The Queen has visited Canada on more than 20 occasions, but from early times members of the Royal Family have been regular visitors to Canada.
View footage of The Queen arriving in Nova Scotia in June 2010:
The first visit to Canada by a member of the Royal Family took place in 1786. Prince William, third son of King George III and Queen Charlotte, celebrated his 21st birthday as a young naval officer on the frigate Pegasus in the waters off Newfoundland and Labrador. Over the next two years, the future King William IV also enjoyed stays in Halifax and Quebec City.
In 1791, Prince William's younger brother, Prince Edward, sailed down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City as commanding officer of the 7th Royal Fusiliers Regiment. Over the next decade, he held a number of military postings in Canada.
In 1857, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the capital of the Province of Canada (known as the Dominion of Canada from 1867). She was never to visit Canada or any of her other realms, but in 1860 her eldest son, Albert, Prince of Wales, visited the new capital to lay the cornerstone for the Parliament buildings.
The first female member of the Royal Family to visit Canada was Princess Louise, the sixth child of Queen Victoria. Her husband, the Marquis of Lorne, was appointed as Governor-General in 1878, and the couple spent five years in Canada.
In 1901, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary) undertook a two-month visit to Canada from the east coast to the west.
Ten years later, the third son of Queen Victoria, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, was appointed Governor-General of Canada. The Duke and Duchess quickly fell in love with the grandeur of the country and its landscape, especially the Rockies.
In 1919 the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) embarked on a two-month Canadian tour. The Prince's constant breaches of protocol in reaching out to people and creating informal receptions became a trademark of the visit. He went on to buy a ranch at Pekisko, Alberta, which he owned for four decades.
The first reigning monarch to visit Canada was King George VI, who toured the country with Queen Elizabeth in May and June 1939. When asked whether she was English or Scottish, Queen Elizabeth famously replied: "Since we reached Quebec, I've been Canadian." The Queen Mother made her last visit 50 years later, at the age of 89.
Over the past 55 years The Queen has been a regular visitor to Canada. She made her first visit as Princess Elizabeth in 1951, travelling 10,000 miles using every means of transport imaginable, and attending a square dance in Rideau Hall.
Since then, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have visited all the provinces in Canada, and been witness to many historic occasions.
In 1957, The Queen officially opened the first session of the 23rd Parliament, becoming the first reigning Canadian monarch to read the speech from the throne.
In 1959, The Queen opened the new St Lawrence Seaway with President Eisenhower, and visited many remote districts never before seen by a reigning monarch. During that visit The Queen undertook her first, and only, foreign visit as Queen of Canada when she met President Eisenhower in Washington, D.C.
In 1967 The Queen celebrated the Centennial of Confederation with a visit to EXPO in Montreal, and in Ottawa cut a nine-metre-high birthday cake on Parliament Hill.
The Queen has been present at a number of important sporting occasions. She opened the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976, and officiated at the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton in 1978 and Victoria in 1994.
In 1977, The Queen shared her Silver Jubilee celebrations with Canada.
In 1982 The Queen was in Ottawa for the patriation of the Canadian Constitution - the ceremony in which the Canadian Constitution was brought fully and formally within the control of the Canadian Government.
To mark her Golden Jubilee in 2002 The Queen toured Canada extensively, visiting British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and the National Capital Region, as well as making her first visit to the new territory of Nunavut.
The most recent visit was in 2005, when The Queen and Prince Philip visited Saskatchewan and Alberta during their centennial years.
Other members of the Royal Family are also frequent visitors.
The Prince of Wales visited Canada for the first time in 1970, when he joined The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne for a ten-day tour. In 1975 he served on HMS Hermes in Canadian waters for three weeks in April and spent a week in the Northwest Territories. Since then he has been a regular visitor.
In 2009, The Prince and The Duchess of Cornwall undertook an eleven day tour of Canada, Their Royal Highnesses visited 12 cities in four provinces, including stops in St John’s, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Victoria and Vancouver.
View a video of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall arriving in Canada:
View more videos of Their Royal Highnesses in Canada in 2009 on the Royal YouTube channel.
As a schoolboy, The Duke of York spent six months in 1977 at Lakefield College, Ontario, Canada, and he remains involved with the school.
The Queen has visited Canada more than 20 times: 1951 (as Princess Elizabeth), 1957, 1959 (twice), 1964, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1997, 2002, 2005 and 2010.
In 1976 The Queen opened the Olympic Games in Montreal, in which Princess Anne competed as a member of the British equestrian team.
In 2002, The Queen took part in her first ice hockey match in Canada. She dropped the 'puck' before an National Hockey League game in Vancouver.
