queen elizabeth trips to canada

'Home away from home': A look back through Queen Elizabeth II's official visits to Canada

Of all the countries in the Commonwealth, Canada was the late Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite destination, judging by how many times she graced our shores.

Over the course of her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II officially visited Canada more than 20 times, ranging from sweeping royal tours to visits for anniversaries and special events.

Canada’s relationship with the monarch has always been significant. The Queen was head of state for 16 countries in the Commonwealth, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica, among others, but of these 16 countries, the Queen has visited Canada the most.

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“My mother once said that this country felt like a home away from home for the Queen of Canada,” the Queen said during her last visit to Canada, in 2010.

“I’m delighted to report that it still does, and I’m delighted to be back amongst you all.”

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, she is the “most travelled monarch in history.”

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The first time that the Queen set foot on Canadian soil was when she was only 25 years old and still a princess — in 1951, she took her ailing father’s place to visit Canada with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Prince Philip, who died on April 9, 2021, was particularly fond of Canada, and travelled to the country 46 times in total, including his many visits by the Queen’s side.

Two years after her first visit, in 1953, she was crowned Queen. She made a brief appearance in Gander, N.L. that year during a stopover on the way to tour other parts of the Commonwealth, but wouldn’t return for an official visit of Canada until 1957.

John Diefenbaker, the prime minister at the time, was eager to strengthen ties to Britain and cement the Queen’s role in Canada, and even had the Queen preside over a cabinet meeting during her brief visit.

During that trip, the Queen also opened Canada’s new Parliament, an event that she was proud to mention in her Christmas speech later that year, the very first televised Christmas speech from a British royal ever.

“Last October, I opened the new Canadian Parliament,” she said in the speech. “This was the first time that any sovereign had done so in Ottawa. Once again, I was overwhelmed by the loyalty and enthusiasm of my Canadian people.”

But her longest trip to Canada — and arguably the most important — occurred in 1959, when she toured all of the provinces, as well as both current territories, with Prince Philip for 45 days. This is still the longest tour any reigning monarch has made of Canada, and although the Queen visited Canada many times after, she never did so on this scale again.

Buckingham Palace instructed the visit to be referred to as a “royal tour” to emphasize the importance, and to position the Queen as comfortable in her role as Queen of Canada.

Although the Queen was greeted with crowds wherever she went, travelled more than 24,000 kilometres on this trip, shook nearly 5,000 hands and attended sixty-one formal functions, according to the book “Canada and the End of Empire,” the tour was not without controversy. Indigenous people were present at many events on her tour, often meeting with the Queen to perform dances or demonstrate cultural knowledge — but any issues such as treaties or land rights were not permitted to be brought up.

In the years to come, the Queen would make around 20 more official visits to Canada. Including brief stopovers, the Queen has been in Canada more than 30 times.

Most trips have involved ceremonial duties, tours of the country or charity work, but she has also come to Canada to act in an official capacity, such as when she opened Parliament in 1957, and when she delivered a Speech from the Throne again in 1977.

The speech to outline the federal government’s plans for the coming session of Parliament is usually read by the Governor General as the Queen’s representative. The Queen’s second time reading the speech herself in 1977 was part of her Silver Jubilee tour, the 25th anniversary of her ascending to the throne of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Another notable visit was when the Queen came to Canada in 1982 to sign the landmark Proclamation of the Constitution Act, the passing of which gave Canada full independence.

During her visits, the Queen often honoured Canada through her wardrobe. In 1957, on her first trip to Canada post-coronation, she wore a striking cream gown covered in sparkling green maple leaves to the state banquet at Rideau Hall, dubbed the “Maple Leaf of Canada Dress.”

During her tour of Canada in 1959, she wore a blue and pink evening gown designed by Sir Hardy Amies to a dinner at the Government House in Nova Scotia, which was embroidered with blooms representing mayflowers, the provincial flower of Nova Scotia.

In her later years, she was frequently seen wearing an iconic diamond brooch in the shape of a maple leaf, called the “Canadian Maple Leaf Royal Brooch.” It had been a favourite of her mother, and after it was passed down to the Queen, she wore it to Canada numerous times, as well as loaning it to family members such as Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, when they visited Canada.

Over the years, the Queen developed strong relationships with Canada’s prime ministers, having met with many of them in person.

The Queen appointed Jean Chretien, Canada’s 20th Prime Minister to the Order of Merit in 2009, a distinction that is restricted to only 24 living people within the Commonwealth. It is given to “persons who have rendered exceptionally meritorious service to the Crown, in armed services or towards the advancement of arts, literature and science.”

Two other Canadian Prime Ministers had received the award before: William Lyon Mackenzie King in 1947, before the Queen took the throne, and Lester B. Pearson in 1971.

The very last time the Queen visited Canada was in 2010, for a nine day visit through five different cities, a trip that saw her celebrating Canada Day in Ottawa on Parliament Hill. Continuing her tradition of honouring Canada through her garments, she even had a favourite dress adjusted to add Canadian maple leaves in Swarovski crystals down the right shoulder and sleeve to wear to a state dinner at the Royal York Hotel.

“My pride in this country remains undimmed.” the Queen said the first day of the trip, speaking to a crowd in Halifax.

The Queen never publicly declared which city or region of Canada was her favourite to visit, but outside of her numerous trips to Ottawa, she visited Victoria, B.C., five times, and visited Winnipeg, Vancouver, Regina and Toronto four times as well, not counting her 1959 tour of the entire country or brief stopovers.

Despite a lack of consensus in Canada over whether we should maintain our ties to the monarchy, a debate that has simmered for decades, the Queen’s visits always brought out numerous Canadians eager to catch a glimpse of the monarch.

And her regard for Canada was evident across her reign, from start to end.

“Throughout the years, particularly since your Centennial year, I have watched Canada develop into a remarkable nation,” the Queen said in 2017, on the 150th anniversary of Confederation. “You have earned a reputation as a welcoming, respectful and compassionate country.

"On this eve of national celebrations, my family and I are with you in spirit.”

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Queen Elizabeth's Royal Visits to Canada

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Queen Elizabeth, Canada's head of state , always draws crowds when she visits Canada. Since her accession to the Throne in 1952, Queen Elizabeth has made 22 official Royal visits to Canada, usually accompanied by her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh , and sometimes by her children Prince Charles , Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. Queen Elizabeth has visited every province and territory in Canada.

2010 Royal Visit

Date: June 28 to July 6, 2010 Accompanied by Prince Philip The 2010 Royal Visit included celebrations in Halifax, Nova Scotia to mark the centennial of the founding of the Royal Canadian Navy, Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and a dedication of the cornerstone for the Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

2005 Royal Visit

Date: May 17 to 25, 2005 Accompanied by Prince Philip Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip attended events in Saskatchewan and Alberta to celebrate the centennial of the entry of Saskatchewan and Alberta into Confederation.

