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00:00You're used to seeing a session of the UK Parliament opened by the monarch.
00:06It's an annual tradition.
00:08Much rarer is when the same monarch who's head of the Commonwealth crosses the Atlantic
00:14and makes that speech before the Canadian Parliament.
00:20Charles doing so, the first since his mother did it in 1977,
00:25reading the words of the new Prime Minister, Mark Carney,
00:31Charles with his presence already denoting the distinction between Canada and its neighbour to the south
00:40in times where Donald Trump has taken aim at the Canadians.
00:48Many Canadians are feeling anxious and worried about the drastically changing world around them.
00:56Fundamental change is always unsettling.
01:01Yet this moment is also an incredible opportunity, an opportunity for renewal,
01:08an opportunity to think big and to act bigger,
01:12an opportunity for Canada to embark on the largest transformation of its economy since the Second World War.
01:20Well, for more, let's go to Toronto.
01:25Adam Chapnick is a foreign and public policy analyst,
01:29professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College of Canada.
01:33Thank you for being with us here on France 24.
01:36My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
01:38Now, we saw Charles reading that speech with, in the frame, you saw the author, the new Prime Minister, Mark Carney.
01:48Your thoughts, first of all, on just the fact that Charles is in Ottawa.
01:53Well, there are a few things going on there.
01:56Mr. Carney is trying to demonstrate both to Canadians and to those who didn't vote for him
02:01that he has connections to the world, that when he speaks to international leaders, they respond.
02:07He invited the king to come give this speech in Canada.
02:09The king's health is not great.
02:11It's a big trip for less than 48 hours, and yet the king came.
02:14So it's a demonstration there that the Prime Minister himself has influence in the world.
02:19And it's also, it's a reminder to President Trump that the king of Canada is someone that the president actually admires quite a bit.
02:25It's a reminder to Canadians about their history.
02:28I think it ticks a lot of boxes for Prime Minister Carney all at the same time.
02:32All right.
02:32And the speech read out, the speech written by the new prime minister.
02:37Adam, let me ask you, as king of Canada, is it a request Mark Carney poses directly to Charles, or does he have to go through Keir Starmer?
02:48He does not have to go through Keir Starmer, but he does have to go through the palace in the United Kingdom.
02:53And a good ally would, of course, let the British government know what was going on.
02:58My sense is that the British government was not nearly as excited about the king coming as Canadians were.
03:03However, the British government has its own challenges with the United States and doesn't, and has every reason to worry about what it can't control when the king comes to Canada.
03:12At the same time, the king has quite a fondness for Canada.
03:15He even mentioned that in his speech, because the king does get to write a few lines at the beginning and at the end.
03:19And I believe the king did want to come and to show some support for Canada at a time when many Canadians, as you suggested and the speech suggested, are feeling quite threatened by the state of the world today.
03:29Feeling quite threatened, was it, watching the spectacle unfold, a moment of unity?
03:37I think for a brief moment, it probably was.
03:40You weren't actually allowed to clap and applaud during a throne speech, and yet there was some applause towards the end when the king spoke about a strong and free Canada.
03:48So I think there was at least a moment where Canadians were joining together in support of the sovereignty and the unity of our state.
03:56We have some challenges here on all of those fronts, but we had at least a moment there where we stood together.
04:02And the king who also in that speech, talking up again the issue of values, talking about the rights of welcoming immigrants.
04:16Again, all these seem to be allusions to Donald Trump.
04:23How will it go when Trump confers with Mark Carney?
04:27We don't know yet if there's a confirmation or not if Trump is coming to Alberta for the G7.
04:34From what we've been told most recently, the president will indeed come to Alberta for the G7 summit.
04:42So that seems to be, at least for now, on, which is good news.
04:46I don't think there was anything in this speech to cause President Trump to take real offence.
04:50There were certainly allusions made, but the words themselves spoke about Canada and Canada's resilience, Canada's strengths.
04:58If someone chooses to make comparisons, to read in comparisons to the United States, they can.
05:03But there was no deliberate provoking of the bear or poking of the bear taking place here.
05:07So I don't see this speech as risky in any way, particularly since the president likes the monarchy
05:14and is probably more inclined to give the king the benefit of the doubt in a situation like this.
05:19Please stay with us, Adam.
05:20We're going to cross over to Ottawa and our correspondent, Christopher Gulley.
05:25Christopher, again, 1977 the last time that the king made the trip to the building behind you.
05:32Well, it wasn't the king.
05:37It was his mom, Queen Elizabeth II, and the previous time was in 1957.
05:42So she read the throne speech twice within 20 years.
