1939 royal tour of Canada
The King and Queen arrived in Canada by ship, and travelled up the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City before heading west by rail.
Accompanied throughout by Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, they visited most major cities across Canada, reaching as far west as Victoria, British Columbia.
Governor General Lord Tweedsmuir, in an effort to foster Canadian identity, conceived of a royal tour by the country's monarchs; the Dominion Archivist (i.e., official historian) Gustave Lanctot wrote that this "probably grew out of the knowledge that at his coming Coronation, George VI was to assume the additional title of King of Canada."
According to biographer Janet Adam Smith, the task for Tweedsmuir, and the Canadian government, was "how to translate the Statute of Westminster into the actualities of a tour... since this was the first visit of a reigning monarch to a Dominion, and precedents were being made.
[2][3][4][5] Elizabeth's mother had died in 1938, and so Norman Hartnell designed an all-white wardrobe for her delayed state visit to France that year.
On Parliament Hill, the King's official Canadian birthday (known today as Victoria Day) was marked for the first time with a traditional Trooping of the Colour.
The courage and resolution of Their Majesties in undertaking the royal visit in face of imminent war have inspired the people of this province to complete this work in the Empire's darkest hour, in full confidence of victory and a feeling of lasting peace.The Royal Train was operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway on the western leg of the tour and the couple continued to be greeted by throngs of Canadians, even in the immigrant-rich but Depression-battered Prairies.
[18][19] While staying at Government House in Winnipeg, the King made his longest-ever radio broadcast to the British Empire;[20] the table at which he sat remains in the Aides Room of the royal residence.
But, with the throngs of people who arrived, the royal party decided to extend the visit to a half-hour, after which the train pulled away, returning a few hours later, once the crowds had dispersed;[30] Canadian Press reporter R. J. Carnegie said of the stop: "Never throughout the tour did I see such unbridled enthusiasm as then."
"[38] For Mackenzie King, this assertion of Canada's status as a kingdom independent of Britain was a key motive behind the organization of the tour; he wrote in his diary on 17 May 1939: "I... told [the Queen] that I felt somewhat embarrassed about taking in the entire trip with Their Majesties; that it looked like pushing myself to the fore, yet I felt that unless some evidence of Dominion precedence existed, one of the main purposes of the trip would be gone.
'"[39] Another factor, however, was public relations; the presence of the King and Queen, in both Canada and the United States, was calculated to shore up sympathy for Britain in anticipation of hostilities with Nazi Germany.
[42][43] The 2012 film Hyde Park on Hudson starring Bill Murray contains a lengthy fictionalized depiction of the royal couple's visit to the Roosevelt estate.
[n 1] After a visit to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the royal couple ended their tour at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 15 June, where a farewell luncheon was held, and the King and Queen each delivered a speech of thanks.
of their departure, Mackenzie King wrote in his diary: "The Empress of Britain ran past one end of the harbour where she was towed around, then came back the opposite way to pull out to sea.
The King and Queen were at the very top of the ship and kept waving.... No farewell could have been finer...."[19] After visiting St. John's, Newfoundland, George VI and Elizabeth returned to the United Kingdom.
