![]() She first toured Canada in 1951 and was on hand to open the St. ![]() She loved Canada, and Canada loved her back - gifts to Her Majesty over the years including a pair of trumpeter swans, a beloved mare from the RCMP, a 12-ton totem pole from Indigenous Peoples, and a sapphire-and-diamond brooch in the shape of a snowflake for her Sapphire Jubilee. As Queen, Elizabeth met a dozen Canadian prime ministers. Her first prime minister was Winston Churchill. The events and people she knew first-hand over her lifetime were breathtaking. ![]() Over the years, however, it was for her very dauntlessness and durability that she became most admired. That the monarchy survived into the 21st century, through Britain’s political and social convulsions, through the public dysfunction and indecencies of other members of the Royal Family, is almost certainly due to Elizabeth, and to her alone.Īt her ascension to the throne, Elizabeth seemed, at only 25, impossibly young to bear the weight of that crown. But if it’s true that anyone can sail in calm seas, it’s equally so that turbulence tests both skills and mettle. She reigned not by edict, but by example, a blend of diplomacy, charm and gravitas.Īlmost from her coronation, Elizabeth II reigned over a devolving empire, a Britain that, post-Brexit, seems diminished. ![]() Soft power, it was called in the world of diplomacy. Elizabeth wielded not power, but influence. ![]()
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