King Charles to follow in mother's footsteps in delivering throne speech
King Charles is set to open a new session of Parliament on Tuesday, seated in a throne that incorporates a piece of English walnut from Windsor Great Park, a preserve of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth.
The Royal Family connection is especially appropriate given that the Queen was the first sovereign to deliver a speech from the throne in Canada, a role usually fulfilled by the Governor General.
When the Queen came to Ottawa in 1957, she not only opened the initial session of the 23rd Parliament but made her first televised address, a personal speech to Canadians from a study at Rideau Hall.
Hundreds of journalists from The Canadian Press and other media outlets followed the every move of the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, during their visit that Thanksgiving weekend.
Coverage of the royals dominated front pages, dwarfing news of former secretary of state for external affairs Lester Pearson's Nobel Prize and tips on spotting the recently launched Soviet satellite Sputnik as it traversed the night sky.
Story continues below advertisement
The Queen delivered her first televised Christmas message in 1957, a royal holiday tradition that previously involved huddling around the radio.
She had a chance to get used to the camera, and a newfangled teleprompter, when she sat at a desk to speak to Canadians in English and French on Sun., Oct. 13. She was flanked by photos of Philip, son Charles, who was about to turn nine, and daughter Anne, seven.
Get daily National news
Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
Michael Hind-Smith of the CBC, the Queen's producer, told her during a rehearsal, 'If nothing else, enjoy yourself,' CP reported.
The Queen singled out the young people of Canada in her remarks.
'This is a wonderful and exhilarating country worthy of your very best service when you grow up,' she said. 'We hope that one day we shall be able to bring our children here to see it.'
Thousands lined Ottawa streets under a blue sky the next day to see the royal couple travel to Parliament in an open gold-trimmed landau pulled by four black horses.
They made their way to the unseasonably warm Senate chamber, where the Queen read the throne speech summarizing the goals of John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative government.
As she spoke, Philip's eyes 'scarcely left her face,' one story noted.
Story continues below advertisement
The Queen recalled her predecessor, Elizabeth I, speaking warmly from the heart to members of her last Parliament more than three centuries earlier.
'Now here in the new world, I say to you that it is my wish that in the years before me I may so reign in Canada and be so remembered.'
She would reign as Queen of Canada for another 65 years.
Elizabeth returned to deliver the throne speech 20 years later, on Oct. 18, 1977, during a tour to mark her Silver Jubilee.
The rituals of two decades before once again played out in the streets of the capital.
The Queen and prince were protected from the cold by large buffalo robes as the historic landau proceeded to Parliament Hill, greeted by booming field guns, a CP story noted.
'Boys on bicycles peddled madly beside the royal carriage until police stopped them.'
The couple were greeted by Pierre Trudeau, prime minister at the time, wearing a morning coat adorned by his trademark red rose.
Inside the Senate chamber, a hush fell over assembled parliamentarians and red-robed Supreme Court justices as the Queen donned a pair of half-moon eyeglasses — the first time she had worn spectacles in public — and began reading the throne speech, the news service wrote.
Story continues below advertisement
The speech dwelled on themes that might seem familiar today.
'Given the new economic realities to which Canada must adjust, and the urgency of promoting linguistic and cultural harmony, it is readily apparent that Canada is now entering a new era,' the Queen said in French.
The Liberal government of the day used the speech to assure Canadians of its profound dedication to rediscovering 'the spirit of unity.'
The Queen concluded by stating that she too dedicated herself anew 'to the people and the nation I am very proud to serve.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
21 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Sir John A. Macdonald statue back in view at Queen's Park after five years boarded up
TORONTO - The Sir John A. Macdonald statue outside the Ontario legislature is back in full view after spending the past five years in a box. The statue of Canada's first prime minister has been under hoarding since 2020, when it was vandalized with pink paint. The monument was one of many that were targeted across the country amid anti-racism protests and as Canadians grappled with the history of residential schools. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Macdonald is considered an architect of the country's notorious residential school system, which took Indigenous children from their families in an effort to assimilate them. Progressive Conservative and Liberal members of a non-partisan board of the legislative assembly agreed earlier this month on a motion to remove the hoarding after the statue is cleaned. Speaker Donna Skelly says she recognizes the sensitivities surrounding Macdonald and welcomes Ontarians to come and share their views peacefully. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2025. Politics Headlines Newsletter Get the latest news and unmatched insights in your inbox every evening Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Yes, I'd also like to receive customized content suggestions and promotional messages from the Star. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Politics Headlines Newsletter You're signed up! You'll start getting Politics Headlines in your inbox soon. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page.
