Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall visited a local school, toured a market and watched a performance by the Canadian Mounties on an action-packed second day of their royal tour.
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall started the day in Ottawa after jetting in from Newfoundland on Tuesday.
The royal couple laid a wreath at the National War Memorial and attended a service at a Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral before carrying out a string of engagements celebrating local culture and industry.
Charles and Camilla looked enthralled as they took front row seats for the spectacular Musical Ride performed by 20 members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, known as the Mounties.
Horsing around! Charles and Camilla looked enthralled as they took front row seats for the spectacular Musical Ride performed by 20 members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, known as the Mounties
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall shared a quiet word as they took in the performance by the Canadian Mounties
The royal couple toured the Mounties’ stables where they met some of the horses and spoke to the police officers
Earlier the Duchess of Cornwall visited Assumption Elementary School in Ottawa and read a book called The Library Bus
Beaming Camilla spoke to children during their class at Assumption Elementary School where she spoke on the importance of reading
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall shared a joke with local market producers and merchants at ByWard Market
Schoolchildren at Assumption Elementary School turned out to wave flags and greet the royal visitors on Wednesday
Camilla tapped her feet to the music during the modern take on a classic Canadian tradition. The Mounties carried out complicated and choreographed artistic display to music with names such as the ‘spiral’, ‘dome’, ‘star’ and ‘the charge’. They also reenacted the Diamond which was created for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
The crowd included first responders representing fire, paramedic, healthcare, older people from care/retirement homes and law enforcement organizations from across Ottawa and Gatineau and their families, and students from schools in the neighbourhood.
They were led round the Mounties’ stables by Supt Kevin Fahy, 57, who was ‘honoured’ to have escorted the Queen into the Royal Windsor Horse Show on Sunday.
Charles and Camilla also met and stroked the nose of five-year-old mare Victoria who was a gift to the Mounties from the Queen.
Brian Bullock, 75, of Ottawa, called out and shook Charles’ hand and sad: ‘I have been waiting for this for 75 years.’
Prince Charles and Camilla were treated to a spectacular performance by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Duchess of Cornwall tapped her feet to the music during the modern take on a classic Canadian tradition
The Mounties carried out complicated and choreographed artistic display to music with names such as the ‘spiral’, ‘dome’, ‘star’ and ‘the charge’. They also reenacted the Diamond which was created for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall looked enthralled as they took in the Mounties’ performance in Ottawa
The crowd included first responders representing fire, paramedic, healthcare, older people from care/retirement homes and law enforcement organizations from across Ottawa and Gatineau and their families, and students from schools in the neighbourhood
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall gave a standing ovation at the end of the stunning performance in Ottawa
Prince Charles and Camilla speak with riders of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) during a tour of the stables
The Duchess of Cornwall looked delighted to meet the horses during a tour of the Mounties’ stables in Ottawa today
Earlier Prince Charles raved about the quintessential Canadian kitchen staple, maple syrup, during a visit to Ottawa’s ByWard market, which is attempting to revive trade following the pandemic.
The couple were mobbed by members of the public trying to capture the moment on their camera phones as a large number of police tried to clear a path past the stalls.
Rupert Hupe, a second generation maple producer, chatted to the prince and his wife and Charles looked along the various bottles of syrups and maple sweets and said ‘It’s great stuff, great stuff’ adding ‘it’s good for you’.
Mr Hupe said afterwards: ‘That was pretty exciting, something that doesn’t happen every day. He seemed to know about maple syrup.’
Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, check out plants for sale at the Byward Market in Ottawa
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall visits an outdoor market stall at ByWard Market in Ottawa on the second day of the tour
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall heard more about the local produce and products sold at the market
The Duchess of Cornwall spent time speaking to the local market stall holders operating at Ottawa’s Byward Market
The royal couple appeared in excellent spirits as they spoke to market stall holders operating in the Canadian capital
Traders have been selling goods on the market site for 200 years and Charles stopped to talk garlic with Serge Cleroux who ran a vegetable and flower stall.
He said: ‘He was asking about the wild garlic, he wanted to know how you prepare it and I said it could be pickled or eaten as it is – it’s milder than ordinary garlic.’
When the couple met Pam and Grant Hooker, founders of the BeaverTails pastries chain, they were presented with lifelong membership cards of the stores found across Canada.
Mrs Hooker said: ‘The prince can get whatever he wants to and we told him he has to present the card but he’ll need to produce to valid pieces of photo ID and he laughed.’
During her visit to a local elementary school, the Duchess of Cornwall spoke to pupils in a French literature class
Camilla, a passionate advocate for literacy, walked down the school corridor and heard about a new reading programme
Dozens of flag-waving schoolchildren gathered in the playground to welcome Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall
The royal couple with delighted with the warm reception and the schoolchildren began singing the national anthem
The Duchess of Cornwall read a story to children at a school in Ottawa today as she urged them to ‘keep reading’.
Meeting a group of six and seven-year-olds, the Duchess read from a book called The Library Bus, by Bahram Rahman. The picture book, which tells the story of an Afghan girl visiting a library bus in Kabul, is said to be inspired by the author’s sister’s real-life experience.
Reaching for her glasses before reading to the children sitting cross-legged on a carpet in front of her, the Duchess smiled and asked them: ‘Is everybody on their best behaviour?’
She shared her reading duties with the children’s teacher, Stephanie Lucas, before being shown to a new book vending machine. The vending machine is part of a project called Start2Finish which allows each pupil to choose one book a month for three years.
Rather than a library system, the children are allowed to keep the books.
The school is one of five piloting the scheme which, if successful, will be rolled out further. The books in the vending machines feature indigenous and black authors.
A pupil at the primary school called Nathaniel, who was celebrating his 8th birthday on the day of the Royal visit, demonstrated how the vending machine worked by putting in a token handed out by his teacher.
A teething problem, however, meant a book got stuck. But after selecting a different book, it dropped down and he was able to collect it from the tray.
‘It’s such a brilliant idea,’ said Camilla.
Speaking afterwards, Brian Warren, Founder and Executive Director of Start2Finish who described his ethnicity as Blackfoot and Cherokee, said: ‘Its aim is to focus on literacy with a focus on First Nations. Children need to see themselves represented in literature to have equity.
‘The most cool thing about this is when the children go home and open a book and they get that smell of a new book for the first time inspires a love of literature but also First Nations children can see themselves represented.
‘This is an important conversation that the Royal Family is involved in. She [the Duchess] was sharing how much she loves the idea and, especially right now, it’s important that she is shining a light on this conversation.’
Camilla also dropped in on a French literature class where the children were reading a novel called ‘une drole de ministre.’
When one of the children said that they were enjoying the lesson and said they spoke French, Camilla replied ‘tres bien.’ Commenting on the children studying their books, she said: ‘There’s a lot of concentration going on here.’
The Duchess had a brief discussion in French with teacher Miss Sarah Erskine who complimented Camilla on her language skills, saying: ‘C’est encore la!’ [‘It’s still there]
After the solo literacy engagement, Camilla joined The Prince of Wales again to walk out onto the school playground where more than 100 children greeted them with a cheer.
Paul and Wonder from the 6th Grade gave the Duchess a bouquet of flowers and a thank you note from the children. The pupils began singing the Canadian national anthem as they left
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