2002 Royal Visit

Date: October 4 to 15, 2002 Accompanied by Prince Philip The 2002 Royal Visit to Canada was in celebration of the Queen's Golden Jubilee. The Royal couple visited Iqaluit, Nunavut; Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Toronto, Oakville, Hamilton and Ottawa, Ontario; Fredericton, Sussex, and Moncton, New Brunswick.

1997 Royal Visit

Date: June 23 to July 2, 1997 Accompanied by Prince Philip The 1997 Royal Visit marked the 500th anniversary of John Cabot's arrival in what is now Canada. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited St. John's and Bonavista, Newfoundland; NorthWest River, Shetshatshiu, Happy Valley and Goose Bay, Labrador, They also visited London, Ontario and viewed the floods in Manitoba.

1994 Royal Visit

Date: August 13 to 22, 1994 Accompanied by Prince Philip Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip toured Halifax, Sydney, the Fortress of Louisbourg, and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia; attended the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia; and visited Yellowknife , Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit (then part of the Northwest Territories).

1992 Royal Visit

Date: June 30 to July 2, 1992 Queen Elizabeth visited Ottawa, Canada's capital, marking the 125th anniversary of Canadian Confederation and the 40th anniversary of her accession to the Throne.

1990 Royal Visit

Date: June 27 to July 1, 1990 Queen Elizabeth visited Calgary and Red Deer, Alberta, and then joined the celebrations for Canada Day in Ottawa, Canada's capital.

1987 Royal Visit

Date: October 9 to 24, 1987 Accompanied by Prince Philip On the 1987 Royal Visit, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip toured Vancouver, Victoria and Esquimalt, British Columbia; Regina, Saskatoon, Yorkton, Canora, Veregin, Kamsack and Kindersley, Saskatchewan; and Sillery, Cap Tourmente, Rivière-du-Loup and La Pocatière, Quebec.

1984 Royal Visit

Date: September 24 to October 7, 1984 Accompanied by Prince Philip for all parts of the visit except Manitoba Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip toured New Brunswick and Ontario to participate in events marking the bicentennials of those two provinces. Queen Elizabeth also visited Manitoba.

1983 Royal Visit

Date: March 8 to 11, 1983 Accompanied by Prince Philip At the end of a tour of the U.S. West Coast, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited Victoria, Vancouver, Nanaimo, Vernon, Kamloops and New Westminster, British Columbia.

1982 Royal Visit

Date: April 15 to 19, 1982 Accompanied by Prince Philip This Royal Visit was to Ottawa, Canada's capital, for the Proclamation of the Constitution Act, 1982.

1978 Royal Visit

Date: July 26 to August 6, 1978 Accompanied by Prince Philip, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward Toured Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and Alberta, attending the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Alberta.

1977 Royal Visit

Date: October 14 to 19, 1977 Accompanied by Prince Philip This Royal Visit was to Ottawa, Canada's capital, in celebration of the Queen's Silver Jubilee Year.

1976 Royal Visit

Date: June 28 to July 6, 1976 Accompanied by Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward The Royal family visited Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and then Montreal, Quebec for the 1976 Olympics. Princess Anne was a member of the British equestrian team competing in the Olympics in Montreal.

1973 Royal Visit (2)

Date: July 31 to August 4, 1973 Accompanied by Prince Philip Queen Elizabeth was in Ottawa, Canada's capital, for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Prince Philip had his own program of events.

1973 Royal Visit (1)

Date: June 25 to July 5, 1973 Accompanied by Prince Philip Queen Elizabeth's first visit to Canada in 1973 included an extended tour of Ontario, including events to mark the 300th anniversary of Kingston. The Royal couple spent time in Prince Edward Island marking the centennial of PEI's entry into Canadian Confederation, and they went on to Regina, Saskatchewan, and Calgary, Alberta to participate in events marking the RCMP centennial.

1971 Royal Visit

Date: May 3 to May 12, 1971 Accompanied by Princess Anne Queen Elizabeth and Princess Anne marked the centennial of British Columbia's entry into Canadian Confederation by visiting Victoria, Vancouver, Tofino, Kelowna, Vernon, Penticton, William Lake and Comox, B.C.

1970 Royal Visit

Date: July 5 to 15, 1970 Accompanied by Prince Charles and Princess Anne The 1970 Royal Visit to Canada included a tour of Manitoba to celebrate the centennial of Manitoba's entry into Canadian Confederation. The Royal Family also visited the Northwest Territories to mark its centennial.

1967 Royal Visit

Date: June 29 to July 5, 1967 Accompanied by Prince Philip Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were in Ottawa, Canada's capital, to celebrate Canada's centennial. They also went to Montreal, Quebec to attend Expo '67.

1964 Royal Visit

Date: October 5 to 13, 1964 Accompanied by Prince Philip Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip Visited Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Quebec City, Quebec and Ottawa, Ontario to attend the commemoration of the three major conferences that led up to Canadian Confederation in 1867.

1959 Royal Visit

Date: June 18 to August 1, 1959 Accompanied by Prince Philip This was Queen Elizabeth's first major tour of Canada. She officially opened the St. Lawrence Seaway and visited all Canadian provinces and territories over the span of six weeks.

1957 Royal Visit

Date: October 12 to 16, 1957 Accompanied by Prince Philip On her first official visit to Canada as Queen, Queen Elizabeth spent four days in Ottawa, Canada's capital, and officially opened the first session of the 23rd Parliament of Canada.

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Queen Elizabeth II

Her Majesty The Queen marks the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017 by wearing the Maple Leaf Brooch: Photo credit and copyright: © 2017 Ian Leslie Macdonald

Queen Elizabeth II was born on April 21, 1926. She was the first child of King George VI (The Duke of York) and Queen Elizabeth.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was the first of Canada's sovereigns to be proclaimed separately as "Queen of Canada." It reaffirmed the Monarch's role as independent of that as Monarch of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. She dedicated her life to public service and served Canada and Canadians throughout her reign. On her 21st birthday (April 21, 1947), she addressed the Commonwealth and dedicated her life "whether it be long or short" to the service of others. In her 7 decades as Monarch, she was steadfast in keeping her promise, a promise valued by Canada and the Commonwealth.

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Early life and education, marriage and family, elizabeth becomes queen, charitable work and military appointments, tours of canada.

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Princess Elizabeth was educated at home with her younger sister, the late Princess Margaret. During that time, the future queen learned French, which she spoke fluently.

Princess Elizabeth gave her first radio address at age 14 as bombs dropped on London during the Second World War, in which she served.

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh depart the HMCS St. John's after the completion of the International Fleet Review in Halifax on June 29, 2010.

On November 20, 1947, Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, His Royal Highness Prince Philip . They had 4 children:

• Prince Charles, Heir to the Throne, now His Majesty King Charles III
• Princess Anne, The Princess Royal
• Prince Andrew, The Duke of York
• Prince Edward, The Duke of Edinburgh

After her father's death, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953. Canadian guests at the coronation included the Prime Minister, Louis St. Laurent, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Louis Breithaupt and his premier, Leslie Frost, as well as Premier of Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas, Quebec Cabinet ministers Onésime Gagnon and John Samuel Bourque, Mayor of Toronto Allan A. Lamport, and Chief of the Squamish Nation Joe Mathias.

