Victoria will serve as home base for Prince William and Kate Middleton next month during an eight-day visit to British Columbia and Yukon that will include trips to Haida Gwaii, Bella Bella and the Great Bear Rainforest.
Kensington Palace announced Monday that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit seven communities on their second official royal tour of Canada.
“The Duke and Duchess are delighted to be returning to Canada,” a palace spokesman said in a statement. “They hold very happy memories from their visit in 2011 — their first overseas tour as a married couple.
“They are really looking forward to seeing other parts of this beautiful country and having the opportunity to meet many more Canadians along the way.”
The palace has yet to confirm reports that three-year-old Prince George and one-year-old Princess Charlotte will accompany their parents.
But David Spence, president of the Royal Commonwealth Society’s Vancouver Island branch, said it’s “guaranteed” that the children will be here.
“I’ve heard a rumour there is going to be a sandbox built at Government House, and I’m sure it’s not for the Duke and the Duchess,” he said.
The royal couple will touch down in Victoria on Sept. 24 for an official welcome and honour guard review. They will be in the city on four of the eight tour dates before departing from here Oct. 1.
“I think it’s great,” said Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps. “There’s a buzz in town today. The royals are coming.”
The federal Department of Canadian Heritage said in a statement that the tour will showcase “the unique beauty of Canada’s West Coast and the rugged wildness of the North.”
The royal couple will travel from Victoria to Vancouver on Sept. 25 and the following day visit Bella Bella and the Great Bear Rainforest.
Chief Marilyn Slett of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council said the people of Bella Bella are thrilled to showcase their well-known hospitality and proud stewardship of their traditional territory.
“We’re a small community, but we’ve been here a long time and it’s going to be exciting to host the royal couple and extend who we are as people,” she said. “They’ll see a strong and vibrant community and culture here on the coast.”
From there, the Duke and Duchess will visit Kelowna and Whitehorse and Carcross, Yukon, a community of about 300 and home to the Carcross Tagish First Nation.
They will visit Haida Gwaii on Sept. 30.
“We’re going to showcase what we’re known for,” kil tlaats ’gaa, Peter Lantin, president of the Haida Nation, said.
“So having our culture front and centre will be definitely part of what’s planned for the royals. But also getting them out into the environment and out on the land and the water is something that we want to make sure they do while they’re here.”
Lantin said the visit represents a significant recognition of the Haida Nation’s efforts to make their archipelago a world-class destination.
“I think having them identify this as a place they want to visit really validates a lot of the good work that’s been going on to protect Haida Gwaii and showcase it for what it is — which is this beautiful place we call home,” he said.
“The tour is an opportunity for their Royal Highnesses to witness the very best of our province — from the Great Bear Rainforest, to the emerging generation of young, tech-minded entrepreneurs, to millennia-old indigenous cultures,” B.C. Premier Christy Clark said in a statement.
It’s the first time Prince William has toured B.C. in an official capacity, though he was in Whistler on a skiing vacation with his father and brother in 1998. On their first visit as a couple, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stopped in Montreal, Quebec City, Charlottetown, Summerside, Yellowknife, Slave Lake and Calgary.
