Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have planned a three-day visit to the country in May for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, all at taxpayers’ expense.
• Read also: From the royal visit in May to Canada
Since 2010, the “royals” have honored us with their presence on 35 occasions. Prince William, Kate Middleton and their children alone cost us $3.9 million in a single visit in 2016.
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall had been less spendthrift the following year. Their visit on the occasion of Canada’s 150th anniversary, their last, had cost $487,660.
This time, however, their tour will be broader. The royal couple have planned three stops, from coast to coast: they will start in Newfoundland and Labrador, pass through Ottawa and end in the Northwest Territories.
“It was to be expected, it was in the order of things in this year of platinum jubilee”, explained Estelle Bouthillier, analyst of the British monarchy.
Members of the royal family “always try to diversify their visits, because there are people who want to see them everywhere and who rarely have this opportunity”, underlined Mme Bouthillier.
The Governor General’s office did not respond to our questions regarding the estimated costs of this visit, but an exhaustive calculation by the Bureau of Investigation in 2021 established that the price of the monarchy was around $67 million. per year for Canadians.
No strong message
It will be the 19e Prince’s visit to Canada, the first dating back to 1970, in the midst of the Cold War, when the Queen went to the Arctic, in the Northwest Territories, to reassert Canada’s sovereignty in this region.
Even though the context is once more at war and the government intends to strengthen its defenses in the Far North, Mme Bouthillier does not foresee any great position taken on the security question in Canada by Prince Charles, whose function is not so much political as symbolic.
“This is not a subject that we are going to spread out in the public square”, believes Mme Bouthillier.
No rush for the throne
Still crown prince at 73, Charles of Wales seems to have accepted that he will have a rather short reign compared to that of his mother, confining him to a transitional role in the history of the monarchy.
“During his quarantine, we felt his impatience a lot. But, slowly, as he approached fifty, he seemed happier to be the heir because he has more leeway,” especially with regard to his agenda and his commitments.
Prince Charles has been a long time conservationist. In 1970, for example, he already denounced the devastating effects of pollution on nature.
If interest in the environment has increased since then, the opposite has happened for the British monarchy: a Léger poll carried out in the wake of the forced resignation of former Governor General Julie Payette found that 39% of Canadians and 74% of Quebecers wanted the abolition of the monarchy in the country.
Four landmark visits from Prince Charles
- 1970: He accompanies his parents and his sister Anne to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, where the royal family visits Inuit communities in the Arctic Circle. They are welcomed by Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
- 1975: Diving under arctic ice in Resolute Bay, Nunavut.
- 1983: Lady Diana Spencer accompanies him to Canada for the first time. She celebrates her 22e birthday in Edmonton, on Canada Day, the 1is July.
- 1998: He takes his sons William and Harry on a ski trip to Whistler, the year following the death of their mother, Diana.