In 1953, a Canadian law, the Royal Style and Titles Act formally conferred upon Elizabeth II the title of Queen of Canada.

The Queen greets veterans from the Second World War at plaque unveiling at HMCS Sackville in Halifax on June 29, 2010.

Queen Elizabeth II championed public and voluntary service around the world. She was patron of more than 600 charities and organizations, of which 36 are in Canada. These included the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Nurses Association. This sense of service has been transmitted to all members of the Royal Family.

The Queen highlighted the critical role of the Canadian Forces by serving as Colonel-in-Chief, Captain General and Air Commodore-in-Chief of the following units across Canada:

• Royal Canadian Air Force
• Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada
• The Calgary Highlanders
• Canadian Military Engineers
• The Canadian Grenadier Guards
• Governor General's Foot Guards
• Governor General's Horse Guards
• The King's Own Calgary Regiment
• Le Régiment de la Chaudière
• The Royal New Brunswick Regiment
• The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery
• Royal 22e Régiment
• 48th Highlanders of Canada
• The Canadian Armed Forces Legal Branch
• The Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders
• The North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment
• The Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering

In 2012, the Queen became Commissioner-in-Chief of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). She held the title of Honorary Commissioner as of 1953.

Royal Patronage – Canadian organizations

The Queen inspects the Guard of Honour mounted by the Ceremonial Guard on Parliament Hill, July 1, 2010.

The Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) and The Duke of Edinburgh first toured Canada in the fall of 1951. Throughout her reign, Queen Elizabeth II completed more Royal Tours in Canada than to any other Commonwealth country.

The Queen's 2010 tour marked her 22nd official tour of Canada as our Queen. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh participated in many public events, including the Canada Day Noon Show on Parliament Hill on July 1 and the celebrations of the centennial of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Special anniversaries

The year 2012 marked Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee , her 60th anniversary as Queen of Canada. 

On September 9, 2015, a historical milestone was reached. Queen Elizabeth II became the longest reigning sovereign in Canada’s modern era.

In 2017, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated the 150th anniversary of Confederation as well as her Sapphire Jubilee, her 65th anniversary as Queen of Canada. At an event in Canada House, London, former Governor General David Johnston presented a Sapphire Jubilee Snowflake Brooch to The Queen, a gift of thanks from the people of Canada.

In 2022, The Queen celebrated her Platinum Jubilee , marking her 70th anniversary on the Throne. To mark this historical milestone, a series of initiatives took place throughout Canada to honour The Queen’s service and dedication to this country.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passed away at the age of 96 on September 8, 2022. Visit her commemorative page to relive key moments of her visits to Canada and find information on the commemorative events our nation held in her honour.

• Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (June 2, 1953)
• The Canadian Encyclopedia: Queen Elizabeth II
• Commemoration for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
• A Crown of Maples (2015)
• The official website of the British Monarchy

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1939 Royal Tour

Article by Carolyn Harris

Published Online April 22, 2015

Last Edited March 25, 2022

Albert and Elizabeth

The future King George VI was born on 14 December 1895. At the insistence of his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria , he was named Albert after his great-grandfather, who died on the same day in 1861. As the second son of the future King George V , the young prince was not expected to succeed to the throne and instead trained for a naval career. At 17, he visited Canada for the first time on a six-month training cruise in 1913.

In 1930, the Canadian government requested that the Prince, who had become Duke of York in 1920, be chosen as Governor General . The British government decided against this because of the changing relationship between the United Kingdom and Canada — including Canada’s growing autonomy — soon to be enacted under the Statute of Westminster .

In 1923, the Duke of York married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the ninth of the 10 children of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore, members of the Scottish aristocracy. The wedding and the arrival of the royal couple’s two daughters, the future Queen Elizabeth II (born 1926) and Princess Margaret (1930–2002), attracted public interest throughout the English-speaking world, including Canada. (When her daughter succeeded to the throne in 1952, Elizabeth became known as the Queen Mother .)

On 20 January 1936, King George V died and was succeeded by the Duke of York’s older brother, who became King Edward VIII . Almost a year later, Edward VIII abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite. The Duke of York became King as a result of the Abdication Crisis and assumed the name George VI to symbolize continuity with the reign of his father, George V.

King and Queen of Canada

In 1931, the Statute of Westminster granted Canada control over its own foreign policy. The Statute changed the relationship between Canada and the monarchy, creating a distinct Canadian Crown . Canada became the political equal of the United Kingdom, sharing a common monarch. The Governor General’s position transformed from representative of the British government to representative of the shared monarch alone. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth therefore toured in 1939 as King and Queen of Canada.

Lord Tweedsmuir , Governor General from 1935 to 1940, extended the invitation to the royal couple to visit Canada after a planned tour of India was cancelled in 1938. Tweedsmuir met with George VI on 24 September 1938 at Buckingham Palace, where the King confirmed the historic trip to Canada. The itinerary was published in newspapers on 4 January 1939. The threat of the Second World War influenced preparations. Queen Elizabeth later recalled, “We were going [to go to Canada] in a battleship and had to change to a liner in case [the warship] was wanted. It was as close as that.”

Canada by Train

The King and Queen spent a month in Canada, touring the country from 17 May to 15 June (excluding four days in the United States from 8 to 11 June). They crossed the country twice in a blue and silver royal train that became the most recognizable symbol of the tour. The tour began in Quebec City when the royal couple arrived on the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Australia escorted by two destroyers and two cruisers of the Royal Canadian Navy . Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King formally welcomed the couple with a speech that included the words, “Today as never before the throne has become the centre of our national life.”

The westbound journey included stops in Trois-Rivières , Montreal , Ottawa , Kingston , Toronto , Winnipeg , Regina , Calgary , Banff , Vancouver and Victoria , as well as numerous small towns and villages. The train then travelled east, stopping, among other places, in Jasper , Edmonton , Saskatoon , Sudbury , Guelph , Kitchener , Windsor , Hamilton , St. Catharines and Niagara Falls . After the visit to the United States, the royal couple returned to Canada and continued their tour through Rivière-du-Loup , Fredericton , Saint John , Moncton and Charlottetown before departing by ship from Halifax . Before returning to Britain, the royal couple sailed to St. John’s , capital of the separate Dominion of Newfoundland at the time.

Mackenzie King welcomed the royal couple at every stop on the tour. George VI gave royal assent to nine bills and became the first Canadian monarch to directly meet his Parliament . He and Elizabeth also dedicated the National War Memorial in Ottawa and laid the cornerstone on the new Supreme Court of Canada building then under construction.

First Royal Walkabout

The now-familiar royal walkabout, where members of the royal family meet and greet crowds of citizens during their tours, was spontaneously born in Ottawa in 1939. After dedicating the National War Memorial on 21 May, the royal couple, instead of returning to their motorcade immediately afterward, spent half an hour mingling with the 25,000 First World War veterans who were part of a crowd of at least 100,000 people. It was a stunning gesture, especially in an age when members of the royalty were often perceived as distant figureheads. A CBC radio announcer covering the event observed the warm rapport between the royal couple and the crowd: “One these old veterans is patting the King most affectionately on the shoulder…Her Majesty is chattering with one of the veterans of the amputations association…The Queen is speaking to a blind veteran now…The King is shaking hands….”

