the royal tour

Royal tours of Canada by the Canadian royal family have been taking place since 1786, and continue into the 21st century, either as an official tour, a working tour, a vacation, or a period of military service by a member of the royal family. Originally, official tours were events predominantly for Canadians to see and possibly meet members of their Canadian Royal Family, with the associated patriotic pomp and spectacle. However, nearing the end of the 20th century, such occasions took on the added dimension of a theme; for instance, the 2005 tour of Saskatchewan and Alberta by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was deemed to be a vehicle for the Queen and Canadians to honour "The Spirit of Nation Builders." The couple's tour in 2010 was themed "Honouring the Canadian Record of Service— Past, Present and Future." Official royal tours have always been vested with civic importance, providing a regionalised country with a common thread of loyalty.The first member of the royal family to visit Canada was the future King William IV, who arrived on the country's east coast in 1786 while an officer in the Royal Navy. His niece, Queen Victoria, never came to Canada, but during her reign her son, the future King Edward VII, made the first modern Canadian royal tour: partaking in official engagements, meeting politicians and the public, and reviewing troops. There had been many invitations since 1858 for the reigning monarch to tour Canada, but in 1939 King George VI was the first to do so. During that trip, the King's wife, Queen Elizabeth, initiated the tradition of the "royal walkabout", though her brother-in-law, the former King Edward VIII, had often met ordinary Canadian people in 1919; as he said: "Getting off the train to stretch my legs, I would start up conversations with farmers, section hands, miners, small town editors or newly arrived immigrants from Europe."Royal tours can take more than a year to organize. The planning is coordinated by the Canadian Secretary to the Queen. The regions to be visited are decided by a rotational formula. Modern tours have run with a theme; for instance the visit of Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in 2010 was intended to highlight "the Canadian record of service—past, present and future"; themes are decided upon by the Queen's secretary together with the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Office of the Prime Minister.

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