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http://www.telegraph.co.uk see HM Queen and Prince Philip's trips to Canada
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Political turmoil greets Queen on Canada tour
By Caroline Davies in Regina
(Filed: 19/05/2005)
Pomp triumphed over politics in the prairies as the Queen arrived in Canada amid political turmoil that threatened to postpone her nine-day tour.
With Canada's Liberal government facing a make or break vote of confidence today, the Queen's message to the people of Saskatchewan was prudently rooted deep in the days of Queen Victoria.
The Queen visiting the First Nations University with Chief BirdThere had been fears that her tour would be cancelled in case the vote precipitated a general election and her presence presented an unfair advantage to the incumbent government.
But, on advice from the beleaguered Liberal prime minister, Paul Martin, she pressed ahead, landing in this vast western prairie province.
It was a sullen, lowering sky that welcomed her and Prince Philip to Regina, a modern, utilitarian city serving the province's farming communities, and which has the honour of being Canada's "most royal city".
Home to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, the Royal Regina Golf Club and with its main thoroughfares named "Victoria" and "Albert" Avenues, it has come to symbolise Canada's strong links with the Crown, maintained, in part, by the average Canadian's desire to distinguish him or herself from their brash North American neighbours.
By the time she arrived the 79-year-old sovereign had already had a day and a half of it, literally. It had begun with the state opening of Parliament at Westminster, followed by an eight-and-a-half-hour flight to Regina airport 66 years to the day after her father became the first reigning monarch to visit Canada.
She showed no signs of flagging as she swept into the First Nations university for her first engagement, symbolically with the First Nations Indian people who were Saskatchewan's original settlers. Her watch would have been showing 1am BST.
Surveying the elaborate eagle-feather headdresses of the chiefs and the battalion of berets, both claret and green, from First Nation veterans, she addressed an invited audience, unveiling a plaque made of polished granite, and bearing the royal cyphers of both herself (EIIR) and her esteemed ancestor (VR).
"This stone was taken from the grounds of Balmoral Castle in the Highlands of Scotland, a place dear to my great great grandmother Queen Victoria," she said.
"It symbolises the foundation of the rights of First Nation people reflected in the treaties signed with the Crown in her reign."
Saskatchewan is known colloquially as "grandmother's land" to the First Nations, "grandmother" being Queen Victoria with whom the First Nation Indians signed treaties giving them land ownership, hunting, health and education rights.
"Our treaty rights last for as long as the grass grows, the river flows and the sun shines," said Chief Ahanakew, 51, a Plains Cree chief with whom the Queen chatted.
Next to him, Allan Starblanket, 85, showed the Queen the silver medal given to his great grandfather, Chief Ahtahkakoop (Starblanket) in 1876 when he negotiated Indian treaty Number 6 with representatives of Queen Victoria.
But for many of those gathered, the romantic depiction of the Crown's largesse was tinged with bitterness by those who see racism at play as Canada strives for cultural utopia.
Among them, Tony Cote, one of Saskatchewan's few remaining aboriginal Korean War veterans, said the visit - and all that it symbolised - was long overdue.
"I think it is time that she started coming to Indian country because I feel she owes us a lot," he said. "She owes us a lot for all the land and the resources and the minerals that they took away from the First Nations people."
Chief Alphonse Bird, of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, had said he was hoping to "talk a little bit of treaty" as he accompanied the Queen, possibly taking the time to remind her that there are some treaty promises still unfulfilled for First Nations people.
But first the Queen was welcomed with an "honour song" then presented with a pink and cream, hand-embroidered "star quilt". Prince Philip was given a pair of moccasins. Later the Queen had a private meeting with Mr Martin.