Tweedsmuir , who was also there, recognized the lasting impact of the walkabout on the eve of the Second World War : “One old fellow said to me, ‘Aye, man if Hitler could just see this.’ It was wonderful proof of what a people’s King means.”

Great Spectacle

The King and Queen were greeted by enormous crowds throughout the tour. The CBC described the reception as “a majestic mayhem.” Millions of Canadians gathered in cities, towns and rural railway crossings to see the royal couple or to simply watch the train pass through areas where no stop was scheduled. The enthusiasm was shared by Canadians of all backgrounds. In Quebec , prior to the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, the Crown was viewed as a protector of minority rights within the larger democracy and the royal couple was well received by French Canadians. Queen Elizabeth wrote to her daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth II , “The French people in Quebec and Ottawa were wonderfully loyal; & [in]  Montrea l there must have been 2,000,000 people, all very enthusiastic & glad to have an excuse to show their feelings. Yesterday in Toronto it was the same….”

The King and Queen gave speeches in both French and English. While the King still suffered from a mild stammer when giving speeches in English, he did not suffer the same impediment in his French addresses.

In his journals, Mackenzie King also made frequent mention of the enthusiastic crowds at every stop. For example, when the royal train reached Brandon , Manitoba , there was “wonderful cheering. A long bridge overhead crowded with people. The hour: 11 at night.”

French Canadian Responses

The enthusiastic response to the royal tour in Quebec was influenced by the views of French Canadian political and religious leaders. Two French Canadian cabinet ministers, Ernest Lapointe and Fernand Rinfret, encouraged public interest in the tour. Camillien Houde , the mayor of Montreal , ensured that Montreal spent more money on royal tour events than Toronto . Cardinal Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Villeneuve , archbishop of Quebec, had met King George V and supported the monarchy. At the time, the Roman Catholic school system in Quebec taught that the British conquest of Quebec had protected the region from the secular influence of the French Revolution.

The presence of the King and Queen in Quebec received extensive press coverage, and Quebec tourism increased by 65 per cent in the aftermath of the tour. French-language newspapers emphasized that French Canadians were loyal to the Crown and admired the royal couple on a personal level but did not support British imperialism or view themselves as having assimilated into the British Empire. La Presse criticized the displays of British flags and decorations in Quebec as “imperialistic propaganda” and instead placed the royal tour in a French Canadian context, stating, “Why don’t we, French Canadians, profit from the occasion to manifest our loyalty and attachment to our sovereigns, certainly, but also to our language, our nationality, our rights, our ethnic character. If we must have inscriptions, let them be worded in French, if we cheer, cheer in French….”

American coverage of the royal tour assumed that Quebec was comparatively indifferent or hostile to the presence of the King and Queen in the province. Both Time and Life magazines reported that the royal couple had travelled in bulletproof limousines in Quebec City and Montreal for security reasons without mentioning that the royal couple would use the same kind of vehicles at other stops across Canada. Quebec commentators objected to the implications of this coverage. Le Devoir declared, “The only gangsters or gunmen we have come to us from the US” and compared the fine French cuisine that the King and Queen had enjoyed in Quebec to the “hot dogs or peanut butter sandwiches” that the royal couple might receive in the United States.

Media Coverage in English Canada

Coverage of the 1939  Royal Tour was extensive in both Canada and the wider world. CBC Radio sent a staff of 100 to cover the tour, and newspapers reported extensively on the events. The tour provided the impetus for inaugurating a Canadian shortwave broadcasting service. There was an international press corps as well, which also travelled on the royal train.

Queen Elizabeth wrote to her mother-in-law, Queen Mary: “In Ottawa , we had a reception for all the journalists who are travelling with us on the pilot train — about 80 of them! The Americans are particularly easy and pleasant, and have been amazed I believe at the whole affair. Of course, they have no idea of our Constitution or how the monarchy works….”

There were a few mishaps in the media coverage, including a Winnipeg radio announcer who swore on the air during his live commentary after becoming tongue-tied trying to describe the reception of the King and Queen by Mackenzie King and Winnipeg mayor John Queen.

American Visit

In the midst of their Canadian tour, the royal couple spent four days in the United States, which included a visit with US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt at his private residence at Hyde Park in New York and in Washington, DC. The royal couple visited the British and Canadian pavilions at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and enjoyed a picnic lunch of hot dogs with the Roosevelts.

The King and Queen developed a strong rapport with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, which lasted throughout the Second World War . Queen Elizabeth recalled decades later that the American visit “was very valuable because the King was able to talk to Roosevelt. Endless night talks they had, because Hitler was looming then.”

“Canada Made Us”

Although the original purpose of the 1939 tour was to allow the monarch to engage with Canadians as King of Canada, the impending outbreak of war shaped the significance of the event. Queen Elizabeth alluded to the threat of war in her thank you letter to Lady Tweedsmuir , stating, “Our chief emotion is one of deep thankfulness that [the tour] was such a success, for more & more one feels that a united Empire is the only hope for this troubled world of today.”

The separation of British and Canadian foreign policy in the Statute of Westminster meant that Canada did not automatically declare war on Germany along with the United Kingdom. The tour, however, renewed ties between Canadians and Britain, helping to ensure support for joining Britain in its war effort. On 10 September 1939, Mackenzie King advised George VI to declare war on Germany in his capacity as King of Canada — just one week after the United Kingdom had made its own declaration.

For Queen Elizabeth, the 1939 tour began a 50-year personal relationship with Canada that helped establish her and her husband as a modern royal couple and set precedents for future Canadian royal tours. She would say later that “Canada made us.” Her great-grandson Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge , repeated this sentiment in 2011 at the conclusion of his first royal tour in Canada with his wife, Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge . As the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth visited Canada 14 times and became a patron of numerous Canadian charities and honorary colonel-in-chief of Canadian military regiments. In 2000, the Queen Mother was appointed to the Order of Canada at the age of 100.

Interested in the monarchy?

Royal Family

Further reading.

Arthur Bousfield and Garry Toffoli, Home to Canada: Royal Tours 1786–2010 (2010), Bousfield and Toffoli, Royal Spring: The Royal Tour of 1939 (1989); J. William Galbraith, John Buchan: Model Governor General (2013); William Shawcross, ed., Counting One’s Blessings: The Selected Letters of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (2012).

External Links

CBC's archived coverage of the first royal walkabout

A feature on the dazzling cars used by the royals on their 1939 tour

A National Film Board documentary of the 1939 royal tour

Associated Collections

Recommended, king george vi, queen mother (hm queen elizabeth the queen mother), king george v, royal tours of canada, 10 memorable royal tours of canada, 1901 royal tour, william lyon mackenzie king.

