Canadians are not willing to assume the costs of residence and security of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who resigned from being first-order members of the British royal family.
The vast majority of Canadians do not want the North American country to pay the costs of the residence in Canada of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, including those of their security, according to a survey released this Wednesday.
The survey by the Angus Reid company indicates that almost three quarters of Canadians, exactly 73%, do not want the public treasury to bear the cost of the residence of the grandson of the Queen of England and his wife.
Only 3% of respondents expressed support for Canada assuming all the costs of the couple's residency, while 19% said they would not mind paying some expenses.
Elizabeth II of England is officially the queen of Canada, a parliamentary monarchy whose head of state, called governor general, acts in the name and representation of the British monarch although he is appointed by the Canadian prime minister.
Last week, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shook the foundations of the British monarchy by announcing their effective "resignation" from the Royal House and announcing that they would divide their time between the United Kingdom and North America, probably Canada.
The announcement came after Harry and Meghan finished a six-week vacation in Canada. The couple reportedly spent their vacation with their eight-month-old son, Archie, in a $14 million mansion on Vancouver Island.
Although the duchess is American, the former actress has spent long periods in Canada before her marriage to Prince Harry, due to filming the series "Suits" in Toronto.
This Tuesday, precisely, Meghan Markle visited a women's institution in a conflictive neighborhood in the city of Vancouver, to "drink tea" and "discuss issues that affect women in the community," according to the Downtown Eastside Women's Center.
The center's executive director, Kate Gibson, told Canadian television CTV that the Duchess of Sussex "was very interested in women's issues in our community. And she would like to learn more about issues in which she is interested, such as the problems Women's".
For his part, Harry has visited Canada on several occasions, and in 2017 Toronto hosted the Invictus Games, a sports competition created by the Duke of Sussex for military personnel with physical disabilities.
But despite these ties with Canada, the Angus Reid survey, which was conducted on January 13 and 14 with responses from 1,154 Canadians and with a margin of error of 3%, indicates that 66% of the country's citizens consider that the House of Windsor "is losing or has lost relevance."
And 45% believe Canada should not be a constitutional monarchy in the future, a higher percentage than expressed a similar position just four years ago.
The survey also revealed that Prince Harry is, paradoxically, the most popular member of the British royal family in Canada: 69% of the North American country's population has a favorable image of the Duke of Sussex.
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that his government has not been involved in decisions about the future of the dukes, and Finance Minister Bill Morneau said that Canada has not yet decided whether it will assume the costs. of security.
Despite this, British media reported this week that Trudeau has assured Queen Elizabeth that Canada will take care of at least part of the costs of the residence of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
It is estimated that the cost of security for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in Canada could amount to around 1.7 million Canadian dollars per year, around 1.3 million US dollars.
