Jonathan Kearsley: US correspondent on King Charles' address to open parliament in Canada

A message sent to the Trump administration - by King Charles from Canada's throne.

The monarch has given the traditional throne speech to mark the opening session of Canada's parliament.

As the US President speaks of his desire to annex Canada, the King's presence is seen as a show of sovereign support.

US correspondent Jonathan Kearsley says King Charles and Canada were looking to send Trump a message, but not a direct call-out.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jonathan Kursley as our US correspondence that I had Jonathan.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
How the hello and to hallo everybody across Eakland and
New Zealand. How brilliant it is to be able to
talk to you.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's good to have you with us, mate. Now listen.
Was the speech from King Charles intended to wind Donald
Trump up?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Look? I think Canada certainly wanted to make a point
and I think what you've got to look at with
this speech is it's quite similar to what King Charles
would deliver at the opening of the British Parliament, written
by the government for the government. But there is very
clearly an approval from Buckingham Palace that comes out of this.
There is very clearly a long chain of process that
goes through to tick this off. But it was pointed,

(00:43):
and it was pointed in a way that was subtle,
but subtle enough that you're not going to anger Donald
Trump to a certain extent. It wasn't ever going to
mention him by name, and it didn't. It didn't talk
about the fifty first state, but it alluded to Canadian sovereignty.
It alluded to all all of the issues that Markkarni
fought on during his election campaign. It alluded to everything

(01:05):
that essentially got him over the line, which was fighting
back about Canadian national interests. What we heard King Charles
say in part in English and in part in French,
which was also very very interesting to note that the
King spoke pretty fluent French as far as I could tell.
I'm not a French native speaker, so for any French
native speakers out their apologies. However, it did appear that

(01:27):
the King was well across his French dialect and his
French tones. But what the King did say is that
Canada faces a critical moment, that democracy, pluralism, the rule
of law, self determination, values which Canadians hold dear ones
which the government is determined to predict. Says that this
was a dangerous time, said that Canadians must be clear

(01:49):
eyed that the world is in a more dangerous and
uncertain place than any point since the Second World War,
and that Canada is facing challenges that are unprecedented in
our lifetimes. So this was very clearly a speech designed
to appeal to the Canadian domestic audience, one that came
from their sovereign, from King Charles, but also one that

(02:12):
came with a pointed message to those south of the border,
and that being the American President Donald Trump.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Why are they taking this so seriously? I mean, clearly
doesn't actually mean it.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
No, And this is half of the thing you have
to look at with Donald Trump. When he talks about
Canada being America's fifty first state, or he talks about
taking Greenland, or he talks about taking the Panama Canal,
you do have to question is he actually being serious
about any of this? Is he being fully transparent with
the American public, with the Canadian public, with the Greenland public,

(02:48):
with all of those that he could potentially take these
countries by force or by will. And that's one of
those things that you do have to look at. I mean,
he did threaten this afternoon, essentially saying that if Canada
wants to be part of America's so called Golden Dome
system similar to what he's said could be Israel's Iron Dome,

(03:09):
then if Canada joins the American Union, that being the
fifty first state, they'll play zero dollars to be part
of it. If they want to be not part of
it and still pay, they'll pay sixty one billion dollars. Now,
the question is, clearly Donald Trump is trying to make
this about money. He's trying to continue to raise this
idea he could force Canada to become America's fifty first state.

(03:32):
Is it a realistic prospect. No, it's not. Neither is
Greenland becoming part of America. Neither is the Panama Canal
being entirely brought back into America. But what Donald Trump
is doing, he's appealing to this base.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Is his motivation not to just get them to help
pay for the Golden Dome.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Part of that may well be yes, but also the
thing is is if the Golden Dome, and you've got
to remember how this would likely operate, is that he
is going to be some missiles potentially launched from the ground,
some potentially launched from space. It's very hypothetical. And take
into the idea that Israel is far smaller than the

(04:10):
United States of America. If you're talking about trying to
protect the United States of America from missiles right across
the board the United States of America and I'm sorry
to do this to New Zealanders, but it is the
same size as Australia. So you are talking about covering
the entire Canadian border, the entire Mexican border, everything around

(04:32):
the Gulf of Mexico, or as Donald Trump sees it,
the Gulf of America. It is a vast area of
land that is going to cost a vast amount of money.
And yes, he is all about financial transactions, and he
is trying to talk to the Canadians and say pay
up or else. But the reality is this isn't going
to happen.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah too right, Jonathan listen, always got to talk to you.
I really appreciate your time, mate. That's Jonathan Kursley, US correspondent.
Trump is not joking here. It's amazing. You don't take
a threat seriously, Oh, come off that. How do you
think he's going to go and get Canada for himself?
Get real? For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,

(05:14):
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.