With the formal coronation of King Charles less than two weeks away, a new survey suggests Canada’s new monarch could have a tough road ahead when it comes to winning over Canadians — and support for his wife, Camilla, appears even weaker.
Though the May 6 event is likely the first coronation many Canadians will have a chance to watch themselves — the last one was when Charles’s mother, Elizabeth II was crowned 70 years ago in 1953 — the number of Canadians who say they’re looking forward to watching the event is small.
A new poll from the Angus Reid Institute suggests most respondents (60 per cent) oppose even recognizing Charles as King. Just 28 per cent say they have a favourable view of Charles, while nearly half (48 per cent) do not.
And the news is equally bad when it comes to how they feel about Charles’s wife.
Following the death last September of Queen Elizabeth, there was much speculation and debate about what Camilla would be called with Charles becoming King. At first, she was Queen Consort, a title the late Queen endorsed before she died. But when the invitations to the May coronation were sent out by Buckingham Palace, she was just Queen Camilla.
Support for Camilla, who will be known as Queen Camilla, is even weaker than for Charles. (Chris Jackson/The Associated Press)
“During the period of mourning, there was potential for confusion if the Most Canadians don’t want Charles as King, and don’t care about the coronation, according to poll – CBC.ca Queen was used to refer to both the late Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Camilla,” Toronto-based royal author and historian Carolyn Harris told CBC News earlier this month.
“With the coronation, there is only one King and Queen, Charles III and Queen Camilla.”
That clearly doesn’t sit well with some Canadians.
Two-thirds (66 per cent) of respondents to the Angus Reid Institute survey said they’re against even recognizing Camilla as Queen of Canada. A majority (60 per cent) say she should not be referred to as “Queen.” Only 21 per cent think she should carry the title of Queen, while 19 per cent said she should be referred to as Queen Consort.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents to the Angus Reid Institute survey are against Camilla being given the title ‘Queen.’ (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
“Canadians are fairly unequivocal around their views of whether the monarchy represents a modern institution, and indeed an institution that they wish to see sit at the top of Canadian law, politics, constitution for generations to come,” Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, told CBC News.
In this latest poll, more than half of respondents (52 per cent) said they don’t want Canada to continue as a constitutional monarchy for generations to come, and of them, the vast majority (88 per cent) said they’d be fine with opening the constitution to break the ties. In Quebec, 66 per cent of respondents are against Canada remaining a constitutional monarchy.
Overall, 45 per cent of respondents said they’d support opening the constitution to sever ties to the monarchy, while only one-third (33 per cent) think Canada should remain a constitutional monarchy for generations to come.
Perhaps not surprisingly, then, tuning in to the coronation isn’t necessarily at the top of Canadian to-do lists.
While a majority of those who responded to the survey (59 per cent) said they’ll pay some attention to the May 6 coronation, only nine per cent said they’re really looking forward to it. One in five (20 per cent) said they might tune in for some of it, while 29 per cent said they may read about it, but really aren’t that interested.
King Charles heckled during royal visit in U.K.
Anti-monarchy protesters were among the crowd who greeted King Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, on a visit to Colchester, England.
Kurl said these numbers would have those at Buckingham Palace feeling uneasy.
“It’s not as though Canadians are in the streets preparing to protest against the monarchy, but the amount of ambivalence and the ‘meh’ factor in Canada — which represents a very significant country within the British realm — it would be fairly concerning.”
It comes down to relevance, Kurl said.
“There’s less and less connection to the monarchy among Canadians than there was 70 years ago, when the Queen herself ascended to the throne and became monarch. At that time Canada was a country with extremely close, both cultural and familial ties to the United Kingdom … Today, Canada’s demographics are vastly different.”
Greater affection for Queen Elizabeth
While Canadians may never have felt great affection for Charles, they did embrace his mother, right up until the end of her life.
Angus Reid Institute surveys from around the time of her 96th birthday one year ago found 63 per cent of respondents said they had a positive view of her, and 59 per cent said they would be saddened by her death.
But none of her potential heirs — including Charles’s son, Prince William — are as popular.
