also visited Newfoundland to mark the 400th anniversary of the island becoming a British colony.
The Prince and Princess of Wales toured British Columbia in the spring of 1986, visiting Vancouver to open Expo '86 (on 2 May 1986), as well as Victoria, Prince George, Kamloops and Nanaimo.
In 1991, The Prince and Princess of Wales toured Ontario; in Toronto, the Princess was joined on board the Royal Yacht Britannia by her two sons, Princes William and Harry, and caused some controversy when she broke from established protocol by enthusiastically hugging the two boys after they ran up the gangplank to meet her. After performing official duties in the city, including a formal dinner at the Royal York hotel, the royal family then went on to visit Sudbury, Kingston, Ottawa, and Niagara Falls, where the princes, as their great-great-great-grandfather had done, rode on the Maid of the Mist.
The Prince of Wales in 2001 again visited Toronto and Ottawa, where his interactions with the crowds kept Prime Minister Jean Chrétien waiting for twenty minutes. He toured Saskatchewan and turned the sod for the Prince of Wales Cultural and Recreation Centre in Assiniboia and dedicated the Anniversary Arch outside Regina's YMCA.
On 14 December, it was announced that Camilla and Charles would come to Regina in May 2012 as well as New Brunswick and Ontario (Toronto). This trip is in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in February 2012.
In May 2014, Charles and Camilla visited Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Manitoba.
In 2017, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall were in Canada from 29 June to 1 July for Canada Day celebration and for the country's sesquicentennial celebrations. They visited Nunavut and Ontario.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
William, Duke of Cambridge has visited Canada with their mother and father (the Prince and Princess of Wales) in 1991 and 1998. The 2011 royal tour of Canada was the first time Prince William, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, visited Canada as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The tour saw the newlywed couple visit all of Canada's regions. It was the first such tour undertaken by the Duke and Duchess since their marriage two months prior.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the provinces of Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island in May 2014, in commemoration of 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, as well as the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference.
Anne, Princess Royal
The Princess Anne and the Prince of Wales presided over the 1970 celebrations of the centennial of Manitoba's entry into Confederation.
The Princess Royal has made a number of official and private visits to Canada as she is honorary Canadian Forces colonel in chief of 6 units. Her latest visit was a private function in St. John's, NL in April 2010 to celebrate the anniversary of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. She marked Regina's centennial.
The Princess Royal made a visit to Barrie, Ontario on 22 October 2013 to commemorate the opening of park with military significance and to visit the Grey and Simcoe Foresters, for which she their current colonel-in-chief.
The Princess Royal and her husband Vice-Admiral Tim Laurence arrived in Canada on 10 November 2014 in Ottawa for a two-day visit with focus on Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa on 11 November 2014.
Prince Andrew, Duke of York
Her Majesty enrolled her son, The Prince Andrew, at Lakefield College School for one year.
The Prince Andrew undertook his first tour of Nova Scotia in 1985, during which, amongst other activities, he visited Halifax and skippered the Bluenose II, and helped celebrate the bicentennial of Sydney.
The Duke of York came twice in 2003, at one point going into the field in full combat uniform to observe tactical exercises and address the troops of the Queen's York Rangers, of which he is Colonel-in-Chief. In July 2011, the Duke made a private trip, with his daughters the princesses, to Norman Wells, NWT.
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
The Prince Edward opened in 1994 the Prince Edward Building and in 2003 did the same for both Prince Edward Park in Melfort and the Queen's Golden Jubilee Rose Garden in Moose Jaw.
In 2005, the Earl of Wessex and his wife, the Countess, toured Ontario; the Earl visited Peterborough, Prince Edward County, and Toronto, while the Countess went to Welland to be installed as Colonel-in-Chief of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment.
Since 1987, The Prince Edward has visited Prince Edward Island on a number of occasions.
The Prince undertakes an annual visit to Canada, to interact with a number of charities of which he is involved with, including the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Sophie, Countess of Wessex
In 2009, the Queen's daughter-in-law, the Countess of Wessex, wife of Prince Edward, opened the Air Force Museum of Alberta in Calgary, spending some hours visiting its displays.
After 2000, the Countess of Wessex accompanied her husband on a number of tours of Prince Edward Island. Her arrival there in 2002 marked her first official tour outside of the United Kingdom.
See also
- List of royal tours of Canada (18th-20th centuries)
- List of royal tours of Canada (21st century)
- List of royal visits to Hamilton, Ontario
- Royal visits to Saskatchewan
- Royal and viceroyal transport in Canada
- Royal Canadian Air Force VIP aircraft
- Royal Journey
References
Further reading
External links
- The 1939 Royal Train / Royal Tour of Canada at ThemeTrains.com.
- Royal visit 2010: The Queen visits Canada (cbcnews.ca)
- The Canadian Encyclopedia: Royal Tours
- Canada, by Train: Royal Tours
- CBC Digital Archives - Their Majesties in Canada: The 1939 Royal Tour
- Watch Royal Journey, an NFB documentary on the 1951 Royal Visit
- Royal Tour
- Canadian Heritage - Monarchy in Canada, Royal Visits
- Maps of royal tours of Queen Elizabeth II - Canadian Museum of Civilization
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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