CASPER
New member
OTTAWA (Reuters) - White cowboy hats, an emergency helicopter landing and a flight over the fictional home of Anne of Green Gables await Prince William and his new bride Kate in Canada on their first official trip overseas.
The potential future king and queen of Britain and Canada began their Canadian tour in Ottawa on Thursday afternoon, a trip designed in part to broaden bonds between the monarchy and Canadians, whose head of state is Queen Elizabeth.
"I think, given the youth and dynamism of this couple, they will simply continue to reaffirm the important role the crown plays in this country," Kevin MacLeod, Canadian secretary to the Queen, told reporters.
Crowds gathered early at the National War Memorial and at Rideau Hall, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will stay. A record-breaking number was expected to celebrate the Canada Day holiday with them on Parliament Hill on Friday.
The couple will tour seven cities in four provinces and one territory before heading to California on July 8. Prince William, a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot in Wales, will co-pilot a Sea King helicopter making a training emergency landing on water in Prince Edward Island.
They will sail in a frigate from Montreal to Quebec City, take a bush plane to isolated Blatchford Lake in the Northwest Territories, not far from the Arctic Circle, and be presented with ceremonial white hats ahead of the Calgary Stampede.
"It feels like Christmas for us monarchists," the head of the Monarchist League of Canada, Robert Finch, gushed on the social network Twitter.
Marilyn Job, a 58-year-old museum fund-raiser who vividly remembers a trip, as a six-year-old, to see Queen Elizabeth in Toronto, got to the National War Memorial six hours before William and Kate were to lay a wreath there, snagging a prime spot just a yard (meter) from the red carpet.
"The monarchy is an important function of Canada," she said, describing it as critical for the Queen's grandson and his wife to rekindle affection for the institution. "It will die otherwise."
Prince William is far more popular in Canada than his father, Prince Charles, who is next in line to the throne, and the couple's glamorous April 29 wedding only added to the appeal.
The potential future king and queen of Britain and Canada began their Canadian tour in Ottawa on Thursday afternoon, a trip designed in part to broaden bonds between the monarchy and Canadians, whose head of state is Queen Elizabeth.
"I think, given the youth and dynamism of this couple, they will simply continue to reaffirm the important role the crown plays in this country," Kevin MacLeod, Canadian secretary to the Queen, told reporters.
Crowds gathered early at the National War Memorial and at Rideau Hall, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will stay. A record-breaking number was expected to celebrate the Canada Day holiday with them on Parliament Hill on Friday.
The couple will tour seven cities in four provinces and one territory before heading to California on July 8. Prince William, a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot in Wales, will co-pilot a Sea King helicopter making a training emergency landing on water in Prince Edward Island.
They will sail in a frigate from Montreal to Quebec City, take a bush plane to isolated Blatchford Lake in the Northwest Territories, not far from the Arctic Circle, and be presented with ceremonial white hats ahead of the Calgary Stampede.
"It feels like Christmas for us monarchists," the head of the Monarchist League of Canada, Robert Finch, gushed on the social network Twitter.
Marilyn Job, a 58-year-old museum fund-raiser who vividly remembers a trip, as a six-year-old, to see Queen Elizabeth in Toronto, got to the National War Memorial six hours before William and Kate were to lay a wreath there, snagging a prime spot just a yard (meter) from the red carpet.
"The monarchy is an important function of Canada," she said, describing it as critical for the Queen's grandson and his wife to rekindle affection for the institution. "It will die otherwise."
Prince William is far more popular in Canada than his father, Prince Charles, who is next in line to the throne, and the couple's glamorous April 29 wedding only added to the appeal.