Queen Elizabeth remained popular with Canadians until the end of her life. None of her heirs have the same level of support. (Jane Barlow/Pool/The Associated Press)
Only three in 10 told the Angus Reid Institute they view Charles positively (28 per cent), and more than half (52 per cent) believe he will do a worse job than his mother as monarch. About one in five (21 per cent) think he’ll do about as well as his mother, while only three per cent think he’ll do a better job.
Robert Finch, chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada, told CBC News it’s not surprising the transition is facing some challenges, given that the monarchy and Queen Elizabeth became essentially inseparable from one another during her long reign.
He believes that over time Canadians will come around to supporting Charles like they did his mother as they learn more about him.
He cited some of the initiatives Charles undertook as prince.
“Things such as reconciliation with Indigenous people, working with young Canadians and their entrepreneurship, the whole environmental movement — I mean, Charles was an environmentalist long before the green movement became mainstream,” Finch said.
“Those are Canadian values that people would look at and say, yeah I can relate to that.”
Among those who support Canada remaining a constitutional monarchy, support is higher for King Charles’s son, Prince William, and his wife, Catherine. (Henry Nicholls/Pool/The Associated Press)
According to the poll, Prince William and his wife Catherine are seen more positively than Charles, but still fall short of the support Elizabeth garnered. Among Canadian respondents overall, 53 per cent have a positive view of William while that number is 56 for Catherine.
However, among those who said they don’t support Canada continuing as a constitutional monarchy, support for the couple dropped to 36 and 41 per cent respectively.
Of note, though, is that among those who said they support Canada remaining a constitutional monarchy, far more have a favourable impression of William and Catherine (83 per cent support for each) than for Charles (62 per cent) or Camilla (43 per cent).
The Angus Reid Institute surveyed a representative randomized sample of 2,013 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum online from April 10-12, 2023. A probability sample of this size has a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba said Thursday “there’s no animosity” toward the organization following an offseason in which his name was prominently mentioned in trade rumors.
“It’s part of the business of hockey,” Trouba said following the first day of training camp for the reigning Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers.
According to reports, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury had negotiated a trade that would send New York’s captain to Detroit in late June. The trade fell apart, however, when Trouba submitted his 15-team no-trade list to the Rangers on June 30 and included the Red Wings on it.
“Obviously, had the no-move that turned into the partial no-trade,” said Trouba, whom New York acquired in a trade with Winnipeg in June 2019 and signed to a seven-year, $56 million contract one month later. “That’s life, contracts, hockey business, whatever you want to call it.
“I knew that was coming that summer. It’s not by surprise. It was obviously something that was negotiated at the time.”
The 30-year-old’s insistence that his relationship with Drury is fine echoes what the executive said in a pre-training camp conference call with reporters.
“Jacob and I talk all the time as GM and captain should,” Drury said. “We’ve had a number of different conversations over the course of the summer on a lot of different things. He is very clear as to where he stands with me and what I think of him as a player and as a leader.”
Still, Trouba realizes that the 2024-25 season is likely the last for the current iteration of the Original Six franchise. The Rangers have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the last three seasons, and have reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022 and 2024. Following last spring’s six-game series loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, Drury wondered aloud in a conference call with reporters if the Rangers’ core players could lead the franchise to a Stanley Cup.
“(It’s) an opportunity that we have in front of us that in all likelihood will probably be the last crack for this core,” Trouba said. “I don’t think that’s a secret by any means. (A) group that’s kind of grown together, spent some years together here, and there’s something we want to accomplish.”
Veterans Tyson Beukeboom and Karen Paquin will lead Canada at the WXV 1 women’s rugby tournament starting later this month in the Vancouver area.
WXV 1 includes the top three teams from the Women’s Six Nations (England, France and Ireland) and the top three teams from the Pacific Four Series (Canada, New Zealand, and the United States).
Third-ranked Canada faces No. 4 France, No. 7 Ireland and No. 1 England in the elite division of the three-tiered WXV tournament that runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 12 in Vancouver and Langley, B.C. No. 2 New Zealand and the eighth-ranked U.S. make up the six-team WVX 1 field.