National Observer
an hour ago
- National Observer
NDP grassroots buck against 'top-down' leadership race
After the unmitigated disaster that was the NDP's 2025 election result, prominent members are pushing back against an 'elitist' leadership race and want the party to rebuild from the grassroots up. 'We lost touch, and we have to be honest about that,' former MP Charlie Angus said at a June 11 press conference in Ottawa. 'We have to re-engage with people.' When asked about Angus' comments, NDP interim leader Don Davies said it was a 'tough election' but he doesn't think the party lost touch. The question of how to rebuild has become existential: the NDP is down to seven MPs and lost official party status for the first time since 1993. This limits the party's influence significantly. They no longer get a seat on committees to study issues and amend legislation, and no longer have the right to ask daily questions of the government during Question Period, among other lost privileges. The party is searching for a way out of the wilderness, and doing so without a leader. According to Angus, the party needs two things: a strong leader and a return to grassroots organizing. But the NDP must do more than just rally behind a leader, he emphasized. 'Nothing against Jagmeet [Singh], but we stopped being the New Democratic Party. We became Team Jagmeet, and that wasn't selling,' Angus said in an interview with Canada's National Observer. With the NDP reduced to seven seats, Former MP Charlie Angus and party activists are pushing back against a "top-down approach" to the NDP leadership race and instead are advocating for a return to grassroots organizing. 'If it's all about just going to cheer on the leader, then the riding associations start to disintegrate,' he said. Proposed leadership contest rules controversial Angus, who once again ruled out a bid for the leadership, has run before: he ran against Singh in the 2017 NDP leadership race. At the time, the entry fee was $30,000. Now, there are rumblings among a handful of prominent New Democrats that the entry fee could go up to $150,000, the Globe and Mail reported last month. Angus said he doesn't know what an acceptable fee for entry is but said $150,000 'seems like a high number.' Brad Lavigne, a key member of former NDP leader Jack Layton's leadership team who also participated in Thomas Mulclair's race, said the leadership campaign needs to strike the balance between duration, financial viability and broad support. Running a long leadership race can make the costs of a campaign for both the candidates and party unsustainable, Lavigne said. Lavigne didn't speculate about an appropriate leadership fee, but noted fee thresholds self-select tenable candidates that have grassroots support from across the country. "If you can't find 1,000 people to contribute $20, then how viable are you as a leadership candidate?' Lavigne said. The primary objective of running any leadership campaign is to find a leader that has broad support from party members and get the majority of Canadians to vote NDP at the polls so it can implement the party's policies, he said. 'Grassroots members that I've talked to want to see a successful electoral game plan,' he said. 'It's not enough to make the case for policy ideas in the hopes that other parties will adopt them and enact them in Parliament.' Grassroots 'tired of this top-down approach' Des Bissonnette and Ashley Zarbatany, co-chairs of the Indigenous People's Commission, criticized the proposed leadership race fee and short race, arguing the plan is the brainchild of an unelected party elite that wasn't vetted by the executive council and will potentially exclude grassroots supporters and ideas. 'There are a lot of grassroots and team members who are tired of this top-down approach by the consultant class in our party,' said Zarbatany, who added the proposed fee is 'abysmal' and didn't represent the values or pocketbooks of a working-class party. Ideas about the leadership race were floated in the press before discussing them with the federal executive, she added, reflecting the poor internal communication that also led to pushback by half the elected caucus around the selection of the interim leader, Don Davies. Bissonnette, the NDP candidate for Lakeland, Sask. in the last election, agreed. 'There's never really any consultation with [federal NDP] council members on what direction the party is going to take most of the time,' she said. 'You're rubber-stamping decisions that they've already made, rather than actively engaging in the democratic process.' The party has also shifted away from grassroots progressive values, she said, citing the decision to remove socialist language from the party's constitution and the failure to push hard for electoral reform while backing the Liberal government or in the election campaign. 'People like myself in the grassroots, the volunteers who are passionate about progressive politics want to see a real progressive party,' Bissonnette said. Bissonnette and Zarbatany said the climate crisis is a key issue with many grassroots members of the party who feel environmental policy proposals get ignored. Doubling down on centralist ideas that are too similar to the Liberal Party isn't going to lead to the renewal of the party, Zarbatany said. 'They are the reason why our party has suffered catastrophic electoral losses.' 