Canada was “not impressed” by the King’s invitation to Donald Trump for an unprecedented second state visit to the UK, the country’s prime minister has said.
Freshly elected leader Mark Carney said February’s invitation jarred with Canadians because it was delivered physically by Keir Starmer during an Oval Office press conference while Trump was challenging Canada’s sovereignty and suggesting America’s northern neighbour should become the 51st state of the US.
The former British colony is also key member of the Commonwealth and regards King Charles as its head of state.
“I think, to be frank, they [Canadians] weren’t impressed by that gesture… given the circumstance,” Mr Carney told Sky News. “It was at a time when we were being quite clear about the issues around sovereignty.”
Mr Carney, a former Bank of England governor, ran his election campaign on standing up to Mr Trump’s tariff plans and threats to make Canada a state of the US. He has reiterated to Trump that Canada will “never ever” become part of the US.
A wave of anti-Trump sentiment in Canada in the wake of the US president’s comments about a takeover helped Mr Carney secure an unexpected victory. His party, the Liberals, won 168 seats out of 343 in Canada’s House of Commons.
Though he fell short of the 172 seats necessary for a majority, the low approval ratings of Mr Carney’s Liberal predecessor, Justin Trudeau, in the run-up to the April election, meant many people expected the party to perform badly in the vote.
After securing victory, Mr Carney invited King Charles, who is Canada’s head of state, to open its parliament later this month in a “clear message of sovereignty”.
That this is the first time the British monarch has opened the Canadian parliament in 50 years is “not coincidental”, says Mr Carney.
Sir Keir personally delivered an invitation from King Charles to Mr Trump at the White House in late February. It was seen as a bid to flatter Trump, who is known to love the British Royal Family.
But the invitation drew ire from political ranks in the UK, as well as in Canada. Both speakers of parliament, in the Commons and the Lords, have been asked to block Trump from addressing the houses during his visit.
Lord Foulkes, a minister in Sir Tony Blair’s former government who is calling for Trump to be barred from addressing the Lords, said “parliament should not welcome a leader who is anti-democratic and flouts the courts and the rule of law”.
Foulkes added: “He also fails to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which all parties in the UK parliament have done.”
