Royal and viceregal transport in Canada

The technology employed has mirrored the development of transportation since the late 17th century,[1] when the first members of the Royal Family ventured from Great Britain to British North America.

As the Canadian Royal Family is not predominantly resident in the country, those that belong to it have generally always had to make a trans-Atlantic crossing before switching to alternate over-land, water, or air transportation once in Canada.

[2] Similarly, Queen Elizabeth II has travelled in the state landau, a stagecoach, and monorail, the latter at her own personal request when touring Expo 67.

[citation needed][dubious – discuss] Members of the royal family have also used a landau owned by the Woodbine Entertainment Group (formerly the Ontario Jockey Club), which was imported from the United Kingdom by E.P.

[18] Then, in the 1880s, Governor General the Marquess of Lorne and his wife, Princess Louise, were supplied with a railway car named Victoria for use in both travelling around the provinces and territories and as a mobile royal and vice-royal residence in parts of the country where amenities were minimal.

When it was stopped at Pile o' Bones, which had just been designated the capital of the North-West Territories, it was in this car that the Princess in 1882 named the new community Regina, after her mother, the Queen.

[19] For the 1901 tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary), two railway cars were specially built by the CPR to serve as mobile royal quarters.

This last... while providing me with a continuous view of the varied Canadian landscape had however the drawback of making me vulnerable to demands for ad lib speeches from the crowds gathered at every stop.

2850 resides at the Canadian Railway Museum; and the car Pacific, purchased by Paul Higgins, the former chairman of Mother Parker's, now sits unused on a spur line in Ajax, Ontario.