Royal Visit: Vancouver embraces Duke and Duchess with warm welcome

Vancouver came together Sunday to give the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge a welcome so warm that it felt like a truly Canadian embrace — respectful, enthusiastic and multinational.

Vancouver showed up bearing flowers, wearing cocktail dresses and dress shirts, tiaras and Union Jacks, and replicas of Diana’s exquisite sapphire ring.

We also came carrying hand-written signs that pleaded our causes: reconciliation, climate change, fisheries and the environment, pipelines and PTSD — and if the royal engagements of the day are any indication, that’s exactly the way the duke and duchess want it to be.

At every stop, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, serving as escorts, the duke and duchess walked a fine line between the glamour and drama, the glitter and grit.

At Jack Poole Plaza, where they touched down Sunday morning on a float plane, the crowds had gathered early. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge walked side-by-side, she in red suede stilettos and a spectacular red and white eyelet-hemmed dress by Alexander Mcqueen, the same house that designed her wedding gown. The couple seemed to delight in every moment of their reception.

Rebecca Horch said she’s not typically someone who goes gaga over celebrities, but if she were to line up to meet someone, it would be Kate: “I feel a little bit like a crazy person, but I’m OK with it today.” 

As the duke and duchess left in a motorcade, there were cheers and cries of “Kate! Kate!” from the crowd. Someone hollered, “you’re so hot!,” though it was unclear which royal the compliment was directed to. 

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The motorcade then travelled to Hastings Street, where the couple’s trip took a more serious turn with a visit to Sheway, a housing centre for pregnant women and new moms who struggle with addiction and mental-health issues.

“You’ve given your children an amazing start,” said Kate, who was visibly moved when a First Nations mom beat a small drum and sang a traditional song.

The next stop was the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. The couple stopped briefly to wave to the crowd, and then went inside where they met a Syrian family of five. Through a translator, the family shared their story of fleeing war-torn Syria and spending four years in a refugee camp in Jordan before coming to Canada. 

The couple, along with the PM and Sophie, then attended a private event to honour notable young Canadians at the Telus Gardens in Vancouver. The foursome entered together, but quickly broke off into two couples with the prime minister and William working one side of the room, and Kate and Sophie working the other.

William and the PM chatted with members of Canada’s Olympic women’s rugby and swim teams, as well as a triathlete from the Paralympics. One rugby player asked William about his past playing the sport, and he replied, “Yes, I did play rugby. I wasn’t, obviously, as good as you guys,” drawing laughs.

Trudeau then teased him about the Canadian women’s team beating the English in the bronze-medal match. “Oh really? You trashed the U. K.?” William asked, smiling. Premier Christy Clark also shook hands and chatted with the athletes.

The final stop at the newly reopened coast guard station in Kitsilano, where the couple would depart by hovercraft, drew the day’s biggest and most vocal crowd. 

The closure of Vancouver’s Kitsilano station in 2013 without consultation with local governments was one of the most bitterly contested moves by the Stephen Harper government. Robert Girouard, the assistant coast guard commissioner, said the visit to the station was particularly meaningful.

“We reopened in August, and the fact that the prime minister is here in person to reintroduce this coast-guard base and to have their royal highnesses here to see the coast guard’s new multi-function base, I’m delighted,” he said.

Inside the station, Girouard said first-responders had a serious conversation about mental health among first-responders, and, said Girouard, “how we take care of each other.”

Outside the station, a parking lot had been transformed into a showplace for B.C. first-responders. Vancouver Fire and Rescue, B.C. Ambulance Services, North Shore Search and Rescue, Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, the Vancouver Police Department, the VPD dog squad and the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue were all on display.

After the meeting came the moment the crowds had been waiting for, the day’s first official walkabout — and the duke and duchess didn’t disappoint, reaching for the hands in the crowd, stopping for small and personal conversations. 

No one was more delighted than Brenda Colarac, who was still shaking after she and her one-year-old Maltese Snoopy had a royal encounter.

“The Duchess was petting the dog, I’m still shaking” said Colarac. 

-With files from Bethany Lindsay, Cheryl Chan and the royal pool

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