'Kill Zoom' Rebuilding the party is about far more than the leadership race, and last time round, the party's leader-centric focus undermined the role of local riding associations, Angus said. 'People living in 12 ridings probably decided the leadership last time and that left a lot of parts of the country out in the cold,' he said. The party must find a way for members in New Brunswick or rural Saskatchewan to feel like a part of the movement. Angus' main recommendation to bring the party back to its grassroots origins? 'We need to kill Zoom,' he said. 'Everything by the NDP is done on Zoom. Zoom doesn't include anybody,' he told Canada's National Observer at Parliament Hill. 'We used to do pub nights. We used to do bean dinners,' he said. Angus said 'doing old-school organizing' with an emphasis on public meetings and getting people involved to vote at the party's convention are key, adding that TikTok views did not translate into votes. Mobilizing the grassroots is trickier when you're strapped for cash, Dennis Pilon, a political science professor at York University, told Canada's National Observer last month. 'On the right, they just buy people, they just hire people to go out and go door to door, but the NDP don't have the resources to do that,' Pilon said. With fewer people voting in general elections, the NDP is suffering more than other parties, Pilon said. In the postwar period, voter turnout was about 75 to 80 per cent, but in recent elections, it has slipped to between 60 and 65 per cent. 'The missing voters aren't just anyone. They tend to be poor. They tend to be less integrated with the political system. They tend to have less sense of social entitlement,' Pilon said. The NDP needs to reconnect with these missing voters, but it will be challenging because you have to actually go out and meet them, he said. The party lost touch with its traditional working-class base because it lacked an 'on-the-ground force,' Angus said. 'We need an honest appraisal of what went wrong,' he said. 'New Democrats aren't very honest when it comes to disasters. We sort of blame strategic voting, or we blame something. We made a lot of mistakes. I think people just want an honest accounting.' Angus would not speculate on who might run for the party leadership. 'At the end of the day, this has to be about winning,' Angus said. Rather than repeat the mistake of gambling everything on a likeable leader, Angus prefers to focus on how the party finds its people again. 'We don't need big ideas. We've got tons of big ideas … We don't need dramatic and bold moves. We need to re-engage and be the party that ordinary people feel has their back. It's pretty simple stuff, but maybe that's the hardest thing, is just going back to the grassroots, going back to coffee shops, going back to inviting people in and making them feel like they belong and that they're welcome, regardless of whether they say the right thing or not.'
Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
Indian agent had Jagmeet Singh under close surveillance
A suspected Indian government agent had Jagmeet Singh under close surveillance, prompting the RCMP to place the New Democratic Party leader in police protection 18 months ago, sources have told Global News. The agent, who is allegedly tied to activities directed by the Indian government, had access to intimate knowledge of Singh's daily routines, travel and family, according to the sources familiar with the matter. He was also described by the sources as associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which the Indian government has been accused of using to commit violence in Canada. Police notified Singh about a credible risk to his life in late 2023 and put tight security around him and his homes. Singh revealed during the 2025 federal election that he had been under police protection. But no details of the investigation have been publicly disclosed until now, and Singh has said the RCMP never told him who was behind the threat, although 'the implication was a foreign government.' Police responded to the threat at the time and Singh is no longer considered to be in imminent danger. Singh lost his seat in the 2025 federal election and has stepped down as NDP leader. The allegation that a suspected Indian agent was gathering information about the day-to-day movements of a federal party leader will likely raise new questions about foreign interference. View image in full screen NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh steps off campaign plane as member of his RCMP security detail stands by in Winnipeg, April 23, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck. Singh did not respond to requests for comment through an intermediary. Global News is not identifying the multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation who spoke on condition they would not be named. Advertisement The Indian High Commission in Ottawa has not responded to questions about the allegations. The RCMP said it does not discuss 'protective measures, nor confirm individuals who may be designated to receive protection.' 