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir

King edward viii, queen elizabeth ii, prince william (hrh the prince of wales), catherine (hrh the princess of wales).

Princess Elizabeth's 1951 royal visit to Canada

As the queen celebrates her diamond jubilee, another historic event is remembered.

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When Queen Elizabeth made her first live television address from Ottawa in 1957, she spoke about her first visit to Canada six years earlier.

"I have vivid memories of my journey across the country in 1951," she said of the trip that came only a few months before she ascended the throne.

Canada had thoroughly prepared to host the month-long journey of Eliabeth and her husband, Philip.

Three months ahead of the royal couple's 1951 arrival, government officials were already advising Canadians about proper greetings and correct attire. "It's bad taste to gush," warned one official. "A messed-up curtsy or bow is a horrible thing to behold," observed another, before explaining in detail how it's properly performed.

Preparations were going smoothly until early September 1951, when there was "a first-class row" between the CBC and BBC. The Toronto Telegram reported that CBC was "in a high dudgeon" that the BBC was reneging on arrangements for CBC to provide the commentary for British radio listeners.

Toronto newspapers reported that a BBC spokesman had said their listeners "will expect a British commentator to tell them the story in a British voice."

CBC Radio planned "actuality broadcasts" from 23 cities and a daily royal tour diary.

Both the Telegram and the Toronto Star noted that Stewart McPherson, then the BBC's highest-paid news commentator, was from Winnipeg.

Tragedy at Balmoral Castle

About that time, tragedy struck at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. King George VI's health took a visible turn for the worse.

As he returned to London to see lung specialists, one newspaper was asking in a front-page headline, "What is wrong with the King?"

Plans for his daughter's royal visit to Canada were put on hold. The visit was soon reconfirmed, but instead of arriving by ship, the royal couple would arrive by plane, the first for a royal visit.

Later that month, the King had to have lung surgery. Elizabeth delayed her visit by one week, with all of the planned events on their 33-day trip across Canada also put back a week.

Organizers redoubled their preparations. Toronto was reported to be preparing for the "worst traffic tangle in history" when the princess arrived, according to a headline in the Star.

Two days before Elizabeth's arrival, the Financial Post wrote that the visit would be "the most-covered news event in Canadian history." Echoing that prediction, the Telegram reported that "4,500 personnel have been accredited to cover the activities."

'Crackpots, Communists' a security concern

Security was a big issue, as it always is for royal visits. A story from the Toronto Telegram detailed some of the security arrangements for their visit to Quebec City, their first stop after landing at the airport in Montreal.

Headlined, "Watch Reds, Crackpots: 'Will take care of them' during tour," the story explains that 2,500 uniformed personnel would keep the Quebec City crowds at least 30 feet from the royal couple.

It also mentions a "fat yellow booklet" issued to police forces across Canada that contained the names of "crackpots, Communists and agitators." "At least two Quebecois" listed in the booklet were of particular concern in Quebec City, according to the Telegram.

Finally, the moment arrived. "There was that touch of fairytale atmosphere about her arrival," reported the Globe and Mail.

A nervous 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth stepped out onto the airplane gangway in Montreal on Oct. 8, 1951, a crowd of 15,000 before her on the tarmac. She was about to begin her first major royal visit, during which she would be the centre of attention.

And of course she would be worried about her father's health.

Her two-year-old son Charles and one-year-old daughter Anne stayed home.

A black handbag on her left arm trembled. "Only an iron self-control hid her overwhelming nervousness," wrote the legendary Pierre Berton.

33 days criss-crossing Canada

Over the next 33 days, the princess and prince would travel back and forth across Canada, under intense scrutiny.

In his 1953 book, God Save the Queen , Allan Michie of Life Magazine observed that Elizabeth "was not prepared for either the size or the warmth or the vociferousness of her welcome, or for a newly experienced familiarity in the approach to royalty."

Visit by the numbers

During her 33 days in Canada Princess Elizabeth:

• Shook hands at the rate of 30,00 times per week.
• Heard the national anthem played 150 times.
• Met 53 mayors.
• Inspected 24 guards of honour.
• Accepted official bouquets from 23 little girls.
• Signed 21 golden books.
• And survived it all.

(Source: Pierre Berton, The Royal Family , 1954)

There were no security crises in Quebec City or elsewhere, not counting an incident at a university football game in Vancouver.

Prince Philip was asked to autograph a football, but before he could, security officers seized the ball. Only after rushing off with the ball, deflating, carefully inspecting and then re-inflating it, did they allow the autographing ceremony to go ahead.

Cities strove to be most enthusiastic

In terms of fervour, Each major city would surpass the ones previously visited — or at least claim to have done so. "Enthusiasm of Toronto's outdoes Quebec, and Ottawa combined" headlined The Toronto Telegram, proclaiming the largest crowd in the city's history had assembled in City Hall Square on Oct. 11.

How many were there? "Nobody knows," the Globe and Mail reported the next day.

The day that story ran, the royal couple did a 48-kilometre driving tour through the Queen City, as Toronto was known in those days. "There looked to have been more than 1,000,000 and there may have been twice that many," George Bain reported in the Globe.

Three weeks later in Montreal, another drive, but this time the route was 120 kilometres and lasted seven hours. An estimated two million people lined the route, according to Trevor Hall in his book Royal Canada .

Next stop was a short visit to the U.S. and a meeting with President Harry Truman at the White House. Canadians were aghast at the way the American media pack went about their work.

In his 1953 book The Royal Family , Berton tells a story about how, once back in Canada, Elizabeth mocked the U.S. photographers while she did some filming of her own. While pointing the camera at her husband, she cried out in a nasally American voice, "Hey! You there! Hey, Dook! Look this way a sec! Dat's it! Thanks a lot!"

After almost five weeks of touring, the nervous princess who had flown into Canada left by ship from Portugal Cove, N.L., "a laughing, relaxed figure," according to Berton.

Three months later, she would begin her reign as Elizabeth II.

Princess Elizabeth had this to say about Canada, once she was back in the U.K.:

"I am sure that nowhere under the sun could one find a land more full of hope, of happiness and of fine, loyal, generous-hearted people."

And she engaged in some prognostication:

"They have placed in our hearts a love for their country and its people which will never grow cold and which will always draw us to their shores."

Related Stories

• SPECIAL REPORT: The Royal Visit
• Queen Elizabeth's visits to Canada
• Profile Queen Elizabeth II
• VIDEO: Royal Wedding documentaries
• AUDIO: The Royal Family are given gifts in Calgary, Oct. 18, 1951
• AUDIO: Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip at a mini-Stampede in Calgary, Oct. 18, 1951
• AUDIO: Princess Elizabeth visits Nanaimo (Oct. 26, 1951)
• AUDIO: Caribou slippers for Prince Charles (Oct. 26, 1951)

External Links

• Maple leaf brooch (worn by Princess Elizabeth, 1951, and Duchess of Cambridge, 2011)

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 1959 Royal Tour of Canada

The Queen of travel

Queen Elizabeth II 1926 - 2022

Queen Elizabeth II leaves Fiji during a royal tour in February 1977. Serge Lemoine/Getty Images

The Queen of travel Journeys of a lifetime

By Francesca Street and Mark Oliver, CNN September 13, 2022

S he was traveling the moment she ascended to the throne, and for much of the next seven decades, Queen Elizabeth II criss-crossed the world. Newly married and still just a princess, Britain’s future monarch was in Kenya with husband Prince Philip in February 1952 when she learned of her father’s death and her new regal status.