05:47But you're right.
05:47The last time was 1977.
05:49There's never been a king who has read the speech from the throne.
05:53And it was an interesting speech because he began very personal and he cleverly, masterfully slid into the government's agenda without skipping a beat.
06:09It was interesting also that he ended on a personal note.
06:15There's great affection.
06:16There was a round of applause when he said at the end that Canada has shown that it's the true north, strong and free.
06:24And, Christopher, when we listened in earlier in the newsroom, we noted that, and we know this from before,
06:32you know, when it's Canada, it's bilingual, you have to read in both French and English.
06:36And his French, he definitely knows what he's reading.
06:39He is good at speaking French.
06:43Yeah, absolutely.
06:45His mom was quite fluent as well.
06:47And I just, I was watching him read the speech and it was, he was like, he was casually, like, flipping through a catalog.
06:54I think he almost memorized it because there were times when he was turning the page and he was still speaking.
06:59And there was no teleprompter.
07:01So I think that the speech was, although crafted by the prime minister's office in Canada,
07:08I'm almost certain that King Charles had a hand in it at the end, that he signed off on it and added, as I mentioned,
07:17certainly the front end of the speech and the back end.
07:20Adam Chapnick was mentioning to us how he's not been in good health of late, reminding us of that.
07:26How did he seem to you, Christopher?
07:28Yeah, I was sitting with some colleagues from the UK who traveled with him and will be returning with him.
07:38So, yes, he is suffering from cancer.
07:41He, his gait is a little awkward.
07:44It's a remarkable performance for someone who's essentially on a 25, 24-hour trip.
07:55Like, he arrived in Ottawa on Monday at 1 o'clock our time.
08:00He will be leaving Ottawa 1 o'clock our time today.
08:04So 24 hours.
08:05And in that, during that time, he's gone to Lansdowne Park, this public space,
08:10met a lot of people, planted a tree at the residence of the governor general, his representative in Canada.
08:17The throne speech, as I speak to you, he's at the war memorial.
08:22So for a fellow who's 76 years old, who suffers from cancer,
08:26it's showing physically just by his gait, his posture.
08:31But you try to keep up with that stamina.
08:34Plus, there's jet lag.
08:35I mean, there were young journalists who were suffering from jet lag who were half his age.
08:40Let me turn to Adam Chapnick, because for Mark Carney, it's, as you were saying at the outset, Adam,
08:47a bit of a coup, getting the monarch to return for the first time since 1977.
08:54With the trade tensions, which, once the plane is in the air again and Charles is back en route to London,
09:02will still be there with the United States, how does he get from here to that G7?
09:07I think that it sounds like behind the scenes, Americans and Canadians are now talking.
09:14I mean, the American ambassador to the United States has said that this whole idea of the 51st state is over.
09:20He said it repeatedly.
09:21That doesn't mean the president won't bring it up again,
09:23but it means that Canadians have said we're not interested, and America recognizes that,
09:27which gives space to the diplomats and officials on both sides to start talking about what some sort of bilateral agreement
09:35focused on both economics and defense might look like.
09:39From where I sit, my hope is that Mexico is somehow involved in this,
09:42because two heads negotiating with the United States is usually better than one.
09:48For now, though, it seems that we are speaking to the Americans,
09:51and as long as there is no surprising eruption, things should continue calmly,
09:58as they've been for the last little while, until that G7.
10:01Admittedly, the president is quite unpredictable, and you don't know what he might say next,
10:05but there aren't any obvious big roadblocks between now and that meeting in Alberta.
10:11And one final question.
10:13We've talked about how the king is doing.
10:15How about how the new prime minister is doing?
10:17Remember that Mark Carney, even though he's a known figure,
10:21had been the governor of the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England,
10:24this is his first elected office with this recent election.
10:31The prime minister himself seems to be performing quite well.
10:34The challenge is that he has a new ministry,
10:36and he hasn't managed to staff up the political officials around that ministry that quickly.
10:42So there have been some ministers who have made some comments
10:45not entirely consistent with the government line
10:47that's taken the government away from its key message.
10:51The prime minister has had challenges finding a permanent chief of staff,
10:53which he's now put off until the summer.
10:56So he's had some of these problems that you tend to have
10:58when you're not experienced in politics,
11:00but his ability to govern and to lead seems to be on schedule
11:05and proceeding as planned right now.
11:08Adam Chapman, I want to thank you so much for being with us from Toronto.
11:13Christopher Gulley, our correspondent,
11:15covering that King's speech,
11:17the opening of the Canadian Parliament from Ottawa.
11:20Thank you for being with us here.