‘Not normal’: Worrying sign in King Charles’ latest move
The King is set to head overseas for a tour that is unlike any he has ever undertaken before.
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Who can forget the lettuce?
In 2022, newspaper The Daily Star had the genius idea of live streaming a very average iceberg with the simple premise – which would last longer? Beleaguered Prime Minister Liz Truss or the humble veggie?
The lettuce won.
This week, King Charles is off on an international trip with the highest stakes of his reign, a trip which even Buckingham Palace has conceded is a “diplomatic tightrope” walk – and he is going for less time than you could probably safely leave yoghurt on the bench.*
Monday, local time, will see Charles and Queen Camilla land in Ottawa where he is set for his first big, blow-the-trumpets trip to Canada since becoming King – and will only be on the ground for 20 hours. In fact, round trip, he will be in the air for nearly as long (15 hours) as he will be on the poutine-fragrant ground.
We might be about to see His Majesty hit the usual regal high notes, planting a tree here, meeting a Prime Minister there, but this is far from a bog standard tour for several reasons, starting with how startlingly short it is.
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Their Majesties’ timetable could only be more whistlestop if they didn’t actually bother to disembark and touch the tarmac. Their first public event will happen at 1.50pm local time on Monday and they will be saying their bilingual goodbyes with their final event at 11.55am on Tuesday.
By contrast, the last two times that Charles and Camilla practised their local patois ‘abooots’, in 2022 and 2017, saw them spend three times as long – three days – in Canada on each occasion.
This 20-hour sprint is an undeniable reminder of the reality of things – that despite the Palace’s best efforts to put on their business-as-usual face, Charles is a 76-year-old man about to enter his 16th month of cancer treatment.
Since February last year, Charles has undergone weekly treatment for an unspecified form of cancer. Only two months ago, he was briefly hospitalised for side effects.
As the Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes has reported, the brevity of this week’s foreign visit “is yet another reminder of just how seriously the king’s doctors are taking his ongoing health crisis.”
As he points out, a “20-hour trip to Canada isn’t normal.”
All of this begs the obvious question: Why? Why is the King going to battle jet lag and time zone changes and so long airborne when he stay tucked up in his Clarence House office penning a fresh speech about badger preservation?
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Trump. Trumpety, Trump, Trump, Trump.
Somehow the world’s most famously peaceable nation, which only wants to watch hockey be played on ice and slop cheese curds on perfectly good hot chips, has ended up in the US president’s crosshairs and he has threatened to annex the country.
Earlier this month, newly-elected Prime Minister Mark Carney told Mr Trump directly during an Oval Office meeting, “Canada is not for sale”.
Canadians are now looking to their King to help them and are hoping that him turning up to be garlanded with full military honours and gun salutes will send a “powerful” message to Washington.
After all, when he opens the session of Ottawa parliament it will be as the King of Canada – and as only the second monarch to do so. The symbolism could not be more lavishly trowelled on if you tried – he will deliver a speech, written by the Carney government, from a walnut throne made out of a tree that came from Windsor.
(Factor in too, Charles risks angering Canadians if he is seen as shirking his personality as their King or not fully appearing to be in their corner.)
Even though Charles will only be on Canadian soil for about 20 hours, it will be what the Telegraph has called “a test like no other” as he has to figure out how the dickens to balance competing UK and Canadian interests and the country’s differing approaches to the new regime in the West Wing.
His Majesty will have to do two things simultaneously – to politely reassert Canada’s sovereignty in the face of Mr Trump’s grabby hands without irritating the fractious former reality star and with the UK taking a much more softly-softly, conciliatory approach to handling Mr Trump.
Later this year Charles and Camilla will have to put on their best mein host acts when welcome Mr Trump to London for an historic second state visit. If nothing else, no one wants to face the prospect of a peevish president parked in a Palace guest bedroom come the autumn.
For the King, this is a hell of a lot of diplomatic balls to keep in the air and hats to wear all at once – and while battling cancer to boot.
And that’s one thing that Chalres is known for – his seemingly inexhaustible work ethic, even since his health battle began last year. Camilla herself has lamented it, repeatedly, and in March a friend of his told The Times that the King calls on courtiers and aides from “8am until midnight” and they ‘can only relax’ during the one hour he takes off each week to go to church.
However despite the Palace’s best efforts to push this idea of Charles charging forward and doing all the Kinging imaginable, that sort of spin struggles to hold up in the face of the reality of moments like this week’s historically short Canada trip.
Commitment. I suppose that’s what this week’s dash to Ottawa boils down to. His Majesty’s commitment, his vehement, resolute dedication to fulfilling his role, despite his personal circumstances, and in face of his cancer.
There’s lots of things that sovereigns don’t have – passports, drivers licenses, front door keys. I think we can add ‘sick days’ to that list.
(*News.com.au does not recommend any freelance experimentation with dairy use-by dates.)
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
Originally published as ‘Not normal’: Worrying sign in King Charles’ latest move
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