'The security environment in which public figures operate is constantly evolving, and the RCMP takes all threats against public officials seriously,' spokesperson Marie-Eve Breton said on Wednesday. The reasons police became concerned about Singh's safety a year-and-a-half ago have emerged as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Canada on the weekend. With President Donald Trump in the White House, Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he wants to diversify Canada's trading relationships and has invited Modi to the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta. But the decision has faced criticism because New Delhi is still not cooperating with RCMP investigations into India's suspected involvement in the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, among other violent crimes. RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme held a news conference last October to announce that investigators had found evidence linking 'agents of the government of India to homicides and violent acts' across the country. Police said India was collecting information on potential victims in Canada and using the Lawrence Bishnoi crime group, and similar drug and extortion outfits, to target them. They also said 'well over a dozen credible and imminent threats to life' had led them to issue warnings to members of the South Asian community, specifically those active in the pro-Khalistan movement. Singh told reporters in April that police had advised him in the winter of 2023 that his life could be in danger. They did not tell him who was behind the threat but he said the implication was that it was a foreign government. He said he stayed in his basement, avoided windows and considered quitting politics over fears about his family's safety. He decided to carry on but was forced to lead the NDP for a period under police protection. 2:28 Evidence links violent crimes in Canada to Indian government A lawyer who became federal NDP leader in 2017, Singh has angered India by pressing the Canadian government to take a harder line against Modi's government over its problematic human rights record. Indian press reports have wrongly labelled Singh a supporter of anti-India 'terrorists' and reported that the intelligence agency that works for Modi's office had prepared dossiers on him. Under Modi, New Delhi has amped up its claims that Canada has not done enough to counter the Khalistan movement that seeks independence for India's Sikh-majority Punjab. It has also meddled in all levels of Canadian politics and now ranks as the 'second most active country engaging in electoral foreign interference in Canada,' according to the Hogue Commission. With the murder of Nijjar, however, India has allegedly taken its grievances against Canada to another level. A Sikh temple leader, Nijjar was leading a referendum campaign on Khalistan independence when he was gunned down. Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons in September 2023 that investigators were probing the involvement of Indian government agents. Police believe India used gang members to carry out the killing. Sources have told Global News that Modi's right-hand man Amit Shah allegedly approved the operation. India has denied that. Canada later expelled six Indian diplomats and consular officials for allegedly collecting information on Canadians of Indian descent that was fed back to intelligence officers in New Delhi and used to direct attacks. View image in full screen NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks at campaign rally in Winnipeg, April 23, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck. The alleged surveillance of Singh is not unprecedented. Before Nijjar was killed, he told a close friend that a tracking device had been found on his pickup truck when he was having it serviced. Advertisement 'He told me this personally,' said Moninder Singh, the spokesperson for the Sikh Federation who is also among those police have warned about threats to their lives. Nijjar was shot dead inside the same vehicle outside Surrey's Guru Nanak Sikh Temple. Moninder Singh said he did not know whether agents had followed him too. 'I've had multiple warnings but have never been told or known if I was under surveillance, but I would think I would be and do live my life as though I am,' he said. 'There's no other way.' As someone living under threat, he said Modi's visit to Canada had added 'insult to injury.' After Modi said he would attend the G7, Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal said his constituents had told him that inviting the Indian prime minster was sending the wrong message. Carney has said that Modi agreed to 'continued law enforcement dialogue and discussions addressing security concerns' and that countering foreign interference was high on the summit agenda. 2:24 Carney lays out G7 priorities, faces criticism over Modi invite But a Canadian Sikh coalition wrote to MPs this week to voice their 'anger and sense of betrayal' over Carney's decision to extend an invitation to the leader of a government that has not yet been held to account for Nijjar's killing. 'His death was not an isolated act but part of a coordinated campaign of transnational repression that continues to violate Canadian sovereignty to this day,' the four Sikh organizations wrote. 'To extend an invitation to the architect of these policies who proudly boasts that India 'enters the homes of its enemies and kills them,' without any public commitment to justice or accountability, undermines the very principles Canada claims to uphold.' The letter was signed by the leaders of the World Sikh Organization of Canada, Sikh Federation of B.C., Ontario Gurdwara's Committee and Quebec Sikh Council. The groups are holding a news conference on Parliament Hill on Thursday.