“Our preparation time was short but efficient. This will be a strong team,” Canada coach Kevin Rouet said in a statement. “All the players have worked very hard for the last couple of weeks to prepare for WXV and we are excited for these next three matches and for the chance to play on home soil here in Vancouver against the best rugby teams in the world.
“France, Ireland and England will each challenge us in different ways but it’s another opportunity to test ourselves and another step in our journey to the Rugby World Cup next year.”
Beukeboom serves as captain in the injury absence of Sophie de Goede. The 33-year-old from Uxbridge, Ont., earned her Canadian-record 68th international cap in Canada’s first-ever victory over New Zealand in May at the Pacific Four Series.
Twenty three of the 30 Canadian players selected for WXV 1 were part of that Pacific Four Series squad.
Rouet’s roster includes the uncapped Asia Hogan-Rochester, Caroline Crossley and Rori Wood.
Hogan-Rochester and Crossley were part of the Canadian team that won rugby sevens silver at the Paris Olympics, along with WXV teammates Fancy Bermudez, Olivia Apps, Alysha Corrigan and Taylor Perry. Wood is a veteran of five seasons at UBC.
The 37-year-old Paquin, who has 38 caps for Canada including the 2014 Rugby World Cup, returns to the team for the first time since the 2021 World Cup.
Canada opens the tournament Sept. 29 against France at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver before facing Ireland on Oct. 5 at Willoughby Stadium at Langley Events Centre, and England on Oct. 12 at B.C. Place.
The second-tier WXV 2 and third-tier WXV 3 are slated to run Sept. 27 to Oct. 12, in South Africa and Dubai, respectively.
WXV 2 features Australia, Italy, Japan, Scotland, South Africa and Wales while WXV 3 is made up of Fiji, Hong Kong, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Samoa and Spain.
The tournament has 2025 World Cup qualification implications, although Canada, New Zealand and France, like host England, had already qualified by reaching the semifinals of the last tournament.
Ireland, South Africa, the U.S., Japan, Fiji and Brazil have also booked their ticket, with the final six berths going to the highest-finishing WXV teams who have not yet qualified through regional tournaments.
Canada’s Women’s Rugby Team WXV 1 Squad
Forwards
Alexandria Ellis, Ottawa, Stade Français Paris (France); Brittany Kassil, Guelph, Ont., Guelph Goats; Caroline Crossley, Victoria, Castaway Wanderers; Courtney Holtkamp, Rimbey, Alta., Red Deer Titans Rugby; DaLeaka Menin, Vulcan, Alta., Exeter Chiefs (England); Emily Tuttosi, Souris, Man., Exeter Chiefs (England); Fabiola Forteza, Quebec City, Stade Bordelais (France); Gabrielle Senft, Regina, Saracens (England); Gillian Boag, Calgary, Gloucester-Hartpury (England); Julia Omokhuale, Calgary, Leicester Tigers (England); Karen Paquin, Quebec City, Club de rugby de Quebec; Laetitia Royer, Loretteville, Que., ASM Romagnat (France); McKinley Hunt, King City, Ont., Saracens (England); Pamphinette Buisa, Gatineau, Que., Ottawa Irish; Rori Wood, Sooke, B.C., College Rifles RFC; Sara Cline, Edmonton, Leprechaun Tigers; Tyson Beukeboom, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England);
Backs
Alexandra Tessier, Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton, Que., Exeter Chiefs (England); Alysha Corrigan, Charlottetown, P.E.I., CRFC; Asia Hogan-Rochester, Toronto, Toronto Nomads; Claire Gallagher, Caledon, Ont., Leicester Tigers (England); Fancy Bermudez, Edmonton, Saracens (England); Julia Schell, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England); Justine Pelletier, Rivière-du-Loup, Que, Stade Bordelais (France); Mahalia Robinson, Fulford, Que., Town of Mount Royal RFC; Olivia Apps, Lindsay, Ont., Lindsay RFC; Paige Farries, Red Deer, Alta., Saracens (England); Sara Kaljuvee, Ajax, Ont., Westshore RFC; Shoshanah Seumanutafa, White Rock, B.C., Counties Manukau (New Zealand); Taylor Perry, Oakville, Ont., Exeter Chiefs (England).
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.
The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.
He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.
Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.
He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.
Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
