The King and Queen will visit Canada later this month to attend the State Opening of Parliament. 

The royal couple will head to Ottawa on a visit that will take place on May 26 and 27, Buckingham Palace said today. 

Charles is Canada’s head of state and will be travelling to the country with his wife less than a month after former Bank of England governor Mark Carney’s Liberal Party election victory.

Mr Carney’s rival, populist Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, was in the lead until US President Donald Trump took aim at Canada with a trade war and threats to annex the country as the 51st state.

Buckingham Palace said: ‘The King and Queen will visit Canada from Monday 26th to Tuesday 27th May.

‘The King, accompanied by the Queen, will attend the state opening of the Parliament of Canada, in Ottawa.’

This comes a day after the King described the ‘daunting’ and ‘frightening’ experience of being told you have cancer.

In what has been described as his most ‘poignant’ and ‘deeply personal’ words about the illness fifteen months after his own diagnosis, the monarch also revealed he had taken inspiration from the late Dame Deborah James.

She urged sufferers, he said, with moving magnificence to ‘find a life worth enjoying; take risks; love deeply; have no regrets; and always, always have rebellious hope.’

The King and Queen will visit Canada later this month to attend the State Opening of Parliament

The royal couple will head to Ottawa on a visit that will take place on May 26 and 27, Buckingham Palace said today

His Majesty opened up in a message to fellow sufferers as they are invited to Buckingham Palace tonight to recognise the incredible work of community-based cancer organisations.

The King is himself still undergoing regular treatments as someone ‘living with cancer’, although aides say his recovery continues in a ‘very positive direction, as reflected with the very full national and international diary programme’ he is undertaking.

Mark Carney’s Liberal Party stormed to an impressive victory this week driven by anger toward Donald Trump, though its too soon to say whether they will be forming a majority or minority government in Canada’s parliamentary system.

It means that Carney will remain in charge of dealing with an American president in Donald Trump who has openly gloated about making the neighbors to the north the ’51st state’ and calling his predecessor ‘Governor [Justin] Trudeau.’

The U.S. president trolled Canadians on election day by suggesting on social media that he was in fact on the ballot and repeating that Canada should become the 51st state, incorrectly claiming the U.S. subsidizes Canada.

‘It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!’ Trump wrote.

Carney and the Liberals cleared a big hurdle by winning a fourth-straight term, but they have daunting challenges ahead

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney (pictured left) and his wife Diana Fox Carney (pictured right) watch the coverage of the election results at a hotel in downtown Ottawa

King Charles and King Carl Gustaf got busy planting the Swedish oak tree as Queen Camilla and Queen Silvia watched

After Charles and Carl planted soil over the tree, Camilla and Silvia watered the Swedish Oak with tin watering cans

Despite the King’s ongoing cancer treatment, the couple have been continuing with a heavy list of engagements. 

Earlier this month they travelled to Rome for a ‘historic’ four-day State Visit to Italy which saw them pack in 19 engagements over four days. 

Just yesterday they were joined by fellow monarchs, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, for a special tree planting at Windsor.

The Swedish Oak is a gift from the Scandinavian sovereign to celebrate the British royals’ coronation in May 2023 – two years on Tuesday.

Quercus robur, to use its Latin name, is taking up residence in Home Park on the Windsor Estate.