Royal salute, cheering crowds greet King and Queen at Senate

Thousands of royal-watchers lined Ottawa’s Wellington Street Tuesday, just steps from Parliament, as King Charles and Queen Camilla, accompanied by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon and her husband Whit Fraser, stepped from a horse-drawn carriage and made their way into the Senate building.

The royal couple arrived in the city Monday on a two-day visit for the opening of Canada’s 45th Parliament, at the invitation of Prime Minister Mark Carney. The invitation is widely seen as a response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats on Canadian sovereignty.

It has been 48 years since a reigning monarch opened Parliament, when Queen Elizabeth delivered the speech from the throne in 1977.

Carney and his wife Diana Fox-Carney arrived first outside the Senate and stood as a military marching band played O Canada, which reached a crescendo as the crowd sang.

Carney stood on a podium and waved to the crowd. He laughed when a man shouted, “We love you, Carney.”

As the horse-drawn landau carrying the royal couple approached the Senate building after a short parade in the downtown, cheers belted out from the crowd.

Canadian and U.K. flags fluttered in the air from behind barricades. There were a few protesters present, carrying signs with messages such as “Not My King.” The same group waved a trio of flags on a single pole — an upside-down Canadian flag, a Trump 2024 flag, and an American flag.

For the most part though, the crowd was happy and enthusiastic about the King’s arrival.

Shouts of “God Save the King!” periodically rang out and became a chant as the crowd was greeted by a royal salute, a 21-gun salute, in Charles’s honour.

A thin haze fell and the air smelled like gunfire as the procession entered the Senate building and made their way to the Red Chamber, where senators, MPs and dignitaries gathered to hear Charles read the throne speech.