During her reign she would visit more than 120 countries, witnessing first-hand the revolutions in global travel that shrank the world as her own influence over it diminished.

The Queen lived through the advent of the Jet Age, flew supersonic on the Concorde, saw regimes change, countries form and dissolve, the end of the British Empire and the rise of globalization.

Here are some of the most memorable travel moments from her 70 years as monarch.

November 24-25, 1953

Less than six months after she was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London, Queen Elizabeth set off on her travels again. Her debut official state trip was an epic six-month tour of the Commonwealth -- the alliance of nations which were once British colonies. Traveling by air, sea and land she visited several countries, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. First stop was the North Atlantic island of Bermuda, a British territory she would visit a further four times during her reign. The trip would go on to include stops in Jamaica, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Cocos Islands, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Aden (now part of Yemen), Uganda, Malta and Gibraltar.

December 19-20, 1953

At Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in June 1953, Queen Salote Tupou III of the Polynesian kingdom of Tonga won over the British public when she sat, rain-soaked, in her open carriage. They also took an interest when Elizabeth returned the visit later in the year. The two queens enjoyed an open-air feast, watched Tongan dancers and admired a tortoise that legend said was presented by explorer Captain James Cook to the King of Tonga in 1777.

December 23, 1953 – January 30, 1954

New zealand.

The Queen voyaged to New Zealand during the Antipodean summer of 1953-4. Over the course of the trip, it’s estimated that three out of every four New Zealanders got a glimpse of her. In preparation for the Queen’s visit, some New Zealand sheep were dyed in the UK flag colors of red, white and blue. The Queen returned to the country nine times over the years, including in 2002 as she marked half a century on the throne.

April 10-21, 1954

Ceylon (now sri lanka).

A visit to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, coincided with the Queen’s 28th birthday. She visited the city of Colombo where crowds joined together to sing her “Happy Birthday.” She also visited the central city of Kandy, where she watched a procession featuring a reported 140 elephants and met local chiefs.

April 8-11, 1957

The Queen had visited France as a young princess, but her first state visit as monarch was a glamorous affair. She attended the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris, visited the Palace of Versailles, and dined at the Louvre with then-President Rene Coty. The Queen also laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe and visited the Scottish Church of Paris.

October 17-20, 1957

United states.

Having met President Harry S. Truman in Washington in 1951 during a visit before ascending to the throne, Elizabeth was no stranger to America when she arrived on her first trip as Queen. Her 1957 visit marked the 350th anniversary of the first permanent British settlement on the continent, in Jamestown. The monarch attended a college football game at the former Byrd Stadium in Maryland where she watched the home team lose to North Carolina. She met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the White House and later traveled to New York, where she and Prince Philip drove through the streets and admired panoramic views of the city from the Empire State Building.

February 1-16, 1961

The Queen and Prince Philip visited Pakistan in 1961, arriving in the port city of Karachi after completing a visit to India as part of a wider tour of South Asia. She drove through the streets of Karachi in an open-top car, before going on to visit Lahore, where a torchlight military tattoo took place in her honor and Prince Philip played in a game of polo.

February 26 to March 1, 1961

In Nepal, the Queen inspected troops in Kathmandu and met Gurkha ex-servicemen in Pokhara. The monarch rode on an elephant and visited the Hanuman Dhoka Palace complex in Kathmandu. She took part in the rather grim spectacle of a tiger hunt although didn’t shoot any animals herself. She instead recorded the experience on cine camera – a recording device that she often carried with her on her earlier foreign trips.

March 2-6, 1961

The Queen visited pre-revolution Iran at the end of her 1961 South Asian tour. Hosted by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, she toured ancient monuments including the ruins of Persepolis, once a capital of the Achaemenid Empire, later declared a World Heritage Site. She also saw Sheikh Lotfollah mosque in Esfahan and admired collections of the Archaeological Museum of Iran.

May 5, 1961

Vatican city.

In 1961, Elizabeth became the first British monarch to visit the Vatican. Dressed all in black, the Queen had an audience with Pope John XXIII, also attended by Prince Philip. She returned to the Vatican three more times during her reign, meeting Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis.

November 9-20, 1961

Bombing incidents in the capital Accra left officials worried about the safety of the Queen’s visit to Ghana but, after deliberation, UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan confirmed it would go ahead. During the trip, the Queen famously shared a dance with Ghana’s then-president, Kwame Nkrumah. At the height of Cold War uncertainty, this seemingly innocuous moment was seen as significant in ensuring Ghana remained affiliated to Britain and not the USSR.

May 18-28, 1965

West germany (now germany).

The Queen’s visit to West Germany and West Berlin was viewed as a symbolic gesture of goodwill in the post-World War II landscape. It was the first royal trip to German territory for more than 50 years and photographs such as one of the Queen and Prince Philip in a car driving past the Brandenburg Gate had symbolic resonance.

November 5-11, 1968

Queen Elizabeth became the first reigning British monarch to visit South America when she landed in Brazil in late 1968. During the trip, the Queen wore a striking jewelry set made of Brazilian aquamarine, gifted to her in 1953 by the Brazilian president and added to over time. The monarch also attended a football match between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and presented the winner’s trophy to Brazilian footballer Pele.

October 18-25, 1971

On the first of two trips to Turkey -- the second took place in 2008 -- the Queen visited the Gallipoli peninsula to remember the Allied soldiers who died there during World War I. The monarch also explored the ruins of the ancient Greek empire city of Ephesus. A media highlight of the visit came when she was photographed leaping ashore from a barge, after disembarking from her ship, the Royal Yacht Britannia.

February 10-15, 1972

Accompanied by Prince Philip and daughter Princess Anne, the Queen was greeted on arrival in Bangkok by a carpet of flower petals. The monarch was given a golden key to the city of Bangkok, attended a state banquet and visited Bang Pa-In Palace, the Thai royal family’s summer residence, north of the capital.

October 17-21, 1972

The Queen’s visit to Yugoslavia was her first trip to a communist country. The Central European country no longer exists -- the areas that the Queen visited are now part of Croatia. During her trip, she met Yugoslav political leader Josip Broz Tito and traveled on his famous Blue Train.

February 15-16, 1974

New hebrides (now vanuatu).

The Queen and Prince Philip visited the Pacific island archipelago of Vanuatu, then known as the New Hebrides, in 1974. It’s said the royal couple’s visit to Vanuatu may have strengthened the belief among some locals on Tanna island that the Duke of Edinburgh was a divine being.

