Why King Charles' Historic Speech in Canada Could Have 'Gone Off the Rails' (Exclusive)

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King Charles' Canada trip included a speech to Parliament that championed the country's independence amid tensions with the United States, a key U.K. ally
Royal experts tells PEOPLE that the monarch "could give a master class in diplomatic relations" and his speech was "pitch perfect"
The King recently invited President Donald Trump to the U.K. for a state visitKing Charles' visit to Canada included a speech that championed the country's independence without escalating current tensions with the United States, and royal experts say the monarch could "give a master class in diplomatic relations."
On May 27, the King and Queen Camilla attended the State Opening of Parliament in Ottawa, where the sovereign gave a historic speech in English and French. All eyes were on King Charles and his address, which carefully navigated his role as Canada's head of state and the U.K.'s allyship with the U.S. amid Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's recent election. His victory was widely viewed as a rejection of President Donald Trump's agenda, including his push for higher tariffs and his remarks that Canada could be "merged with the U.S." and become the '51st state.'
Ailsa Anderson, former press secretary to the late Queen Elizabeth, tells PEOPLE that King Charles pulled it off.
'Clearly, the government wrote it for him, but I liked the personal touches," she says. "Canada was one of the countries he wanted to go to first. But then he had the cancer diagnosis, so it had to be postponed. From my own experience, the late Queen always got an incredibly warm welcome when she visited. And he had been 19 times before as Prince of Wales, so it's a country he knew really, really well."
Anderson said that the King "could give a master class in diplomatic relations," adding, "It was a tricky tightrope to read, but I think he did it."
King Charles subtly addressed the strained relationship with the U.S. but stressed the strengths of Canada, quoting their anthem, "The True North is indeed strong and free!" The speech also came in the wake of the monarch's invitation for President Trump to come to the U.K. for a state visit.
"The speech was really well handled," says Anderson. "It could have gone off the rails, and it didn't.'
"The speech was pitch perfect," royal historian Dr. Ed Owens, author of After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself? tells PEOPLE. "What he doesn't want to do is jeopardize the future state visit to the United Kingdom by [President] Donald Trump."
'What was most remarkable about it was that it tackled the Canada-U.S. relationship head-on," Owens continues. "It talked directly about the relationship between the two countries, the importance of that relationship evolving along the lines of mutual respect and the importance of economic and defense cooperation."
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Royal author Sally Bedell Smith tells PEOPLE that King Charles "deftly threaded the needle and handled everything really well."
"His message to Canada and its southern neighbor is that there is something very distinctive about Canada and emphasized the multi-cultural heritage," she says. "The very fact that half of it was in French underlined that. For the Canadians, it was very good because it underlined how different culturally Canada is from the U.S."
She adds, "He did the monarchy a lot of good because he emphasized correctly how deeply entwined Canada is with the crown. It is something that distinguishes Canada from the United States."
Bedell Smith says Trump's comment about Canada becoming the "51st state" had to be taken seriously.
"It could never have come to pass. But Trump has said it enough and, if nothing else, the elegant way Charles gave a history lesson to the world and one person in particular, puts to rest that notion of what Trump called a wonderful marriage with the United States," she says.
Catherine Mayer, author of Charles: The Heart of a King, says that for some people who might have previously been skeptical about the King, he has now become a beacon who expresses sentiments that they now agree with.
"To those who value it, a monarchy most shows its value in times of turbulence – and we're in a time of extreme turbulence. In a historical context, people always said of [his mother] Elizabeth that she was a fixed point and her father performed that role during the Second World War,' Mayer says.
'We have at the helm a man, who is old enough and experienced enough, and seems to be saying the right things," she adds. "This is somebody who's looking out on the world with decades of experience and, in theory, understanding."
"He looks like a steady and fixed point. When you think how difficult his reputation has been in terms of his comparisons with Elizabeth, that is quite a move."
The Governor General of Canada usually gives the speech from the throne on the monarch's behalf and sets out the government's agenda, and the speech has only been made by the sovereign once before — by Charles' late mother, who did so in October 1957.
Carney asked King Charles to give the speech this year. In doing so, the King is drawing on his extensive diplomatic experience gleaned from more than five decades of frontline public service. He must reflect the policies and priorities of the prime minister, demonstrating his solidarity with the government and the people of the nation he serves as head of state.
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