King Charles III has bid Canada farewell after a brief-but-memorable visit. “As my wife and I leave Canada, we wanted to send our most heartfelt thanks to all those who turned out to offer their support on this, my first visit as Sovereign,” the British monarch said in a joint note with Queen Camilla posted on X. “It was the warmest of welcomes – and the fondest of returns to a land and a people we love.” As leader of the Commonwealth, the king is Canada’s head of state, and he made the whirlwind trip across the Atlantic to speak at the opening of the new Canadian parliament. He arrived at a precarious moment: Canada faces ongoing hostility from President Donald Trump, who has been calling for the North American neighbor to become the 51st U.S. state as well as imposing tariffs on Canadian imports. The king alluded to those tensions in his speech, emphasizing Canada’s sovereignty in language widely viewed as a subtle rebuke to Trump’s provocations. He signed off his message on X, “Until the next time, au revoir, Canada, et avec tous nos remerciements,” meaning “Goodbye, Canada, and with all our thanks.”