February 24-March 1, 1975

On her first of two visits to Mexico, the Queen toured ancient sites -- including the pyramids of Uxmal, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The monarch also received local crafts, met school children and attended a banquet. While she was driven through Mexico City, the Queen was showered in confetti.

February 17-20, 1979

Saudi arabia.

In 1979, the Queen became the first female head of state to visit Saudi Arabia, on a tour of Gulf States. At Riyadh Airport, she was met by King Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, pictured. The outfits she wore on the trip were carefully designed in accordance with Saudi Arabia’s conservative dress code for women. The Queen arrived on a British Airways supersonic Concorde aircraft and during the visit attended camel races and toured the National Museum.

October 26-27, 1982

The Queen visited Tuvalu, a group of nine islands in the South Pacific, in 1982. Upon arrival, the Queen and Prince Philip were carried in a flower-filled canoe from sea to shore. Thirty years later, in 2012, Prince William visited Tuvalu with his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, who drank a coconut from a tree planted by Queen Elizabeth on this 1982 visit.

February 26 – March 6, 1983

On a star-studded trip to the United States, the Queen toured the 20th Century-Fox studios in Hollywood with then-First Lady Nancy Reagan and met Frank Sinatra, who she’d previously met in the 1950s, at a party given in her honor. The Queen and Prince Philip also visited Yosemite National Park in California, pictured.

November 10-14, 1983

The Queen returned to Kenya in 1983 for a state visit. When she was there 31 years previously, she'd learned that her father had passed away and she had become Britain’s reigning monarch. In 1983, the Queen and Prince Philip revisited the Treetops hotel, pictured, where they were staying at the time she was told the news.

October 12-18, 1986

The Queen’s trip to China was the first -- and, so far, only -- state visit by a British monarch to China. With Prince Philip by her side, the Queen visited the Great Wall of China, pictured, as well as the Forbidden City in Beijing.

October 17-20, 1994

In 1994, in another royal first, the Queen visited Russia. Over the three-day trip, the Queen met Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, pictured here with the monarch outside St Basil’s Cathedral, as well as Russian President Boris Yeltsin. The Queen also attended the Bolshoi Ballet. In her traditional Christmas Day speech broadcast later that year, the Queen reflected on how times had changed, noting she “never thought it would be possible in [her] lifetime” to attend a service in Moscow’s famous cathedral.

March 19-25, 1995

South africa.

In 1994, after apartheid ended, South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth as a republic. The following year, the Queen traveled there, in a visit designed to renew ties between the two countries. The Queen met with President Nelson Mandela, pictured, and presented him with the Order of Merit.

October 12-18, 1997

The Queen visited India for the third time in 1997, her first public engagement since Princess Diana’s funeral just weeks before. The trip marked 50 years since India’s independence from Britain. Most memorably, the monarch visited the site of the Amritsar massacre, also known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, of April 13, 1919. She also expressed regret at a state banquet in New Delhi for the “distressing” episode in which British soldiers gunned down hundreds of unarmed civilians. The gesture was seen by some as inadequate. “The Queen is doing everything she can to make India like her. But so far it does not seem to be working,” wrote the UK’s Independent newspaper at the time.

October 4-15, 2002

The Queen visited Canada many times. In 2002, her trip to the North American country coincided with her Golden Jubilee festivities, celebrating 50 years of her reign. During the trip, the Queen attended an ice hockey game between the Vancouver Canucks and the San Jose Sharks, and dropped the ceremonial puck.

March 11-16, 2006

The Queen visited Australia 16 times as Head of State. In 2006, she traveled to Melbourne to open the Commonwealth Games. She was greeted by a welcoming party in Canberra, visited the Sydney Opera House, attended a Commonwealth Day service in St. Andrew’s Cathedral and toured Admiralty House, the Sydney residence of the Governor-General of Australia.

May 17-20, 2011

The Queen’s trip to Dublin was the first time a British monarch had set foot in the Irish Republic since its 1922 independence. At Dublin Castle the Queen delivered a well-received speech on the history of Anglo-Irish relations. In County Tipperary, she also toured the medieval Rock of Cashel, pictured, once a seat of power for Ireland’s ancient kings.

November 26-28, 2015

From 1949 to 1951, before she was Queen, Elizabeth and Prince Philip lived in Malta. In 2015, the monarch paid her last visit to the island, touring the Grand Harbour in a Maltese fishing boat and waving to members of the British Royal Navy.

United Kingdom

In the later years of her reign, the Queen cut back on foreign travel, passing on the mantle to the younger royals. In more recent years, royal tours have also been looked at with more skeptical eyes, as Britain reckons with its colonial past.

While she didn't travel abroad in the later years of her reign, the Queen continued to vacation in the UK. Most notably, the Queen’s ties with Scotland remained strong throughout her reign and her residence there, Balmoral Castle, was a favorite refuge. It was at Balmoral that the Queen died on September 8, 2022.

Could Queen Elizabeth Have Stopped Prince Andrew's BBC Interview From Airing?

The BBC and the royal family have a long relationship.

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Almost immediately, Newsnight editor Esme Wren (played by Romola Garai) goes to speak with Fran Unsworth, BBC's director of news. "When it's done, nobody sees the cut until the DG and I have seen it," Fran (Lia Williams) tells the Newsnight women, with 'DG' referring to the BBC Director-General Tony Hall (Andrew MacBean).

Shortly after the interview is filmed at Buckingham Palace , Tony and Fran are in the Newsnight offices, meeting with Esme and deputy editor Stewart Maclean (Richard Goulding). Fran asks, referring to Queen Elizabeth, "She had her man in the room when you shot the interview. He recorded it. Yes?" Esme replies, "Could she stop it going out, Tony?" He answers, "Well, she is the Queen. I mean, I'd have to take the call."

But could Queen Elizabeth have intervened to stop the Prince Andrew Newsnight interview from running ? The answer isn't so black-and-white.

The BBC, short for the British Broadcasting Corporation, was established in 1922 under a royal charter , as a publicly funded broadcasting network. Per CNN , the BBC i s still "predominantly funded by UK households via a license fee."

"They have shaped each other over the past 70 years or so—at the beginning of the BBC, monarchy was often covered in order to give the channel some legitimacy and respectability in the minds of the public, because it has close ties to institutions of state. The BBC built their reputation as a national institution through establishing exclusive rights to broadcast royal events. Likewise, the BBC was central to the monarchy, as this gave them new platforms for mediation," Dr. Laura Clancy, the author of Running the Family Firm: How the Monarchy Manages its Image and our Money , said in an interview with the Daily Beast in 2021.

Over the decades, major royal events—such as Queen Elizabeth's 21st birthday message, her coronation, and the first TV interview with a royal ( Prince Philip in 1961 )—were broadcast on the BBC.

"The BBC is trying to be the state broadcaster and the home to extraordinary journalism, and those two things sometimes clash in the middle," journalist Emily Maitlis said in the documentary Days That Shook the BBC With David Dimbleby . She added, "The BBC tends to regard the monarch as above politics, and a lot of the discussion on the BBC proceeds on that basis."

