Crowning glory: Manitobans prepare to mark coronation of King Charles By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, May. 3, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/05/2023 (891 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Government House will herald the coronation of the new monarch with a celebration befitting of a king, replete with scones, clotted cream, dainties and tea, of course.

The coronation of Charles and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen will take place Saturday at Westminster Abbey, where every British monarch has been crowned for 900 years.

One day earlier, Manitoba Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville will host a special coronation tea at which royal supporters will be serenaded by a harpist.

“The tea is by invitation,” Neville said. “We’ve invited members from groups including the Monarchist League (of Canada) and the Manitoba Living History Society.

“Unfortunately, we had to limit it to invitations because of the size of our space here.”

The event is the first of both official and unofficial coronation-related commemorations and ceremonies in the city to mark the first crowning of a monarch since Queen Elizabeth in 1953. Charles acceded to the throne on Sept. 8, 2022, upon the death of his mother.

Neville reflected Wednesday on her recent visit with the King at Buckingham Palace as part of her official audience with the monarch after being appointed lieutenant governor.

“This was better than the coronation. I had a good chunk of time with him,” she said. “It was really nice. He was warm and generous.

“It was excellent.”

Neville said she gave the King a Manitoba tartan tie and shawl, a copy of the book: Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town and the Road to Reconciliation, and two autographed children’s books by Tasha Spillett-Sumner.

“I told him he could give them to his grandchildren or donate them to a library,” she said.

She told the King a donation had been made in his honour to the Lake Winnipeg Foundation.

“He gave us a very lovely signed picture of himself and the Queen Consort,” she said, adding they will put the photo in the front room at Government House where Charles’s grandfather, King George VI, gave a radio speech to the Commonwealth in 1939.

On Saturday, St. John’s Anglican Cathedral, north of St. John’s Park on Main Street, will conduct a special community service of thanksgiving for the coronation, at which Neville is scheduled to speak.

The Very Rev. Paul Johnson, rector of the cathedral, said the lieutenant governor will give greetings from the King to the people who attend or who watch a livestream of the service on either the church’s website or the province’s Youtube channel. Premier Heather Stefanson will read the Second Lesson.

While seats have to be reserved, there were still some available on Wednesday.

“We were at 240 to 250 but we can seat 300 in comfort and under a safety directive,” he said.

“There are still many people who appreciate the monarchy in Canada. It is very important for Indigenous people.”

Johnson said it will be a Christian service, but a rabbi will be involved, representatives of other faiths have been invited, and there will be a smudge by Indigenous elder Amanda Wallin before the service begins. Former Brokenhead First Nation chief Jim Bear will give a welcome to the land.

“We asked a grand chief to come, but they were all on their way to England for the coronation,” he said.

As for whether King Charles, his mother, or any other member of the Royal Family have ever been to the cathedral, which is the oldest in Western Canada, Johnson admitted he didn’t know.

Grand Chief Garrison Settee, of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, said he and other Manitoba grand chiefs would watch the ceremony at Canada House in London, England, and take part in other ceremonies before and after the event.

“It is very important for us to be there as the signatories of treaties and looking at the relationship that has existed with the Crown,” Settee said before boarding a plane in Winnipeg.

“It is a complicated relationship. But, with the King taking on his role, we are hoping we can reset the relationship which started many years ago. We were treated as equals, nation to nation, then, but we now find ourselves as a ward of the state.

“This is an opportunity to bring attention to those treaties… the last royal really did not do as much as she could have to bring the treaties to the forefront. She watched Canada renege and do away with our rights.”

Dwight MacAulay, Manitoba’s former chief of protocol, who was named to the Royal Victorian Order by Queen Elizabeth and, in 2010, elevated to the position of commander in the order, met with King Charles at a reception in March.

“I met him a couple of times here as prince and he remembered me from Winnipeg,” MacAulay said.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t get MacAulay an invitation to the coronation.

“I’ll be watching on TV just like everybody else in the world,” he said laughing. “But I’m going to St. John for the service. I think people, in their own way, will recognize the coronation in their own private way.

“I think King Charles will be a wonderful King. I think he will surprise people. He has been ahead of the curve on climate change, sustainable development, and architecture. I’ve always thought he is pretty bright.”

Across Winnipeg, people are preparing for their own parties (coronation is 5 a.m. Winnipeg time).

Groceries from England have been flying off the shelves at the British Food Company on Portage Avenue.

Co-owner Sam Mendis said regular customers, and many new ones, have come in to buy items for their own commemorative teas.

“They have picked up English clotted cream,” she said. “They have picked up scone mix. It’s the same mix somebody in London would buy.

“British jams and spreads, people are buying them. You take a scone, put clotted cream on it, and put jam on top. We have all kinds of jams — gooseberry, black currant.

“And we have crisps, too. Here you would call them (potato) chips.”

Out in Carberry, one Manitoban with a royal connection said he wasn’t sure if he was going to get up in the middle of the night to watch the coronation, but he has changed his mind.

“A friend of mine asked me if I was watching it and I said I wasn’t sure, but he said it’s not as good after it has taken place,” Brian Bailey said.

“My friend has his tea and crumpets ready, but we’ll probably just have coffee.”

Bailey’s parents hosted the Queen, Prince Philip, Charles and Anne, at their farm for two days back in 1970, during their trip here for Manitoba’s centennial.

“I like Charles. He is friendly just like his dad was,” he said.

Bailey said his niece’s husband is a member of the choir at Westminster Abbey and will sing for the King.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca