Queen Elizabeth II in Canada: May 2005

[mandyy]

More photos of the Queen's visit

[mandyy]

and a few more

[sara1981]

i got news from http://www.telegraph.co.uk see HM Queen and Prince Philip's trips to Canada

check it out!

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.

[HMQueenElizabethII]

Thanks you so much Humera.You are kind sharing us these beautiful pics of Her Glorious Majesty.

[Ephram]

What's the agenda of the Royal Visit for today 19 May 2005, is it a visit to Saskatoon including the gala performance someone mentioned in the previous thread?

[Humera]

Originally Posted by Ephram

What's the agenda of the Royal Visit for today 19 May 2005, is it a visit to Saskatoon including the gala performance someone mentioned in the previous thread?

The Queen & Prince Philip will pay respects to the memorial of the 4 RCMP officers slain in March. That'll be around 4:30 in the afternoon.
At 8pm, the Saskatchewan Centennial Gala will take place.

[Humera]

Originally Posted by HMQueenElizabethII

Thanks you so much Humera.You are kind sharing us these beautiful pics of Her Glorious Majesty.

you're welcome:)

A few more pics from the Legilative visit

[Humera]

After leaving the Legislature, the Queen and Prince Philip made their way to the small town of Lumsden, Sask and had a lunch with the Premier along with 500 invited guests. The Queen greeted the crowd gathered outside before leaving.

[Warren]

Yet again thanks to ~*~Humera~*~ for all the work in posting a fabulous series of photos. And thanks to Mandyy and HMQEII for their contributions as well.

I thought the statue of HM on Burmese was an inspired idea. I imagine she would have been very impressed, and touched, with the result.

She's holding up pretty well for a woman, still working, still travelling the globe, in her eightieth year!
.

[Ephram]

Originally Posted by ~*~Humera~*~

The Queen & Prince Philip will pay respects to the memorial of the 4 RCMP officers slain in March. That'll be around 4:30 in the afternoon.
At 8pm, the Saskatchewan Centennial Gala will take place.

Thank you, Humera. I'll follow the daily report of this Royal Visit and especially pictures from you on this thread.

[HMQueenElizabethII]

More pics of yesterday from AAP Image:

[Humera]

Here's the official website the of Saskatchewan Centennial Gala which will take place in about an hour tonight. I will be watching ofcourse.

http://www.cbc.ca/saskatchewangala/

And Im working on posting the caps from the Queen's visit to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Depot in Regina today where she attended a memorial service for the 4 RCMP officers who were slain in the line of duty in March.
It was a very moving event.
The Queen went to the airport after that to make her way to Saskatoon where the Gala tonight will take place

[sara1981]

check it out on http://www.telegraph.co.uk see HM Queen ElizabethII and Prince Philip's trips to Canada

Day when Canada rained over the Queen
By Caroline Davies in Regina
(Filed: 20/05/2005)

In pics: The Queen's tour


If, in the comfort of her hotel suite, the Queen had perused the "Profile of our capital city" brochure produced to celebrate the Canadian province of Saskatchewan's centennial, she may have noticed that Regina's "precipitation averages 14in each year".

She might later have wondered why it all had to fall on one day. And not just any old day, but the day chosen for her official - open air - "welcome to Canada" ceremony.

The only day in Saskatchewan's proud history, in fact, when Canada's one open-topped landau had been transported from Ottawa in order to carry the head of state, and her husband, in a procession befitting their status to the prairie city's imposing Legislative Building.

With no apparent inclement weather contingency (like a car, for example) there was nothing for the monarch to do but don waterproof cape, clamber in and clutch her trademark transparent umbrella as stair rods of rain pounded down and pools lapped around her feet on the floor of the carriage.

Awaiting her at the Legislative Building, the largest in Canada, organisers, guests and a 3,000-strong crowd of patriotic Reginans were resigned to losing their battle with the elements.

War veterans, resplendent in berets and burnished medals when they stepped from their charter coaches, sat stoically, rivulets running down their soaking backs.

They had suffered worse discomforts, they reminded themselves. Occasionally one would rise, tip up his plastic chair to allow the water to run off, and settle back down to wait. An army of local officials, clearly unfamiliar with the law of diminishing returns, wielded giant rolls of kitchen paper and attempted to mop the seats on which the Queen, Prince Philip, the Canadian Prime Minister and the Premier of Saskatchewan would sit.

On the city's streets the crowd lining the route squinted through misted camera lenses. But the speed of her journey defeated all but the fastest shutter.

"I had my camera going, and I didn't get anything except the backside of the horses," said Miriam Hilderman, one of the disappointed.

By the time the Queen's procession arrived, accompanied by four sodden Mounties in soused scarlet serge, the downpour had turned into an unremitting deluge.

The Canadian Forces' Naden Band struck up the Royal Anthem, spray shooting from trombones and trumpets with every forceful exhalation.

The Queen, the trim of her umbrella matching the claret of her hat, inspected the guard of honour at the double, trotting briskly past the one hundred soldiers, sailors, airmen and Mounties standing to rigid attention and ignoring the rain coursing down their noses.

The Queen sploshed to the microphone. "My mother once said that this country felt like a home away from home for the Queen of Canada," said a disembodied voice from somewhere within the sea of official umbrellas.

"Ladies and gentlemen, six decades later it still does… and it is good to be back."

[mandyy]

Photos from today