The King is here to do the most kingly thing of all

National Post, 27 May 2025

Let this be a new tradition where the King opens Parliament after every election

A great constitutional drama is unfolding these days in Ottawa, with King Charles III arriving to deliver the Speech from the Throne on Tuesday. It is a testament to His Majesty that the drama has been resolved in not only satisfactory, but spectacular fashion. It is a vindication of the subtlety and suppleness of the Crown-in-Parliament tradition, when executed by a creative first minister.

It is only fair, in passing, to note that this column was critical of the Prince of Wales (and the late Diana, Princess of Wales) for many years, identifying in them a spirit of self-indulgence which is deadly for monarchies in a democratic age. Yet since his accession nearly three years ago, the King has not put a foot wrong. By sending his brother Prince Andrew, Duke of York, into internal exile, and keeping his son, Prince Harry, in external exile, he has done much to cauterize that wound in the Royal Family.

The King is the sovereign of several realms, and by convention takes the advice of his several prime ministers. The prime ministers therefore ought to ensure that their advice does not conflict, or cause discomfort for the King in his other realms.

Sir Keir Starmer failed precisely in that when he ostentatiously and obsequiously brandished an invitation to President Donald Trump from King Charles for a second state visit. Sir Keir should not have advised the King to invite Trump for a second state visit, contrary to precedent, on the simple grounds that surely Trump did not merit an honour not even granted to Ronald Reagan in the high affection of the Thatcher premiership. The manner of the invitation, delivered like a grand prize on a television game show, was exceedingly vulgar, perhaps calculated as such; it brought evident delight to the vulgarian to whom it was addressed.

Apart from the personal abnegation of Sir Keir, adopting the posture of the class nerd meekly offering his lunch money to the schoolyard bully, the first minister of the United Kingdom should have never involved the King in appeasing Trump at the very moment that the American president was declaring that Canada, one of the King’s realms, was not “a real country.” We do not know if the King’s first minister for Canada, then Justin Trudeau, was consulted, or what advice he offered. The upshot was that King Charles was let down by both Sir Keir and Trudeau, who should never have put the sovereign in between the interests of two sovereign nations.

National Post readers likely remember better than most the fiasco that ensued when Her Late Majesty Elizabeth II, upon the advice of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was set to award a peerage to Conrad Black, our founding proprietor. Then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien objected to Black’s appointment to the House of Lords, and so advised the Queen not to proceed. Lord Black, as he eventually became, graciously withdrew to prevent the sovereign having to choose between her prime ministers. The matter was (unpleasantly) worked out by Black giving up his Canadian citizenship (which he subsequently resumed), in effect removing one first minister from the advice-giving.

That was Chrétien indulging personal pique against the National Post’s reportage. This is far more serious, with Sir Keir having asked the King of Canada to potentially undermine the foreign relations and economic prosperity of Canada itself, in effect sacrificing Canada’s good for the (apparent) good of the United Kingdom.

How then to repair the damage? Prime Minister Mark Carney’s solution was both elegant and effective; instead of using the King as a shiny new toy for Baby Trump — as he was depicted in the giant balloon that bobbed over protests in London and will return for the second state visit — Carney asked the King to be more, not less, kingly. He advised the King to come to Canada do the most kingly thing of all, to open Parliament.

Queen Elizabeth only read the Speech from the Throne twice, and the second time was honorific, to celebrate her Silver Jubilee in 1977. Parliament was prorogued one day, only to be opened in a new session the next to afford the Queen the opportunity to read the throne speech. Only in 1957, with that stalwart monarchist John Diefenbaker in office, did the Queen open an entirely new Parliament — then on her first visit to Canada as sovereign. It was a triumph then and it will be another triumph now, in more urgent circumstances.

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