Queen Elizabeth II in Canada for nine-day visit
AFP
MONTREAL- Queen Elizabeth II arrived Monday in Halifax, Nova Scotia to begin a nine-day visit to Canada, although Quebec, where anti-British sentiment has lingered, was not on the itinerary.
The queen, Canada's titular head of state, touched down aboard a military plane and walked down the steps in a blustery rain shower onto the tarmac where she and husband Prince Philip stepped into a waiting limousine, Canadian television showed.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II
The monarch then visits the government and parliament in Ottawa and drops in on the newly refurbished Canadian Museum of Nature.
Her visit to the capital coincides with the national holiday Canada Day, on July 1, when she is scheduled to deliver a speech.
She then travels to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where according to news reports she is to attend a horse race, and then wraps up her tour in Toronto, where she is expected to visit a high-tech company.
Queen Elizabeth then travels on to New York where she will address the United Nations General Assembly on July 6 and visit Ground Zero, the site where the World Trade Center towers collapsed on September 11, 2001.
A stop in Montreal is not in the cards, perhaps as a result of the previous royal visit to the Quebec city by her son Prince Charles.
The heir to the throne and his wife Camilla were met with egg tosses and shouts of "Majesty go home" from more than 200 protesters who were urging Montreal and Quebec to break away from the British Commonwealth.
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