OPINION

What it takes for British royalty to truly become Canadians

CAROLYN HARRIS

PUBLISHED JANUARY 24, 2020UPDATED JANUARY 24, 2020

Carolyn Harris is an instructor in history at the University of Toronto School of Continuing

Studies and the author of three books, including Raising Royalty: 1000 Years of Royal

Parenting.

It was all that anyone in Canada, the United States or Great Britain could talk about: the

arrival of a British royal couple, still in their 30s, in Canada. One observer noted that their

plans for an extended stay meant that Canada “at once assumed a more prominent place in

the columns of the leading journals in both Great Britain and the United States.” The couple

had endured a complicated relationship with the press; they sometimes cancelled public

engagements at the last minute, and fiercely guarded their privacy. He ordered three

journalists off a train, objecting to their intrusive coverage of his activities; she made

impromptu personal visits to charities that empowered women, including the Haven, which

provided vocational training for discharged female prisoners.

And as royalty living in Canada, the pair divided public opinion. One commemorative book
about the couple, called Royalty in Canada, stated that “the residence of royalty in Canada has
given us a new attraction – one that is likely to be of great advantage.” In contrast, Canada’s
leading newspaper, The Globe and Mail, considered the financial implications of their
presence in an editorial that encouraged the royal couple to display “a proper sense of
economy” and “exhibit to the people of Canada the useful example of a prudently regulated
household.”

But the royal couple at the centre of this intense media scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic
were not Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex who, this past weekend, struck
a deal with Buckingham Palace over the logistics of their stepping-away from royal duties as of
this spring. Instead, this was a chronicling of the arrival of the first-ever royal couple to visit
Canada, Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter Princess Louise Caroline Alberta and son-in-law
John Campbell, Lord Lorne, in 1878. And while the circumstances of each royal couple’s
arrival in Canada were very different – Lorne and Louise crossed the Atlantic to take up
residence for five years at Rideau Hall in Ottawa as Governor-General and Viceregal Consort
– lessons abound for Harry and Meghan as they navigate new territory, and the perception
that British royalty might be out of place in a Canadian context.

Lord Lorne and Princess Louise are shown tobogganing in Ottawa in this engraving by
Sydney Prior Hall. (LOOK AND LEARN / ILLUSTRATED PAPERS COLLECTION /
BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)
Even in 1878, just 11 years after a fledgling Confederation, a Canadian national identity was
emerging – one that was more informal and democratic, and would not easily accommodate
the pomp and circumstance associated with the British Royal Family. Louise and Lorne were
warned that they should not expect court dress or guests to back out of the room at their
receptions; to be popular in Canada, they were told, they would be expected to embrace the
cold winters and outdoor pastimes. They needed to be seen as part of Canadian culture rather
than as members of the British Royal Family who were just spending a few years in Canada.

Louise and Lorne embraced both with aplomb, forging a distinct public image as Canadian
royalty. In response to rumours that guests received by the royal couple would be expected to
wear court dress, the press reported that Louise stated that she would not mind if they “came
in blanket coats.” Louise and Lorne hosted “snow parties” at Rideau Hall where there was
skating, tobogganing and curling – an enthusiasm for winter sports that the press noted with
approval. In the summers, they went salmon fishing on the Cascapedia River in Quebec, and
Louise, an accomplished artist, painted Canadian landscapes.

By the time Louise and Lorne departed Canada at the end of Lorne’s term as Governor-
General in 1883, the press coverage was largely positive, despite Louise’s frequent absences
from public view after an 1880 sleigh accident. They were instrumental to the founding of the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the National Gallery of Canada, and undertook the first
royal tour to Vancouver Island in 1882. They remained associated with Canada for the rest of
their lives, and Louise gave her name to both Lake Louise and, by way of one of her middle
names, the province of Alberta.

“The U.K. is my home and a place that I love. That will never change,” Harry said in a speech
on Sunday night at a charity event in London. And that may well be the case. But if Harry and
Meghan decide to live in Canada for extended periods of time, they may well develop a
Canadian public image distinct from their place in the British Royal Family. The experiences
of Canada’s first resident royal couple in the 19th century demonstrate that to achieve
enduring popularity with Canadians, royalty who live in Canada must understand that it is our
national fabric that matters most.

(Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-what-it-takes-for-british-royalty-to-

truly-become-canadian/ )