How King Charles III Can Keep His Voice During His Reign

Earlier this month former British 
Prime Minister Liz Truss managed, 
during her very short time in office, 
to advise His Majesty not to attend 
the environmental gathering known 
as COP27. By convention the king has
a duty to follow the advice of his
prime minister even if pretty much
everyone knows he doesn't want to.
Even now, with a brand new prime
minister in place, His Majesty is not
likely to attend. There is still a bit of debate over how much
this was a joint decision but for the sake of this article lets
assume King Charles III would want to attend COP27 to bring
further attention to increasingly worrisome environmental
issues. How could he do so?

---

The unimaginative might suggest he simply ignore his prime
minister's advice. He is not likely to do this. Not only would it
damage a working relationship that will (presumably) last
more than a couple months, it would feed into the perception
that he intends to 'meddle' in government affairs. Both factors
would reduce the monarch's considerable soft power which is
​worth avoiding.

As it happens there is a way for His Majesty to continue to
carry out most, if not all, of his previous work and it is by
learning from an incident that took place in Canada in 1973.
At the time Canada was hosting a meeting of Commonwealth
leaders. British prime minister Edward Heath, for whatever
reason, advised the Queen not to attend. The Commonwealth
was to the Queen what the environment is to the King. The
Queen was able to attend the meeting because she received an
invitation to attend as the Queen of Canada by Pierre Trudeau
(hey! History is starting to rhyme a little). This works as while
the monarch can be advised not to do something in their
capacity as monarch of that country, they can't be barred from
acting as monarch of another country. With this we have ​a
blue print for King Charles III regaining his voice.

First meeting between Prime Minister Trudeau and His Majesty

Now, I could suggest that Justin Trudeau invite the King and
this would make a certain amount of sense. Justin Trudeau
has come under criticism for making very little progress on
his climate plan. Having a champion of climate reform
present distracts from this narrative and is the type of
ceremonial action the prime minister is good at. That said,
Trudeau hasn't been overly kind to the monarchy during his
time in office. Are there any other candidates? Well, yes,
actually. Papua New Guinea recently stated they wished to
deepen ties with the Royal Family. And climate change will
hit Papua New Guinea, and other equatorial nations with
particular severity. The King and his Papua New Guinean
realm could make common cause at COP27. And there is no
reason the King couldn't ask around the rest of the
Commonwealth for partners on other issues. King Charles III
is head of 15 countries. Perhaps he should make better use of
this fact.

Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour