King Felipe will spend three days in Canada, from May 19 to 21, with a packed agenda combining diplomacy, economics, and culture.
The father of Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia arrived in Ottawa accompanied by a Spanish business delegation. His first stop was Rideau Hall, the official residence, where he met with Governor General Mary Simon and Prime Minister Mark Carney. The day concluded with a dinner in his honor hosted by the Governor General herself.
The bulk of the economic discussions took place in Toronto at the MaRS Centre, where the Spain-Canada Business Summit was held. There, Cuerpo and Canadian Minister of AI and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon led a discussion on strategic autonomy in artificial intelligence for middle powers and signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
King Felipe took the floor to emphasize that Spain and Canada are experiencing a positive period in their bilateral relations, driven by a shared commitment to reduce barriers and foster innovation.
Afterward, a lunch was held at the Fairmont Royal York with the Business Council of Canada, which represents the country’s 170 largest companies and generates 50% of the private GDP, followed by an event promoting foreign investment in Spain.
But the most unexpected moment on the agenda was cultural. In the Chapel of Victoria College at the University of Toronto, King Felipe presented the 3rd Joan Margarit International Poetry Prize to Margaret Atwood, who received the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature in 2008. Before the award ceremony, there were readings of poems by Atwood and Margarit himself, followed by a performance by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s string quartet.
The King of Spain addressed a few words to her that are worth quoting, as he thanked her for teaching them “how to read better, how to read our time, how to read our societies, and how to read ourselves.”
On the final day, Felipe plans to visit Lakefield College School, where he attended the equivalent of COU in the 1984-1985 academic year—forty years later.