Charles, the Prince of Wales, and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are tour­ing Canada this week.

From Newfoundland and Labrador, they trav­eled to Ontario; then it’s on to British Columbia, Québec, and finally to Ottawa. They’ll return to England on November 12.

Because Canada remains a con­sti­tu­tional monar­chy, La reine Elizabeth II is tech­ni­cally the Reine du Canada, the country’s offi­cial Head of State. Comme heir to the British throne, l' Prince of Wales is in line to become Canada’s offi­cial ruler.

If you’re a new­comer to Canada, par­tic­u­larly if you’ve come from the very non-​​royalist United States, you may be sur­prised by the degree to which the monar­chy is alive and well north of the bor­der. While the Queen’s role is largely sym­bolic, her por­trait graces Canadian money et stamps, et le Canadian media cov­ers a royal visit in minute detail.

Encore Canadians have mixed feel­ings about their royal ties.

Although Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff once famously dis­missed the rel­e­vance of the monar­chy with “Enough of this non­sense…,” a Sun Media poll taken in the week before this most recent royal visit found that "sup­port for dump­ing the monar­chy stands at 45% nation­ally, tout sup­port for keep­ing the Queen as our head of state is slightly lower at 44%."

Regardless of your views on the monar­chy, vous pouvez get the com­plete itin­er­ary for the royal visit here.

Photo © Carolyn B. Vrai démon