Thousands of people in Britain and from around the world are paying their respects to Queen Elizabeth the Second. Flowers, notes and stuffed animals are being left outside London’s Buckingham Palace as mourning for Britain’s longest-reigning monarch enters its second day. Today, a large crowd gathered at Hyde Park as the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery fired a royal salute in the Queen’s honour — with 96 shots fired — one for each year of her life. In the coming days, the queen’s body will be moved from Balmoral Castle in Scotland to London, where she will lie in state at Parliament before a state funeral at Westminster Abbey.
The country prepared today for a new age under a new king. King Charles the Third spent much of his 73 years preparing for the role. He planned to meet today with Britain’s new prime minister and will also address a country grieving the only British monarch most of the world had known. Charles automatically assumed the throne yesterday upon his mother’s death, but his coronation might not happen for months.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to proceed with a farewell meeting with Premier John Horgan today after the death of Queen. Elizabeth prompted the cancellation of several other planned events during his visit to Vancouver. Trudeau told reporters that Britain’s longest-serving monarch was Queen for almost half of Canada’s existence, and her love and affection for Canadians was obvious. Premier John Horgan issued a statement saying the Queen would be remembered for her full-hearted service, with each of her seven visits to B-C bringing people together for moments they would cherish forever.
When the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II broke, much of the world went into mourning, including many in Surrey. Mayor Doug McCallum released a statement saying “It is with heavy heart to hear the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty has been a constant and steadying presence of our Commonwealth,” The loss of the Queen hit close to home for the majority of customers at Sherlock’s: The British Store in Newton , the manager of the store, says the mood was quite sombre in the store yesterday, with customers mainly looking for something to purchase to honour and remember the Queen by.
The economy lost 40-thousand jobs in August. Statistics Canada says the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.4 per cent last month, after it had reached a historic low of 4.9 per cent in July. The agency says losses were mainly in the public sector. It also found that 11.9 per cent of permanent employees are planning to leave their jobs within the next 12 months, almost double the rate in January. And for low-income earners, that rate was even higher.
Wildfires are threatening residents of a few more areas of our Province. The Regional District of Central Kootenay has told those living on over a dozen boat-access properties on the east shore of Kootenay Lake to prepare to leave at a moment’s notice due to the threat of fire burning up a nearby mountainside. As well, an evacuation alert remains in effect for 180 properties in the community of Eastgate at the eastern entrance of E-C Manning Provincial Park, and for 17 properties affected by a fire in the hills northwest of Peachland.