On May 28th, the University was proud to welcome the arrival of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, rolling out an orange carpet outside the QNC for the royal precession. The meeting was held to strengthen research connections between the University of Waterloo and fellow institutions in the Netherlands. To that end, the King and his party held a round-table meeting to discuss higher education. In addition, 70 scholarships were awarded to outstanding students for improvement of studies here and abroad.
The visit also marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands in World War II, an action to which Canadian Forces contributed greatly.
“The fact that they chose Waterloo, … showed commitment and goodwill on their part ,” commented Maaz Yasin, VP Internal at the Federation of Students. “Canada and the Netherlands have had a good relationship, but now we’re going to be doing a lot more research partnerships.” Indeed, once the King had departed and the festivities had ended, many of the attendees broke into more informal conversational settings, discussing difficulties and exciting new avenues of research. The most prominent discussion occured between Delft University’s quantum information group, and our own Institute for Quantum Computing.
The university visit consisted of a grand introduction, followed by a round table to discuss cooperation between the University of Waterloo and TU Delft in the Netherlands. Both universities are actively involved in quantum computing research, and so could benefit significantly from each others’ work. Equally as important as the King and Queen themselves are the delegation travelling with them. An economic mission was sent to Ottawa to meet with representatives from the Canadian government, and a higher education mission was sent to the University of Waterloo to focus on improving research relationships between Canada and the Netherlands. While the royal family was in Waterloo for a scant two hours, the informal dialogue between Canadian and Dutch researchers is sure to spark new research opportunities, and insights into higher education and quantum information.
To continue their economic mission, the King and Queen met in Ottawa to discuss politics. In addition, the Royal Family visited an orchid farm in Beamsville, Ontario, run by two brothers of Dutch descent. Due to the fact that one third of the Netherlands lies below sea level, the Dutch have always had to innovate in hydrological and environmental engineering, in order to maintain their way of life. By sharing our experiences with those of the Dutch, we can both work to develop our natural resources, and make them more sustainable; so that we may enjoy our natural resources for generations to come.
The stopover in Waterloo forms part of a larger tour of Canada that began on May 26th and ended on June 1st. Following this, the Royal Family went on a tour of the United States, strengthening relations between old allies.
This is not the first time that Canada has hosted Dutch Royalty. In fact, Canada hosted the Dutch royal family during their exile in World War II. Princess Margriet, the aunt of King Willem-Alexander, was born during the royal family’s exile. To ensure that the Princess’ citizenship was influenced solely by her mother, the maternity ward where she was born was temporarily declared extraterritorial by the Canadian government. There is a maternity ward in the Ottawa Civic Hospital that was officially “not Canada”, for a few hours in 1943 while Princess Margriet was being born.
The Canadian tulip festival was born out of the tradition of the people and the Royal Family of the Netherlands sending tulips in order to commemorate their liberation.
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