There are conflicting reports on whether or not Queen Elizabeth approved Prince Andrew's Newsnight interview . At the time, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson would only say that the Queen was "aware" of the interview, but not that she approved it. In her book Scoops , Sam McAlister writes, "I could barely believe the Palace would let it go ahead. Surely there would be some kind of legal intervention? Surely they’d try and spike it, once they had a moment to realise how hideously badly it had gone? Surely Esme would face legal threats beforehand? The Director-General would be involved? Nothing and nobody came."

Reportedly, Queen Elizabeth realized before Andrew did how disastrous the interview was going to be. In the Channel 4 documentary The Problem Prince , Maitlis said , " It was only on the Saturday when the Queen had reportedly read the whole transcript that he received a tap on the shoulder by his security detail. And they said, I think, 'Sir, you might have to come with us.' It was after the Queen had seen what the interview contained that I think it dawned on her before it dawned on him." Days later, Prince Andrew would step down from his role as a senior working royal.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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ACU Commonwealth Scholarships 2024

Interested graduating undergraduate students can apply by may 24, 2024..

Apr 15, 2024

The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is delighted to share that applications for the second round of 2023-24 Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships are now open.

The Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships (QECS) offer fully funded Master’s scholarships to Commonwealth citizens.

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Further details of the scholarships, including eligibility, host universities and details on how to apply, are available on the QECS website .

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Cameron, on U.S. Trip, Takes a Risk and Meets With Trump

David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, said he spoke with Donald Trump, the former, and possibly future, president, about Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict.

By Mark Landler

Reporting from London

When Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, went to Washington on Tuesday, he made all the usual stops, from the State Department to Capitol Hill. But it was his pilgrimage to Palm Beach, Fla., where he met former President Donald J. Trump for dinner on Monday evening at Mar-a-Lago, that grabbed most of the attention.

Mr. Cameron is the first top British government official to meet with Mr. Trump since he left the White House. His visit — ostensibly to cajole Mr. Trump into backing additional American military aid to Ukraine — attests to Mr. Trump’s influence over a far-right faction of House Republicans who have been holding up a vote.

It also underscores how the electoral calendar is affecting political dynamics on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr. Cameron, a onetime prime minister, has emerged as almost a shadow British leader abroad, standing in for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is busy with a looming general election at home.

In traveling to meet Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mr. Cameron was reaching out to a once, and potentially future, American president — one whose jaundiced views on Ukraine are seen as the biggest hurdle to the continuation of much-needed American aid for the Ukrainian military.

“We had a good meeting,” Mr. Cameron said of Mr. Trump, while standing alongside Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken after their own session at the State Department on Tuesday. “It was a private meeting.”

Mr. Cameron said he and Mr. Trump discussed Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza conflict and other geopolitical issues, but he declined to say whether he had made any headway on convincing Mr. Trump to provide additional aid to Ukraine. He said he delivered the same message he gives to other American leaders: “The best thing we can do this year is to keep the Ukrainians in this fight.”

Mr. Trump has not commented on the dinner, which included Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Karen Pierce. His campaign issued a statement saying they discussed “the need for NATO countries to meet their defense spending requirements and ending the killing in Ukraine.” They also shared their “mutual admiration for the late Queen Elizabeth II.”

So far, Mr. Cameron’s lobbying campaign in Washington has been met with decidedly mixed results. While he said he looked forward to meetings with Republicans in the House and Senate on Tuesday and Wednesday, he was not scheduled to meet with Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican who is the pivotal figure in scheduling a House vote on military aid to Ukraine.

The two men last met in December, when Mr. Cameron also saw Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia Republican who stridently opposes further aid. Two months later, she lashed out at Mr. Cameron, saying he had accused Republicans of appeasing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

“David Cameron needs to worry about his own country,” Ms. Taylor Greene said, adding an epithet.

At his news conference with Mr. Blinken, Mr. Cameron acknowledged that he viewed his visits to Capitol Hill with “great trepidation,” noting that, “It’s not for foreign politicians to tell legislators in another country what to do.”

Mr. Cameron played down the Mar-a-Lago meeting, saying it was routine for senior British and American officials to meet opposition candidates. As prime minister, he noted, he met with the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, when he came to London on a fund-raising trip. Mr. Blinken met the Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, at a security conference in Munich.

Still, there is little routine about meeting a former president at the Palm Beach estate that served as his winter White House and is still his political bastion. Mr. Trump used Mar-a-Lago for summit meetings with foreign leaders like President Xi Jinping of China . More recently, he welcomed a like-minded leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary .

Among Republicans, a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago has at times been an exercise in political validation. Kevin McCarthy, the former House speaker, went there three weeks after the attack on the Capitol in January 2021, in a fruitless bid to win Mr. Trump’s favor. Allies like Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor, and Kari Lake, the Arizona TV anchor-turned-politician, are regular visitors.

Diplomats in Britain said Mr. Cameron’s visit was a risk, but characteristic of how he has approached his job from the start. On issues from Ukraine to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, he has pushed the envelope in his public statements. With Britain’s Conservative government lagging Labour by double digits in the polls and facing voters in the fall, some said Mr. Cameron had little to lose.

“Flattering Trump about his importance and significance on this issue is an astute move on Cameron’s part,” said Simon Fraser, a former head of Britain’s Foreign Office. “Let’s see whether it delivers.”

Mr. Fraser predicted that Mr. Cameron’s visit would get a mixed reception in Britain: applauded by those who view it primarily through a foreign-policy lens; criticized by those, he said, “who can’t stand Trump.” But he said Mr. Cameron’s entree to Mr. Trump spoke to his network of global contacts, a legacy of his time as prime minister.

“He’s bringing more reach and energy and impact to British foreign policy,” Mr. Fraser said.

Leslie Vinjamuri, the director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham House, the British research institution, said, “It may not feel tasteful, but it’s shrewd, pragmatic politics of the kind Britain especially has historically been so good at, and probably of the kind that will work best with Trump.”

“There is a lot at stake in U.S. defense of Ukraine and Europe’s security,” she added, “and frankly, I think the effort to influence the U.S. may be wiser and more effective than the aspiration to Trump-proof Europe.”

Mr. Cameron has had a bumpy history with Mr. Trump. In 2016, as prime minister, he condemned Mr. Trump’s campaign proposal to place a temporary ban on allowing Muslims to enter the United States.

Asked in Parliament whether Mr. Trump should be banned from Britain, Mr. Cameron demurred but said, “His remarks are divisive, stupid and wrong, and I think if he came to visit our country, I think he’d unite us all against him.”

Even Mr. Cameron’s welcoming of Mr. Romney in 2012 had its awkward moments. Mr. Romney, who had organized the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, questioned whether London was ready to play host to the summer games, citing reports about security concerns.

“We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world,” Mr. Cameron shot back. “Of course, it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.

An earlier version of this article misstated the year of the Winter Olympic Games that Mitt Romney had organized in Salt Lake City. It was the 2002 Games, not 1988.

How we handle corrections

Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The Times, covering the United Kingdom, as well as American foreign policy in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades. More about Mark Landler