Stamp prices rise for the third time in five years amid financial woes for Canada Post
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, are set to begin a three-day tour of Canada this week that will focus on Indigenous reconciliation and climate change -- and on connecting with a Canadian public that is increasingly skeptical of the monarchy.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will stop in St. John's, N.L., Ottawa and the Yellowknife area during a visit that "will highlight an emphasis on learning from Indigenous Peoples in Canada as well as a focus on working with businesses to find a more sustainable way of living with global warming," according to Clarence House, the couple's official London residence.
In line with those priorities, they will attend a reconciliation event in St. John's and will visit the First Nation community of Dettah in Yellowknife. There will also be a visit to the Dettah ice road as well as discussions on the importance of sustainable finance in building an economy with net-zero carbon emissions.
The visit, which begins Tuesday, will be the 19th trip to Canada for Prince Charles and the fifth for Camilla.
It is a joyful occasion for royal fans, who are looking forward to the couple's first visit to Canada since 2017. Robert Finch, the head of the Monarchist League of Canada, believes the tour in honour of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee -- her 70 years on the throne -- couldn't come at a better time.
"We're just coming out of a pandemic that's taken its toll on all of us, and we're in the midst of more uncertainty economically, geopolitically, what have you," he said in a phone interview. "So it's nice to get those things that are kind of positives and the things that celebrate and bring people together."
Besides the more serious meetings, the trip involves plenty of pomp and photo ops, including visits to local businesses, ceremonies to celebrate the Jubilee and a viewing of the RCMP musical ride -- a performance on horseback.
Both supporters and critics of the monarchy say the visit will be a test of Charles's ability to win over the Canadian public at a time of increasing scrutiny of the monarchy.
An online poll from Angus Reid released in late April that surveyed a representative sample of 1,607 Canadian adults found that just over half -- 51 per cent -- felt the country should not remain a monarchy in coming generations, compared with 26 per cent who thought it should.
While the Queen was still viewed favourably by a majority of respondents, only 29 per cent viewed Charles that way, and only 34 per cent supported keeping a constitutional monarchy under his rule.
There is no margin of error for online polls, but Angus Reid said that for comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size would be accurate within 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Finch doesn't put much stock in the results of polls that suggest Canadians are ready to ditch the monarchy, due in part to the way the questions are framed.
"Republicanism is just not, in my view, a winning proposition, and if it were, one of the major political parties in the country would have adopted it," he said.
But he did say this tour could be one of the most important royal visits ever -- partly because of the focus on Indigenous reconciliation but also because of the chance for Charles to cement his role as future king at a time when his aging mother is stepping back.
He admitted Charles "has work to do" to appeal to the Canadian public, largely because his mother is so beloved. "She's going to be a tough act to follow," he said.
Patrick Taillon, a law professor at Universite Laval in Quebec City who once challenged the laws of British succession in court, said the visit comes as both Canada and the United Kingdom are preparing for an eventual transition to Charles as king.
That moment, he said, "is likely to put the conversation on the nature of our institutions, and the choice of being a monarchy, to the forefront" in Canada.
Taillon said that while Canadians once saw the monarchy as a part of their identity -- one that differentiated them from Americans -- that's increasingly no longer the case.
He said the recent royal tour of the Caribbean by Prince William and his wife, Kate, which drew criticism for perpetuating images of Britain's colonial rule, as well as the allegations of mistreatment described by Meghan Markle, who along with her husband, Prince Harry, stepped back from royal duties in 2020, show the institution has failed to evolve with the times.
While he acknowledges that Canada's Constitution is notoriously difficult to alter, he said change is inevitable, sooner or later. Quebec, where anti-Crown sentiment is fiercest, has been ready to move on for a long time, he added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2022.
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
Italy's mafia rarely dirties its hands with blood these days. Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers.
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
H5N1 or avian flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading among cattle in the United States, sparking concerns about 'pandemic potential' for humans. Now a health expert is urging Canada to scale up surveillance north of the border.
The judge presiding over Donald Trump's hush money trial has fined him US$1,000 for violating his gag order and sternly warned the former president that additional violation could result in jail time.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
AI tools can offer recommendations, answer questions and 'talk' with users. But some users are using them to recreate the likeness of the dead.
Russia plans to hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine and Moscow warned that tensions with the West are deepening.
The Israel-Hamas war has led to a spike in 'violent rhetoric' from 'extremist actors' that could prompt some in Canada to turn to violence, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warns.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.