King: Canada Is Facing a 'Critical Moment'

King Charles III said Canada is facing unprecedented challenges in a world that's never been more dangerous as he opened the Canadian Parliament on Tuesday with a speech widely viewed as a show of support in the face of annexation threats by US. Trump's repeated suggestion that the US annex Canada prompted Prime Minister Mark Carney to invite Charles to give the speech from the throne outlining his government's priorities for the new session of Parliament. The king, citing Canada's national anthem, proclaimed that the "True North is indeed strong and free" and reaffirmed Canada's sovereignty," the AP reports.

• "We must face reality: since the Second World War, our world has never been more dangerous and unstable. Canada is facing challenges that, in our lifetimes, are unprecedented," Charles, Canada's head of state, said in French. He added that "many Canadians are feeling anxious and worried about the drastically changing world around them."

• It's rare for the monarch to deliver what's called the speech from the throne in Canada. Charles' mother, Queen Elizabeth II, did it twice, most recently in 1977. Charles, who arrived in Canada on Monday, said he had visited the country 20 times. "Every time I come to Canada a little more of Canada seeps into my bloodstream—and from there straight to my heart," he said, per the CBC.
• "Canada has dramatically changed: repatriating its constitution, achieving full independence, and witnessing immense growth. Canada has embraced its British, French, and Indigenous roots, and become a bold, ambitious, innovative country that is bilingual, truly multicultural," the monarch said.
• He said when his late mother first opened a new session of Canada's Parliament in 1957, World War II remained a fresh, painful memory and the Cold War was intensifying. "Freedom and democracy were under threat," he said. "Today, Canada faces another critical moment."

• A horse-drawn carriage took Charles and Queen Camilla to the Senate of Canada Building for the speech. It was accompanied by 28 horses. After inspecting a 100-person honor guard and receiving a 21-gun salute, King Charles entered the Senate building as the crowd cheered.
• The king returned to the UK after the speech and a visit to Canada's National War Memorial, where he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
• Charles and Camilla were met by large crowds during the brief visit. In Ottawa, people claimed spots as early as 5am to watch the royal procession. "I think it was very clever of Carney to ask him, and it sends a message politically, our friends in the south, we are a sovereign country," Ottawa resident Mary Gibb tells the Ottawa Citizen. "We're not a republic."

(More King Charles III stories.)