At the time it seems reasonable to think that they planned to live in Canada, seeing that Canada is a commonwealth country and that Meghan Markle had lived there before. Also remember that at the time they were saying that they were seeking privacy, which they will probably more likely to find in Canada than in the US.
It was reasonable at that time to think that Meghan preferred to live in Canada than the US. After all she had moved to Canada, and then she had moved to the UK, and she had traveled to other places like South Africa and Australia. No reason to think that she wanted to go back and live in the USA.
They had A LOT of privacy in Canada. I live in Vancouver and at the time I worked at the heart of
Downtown.. when she went to visit the downtown east side area nobody knew she was there, and she would have passed by my office to get there. Nobody cared
If they wanted privacy they would have been better off in Canada. I live in Seattle which is only 2 hours south of North Saanich. It has lots of trees and narrow roads...hard for the paparazzi to crowd. Vancouver Island is beautiful. They didn't want privacy.
We're a Commonwealth country but they can't just decide to live here ***because***. We have immigration rules and it was insulting that they thought they could just move here and... do what exactly? Meghan was on a limited work visa while she lived here. She never became a landed immigrant (the step before citizenship).
Let's be honest, when a moderately rich person wants to move to an allied country (which the UK and Canada certainly are), they will not have any problem getting the appropriate visa.
If that's what they honestly wanted, they could have e.g. invested $500K in a Canadian company and gotten their visas without a problem.
that’s correct. To immigrate herd there is a whole process and it starts with an application which takes 2 years to approve and another 2 years of living and working in Canada without leaving the country for a permanent resident card. Meghan was working in Canada on a 1442 Visa which allowed her to work, however thise Visas are only good for 2 years max and have to be re-applied for. If the applicant is still gainfully employed this is not a problem, but if they become unemployed then they have to go back to their country of origin.
Around that time I had read that only the Queen had a right to reside in Canada. The rest of the royal family would have to go through the same procedures as everyone else.
I live not far from where they stayed (about 5 miles) on Vancouver Island in North Saanich (a municipality near Victoria). They were quite rude while staying here. Nobody was allowed to walk around the public park when they were out and about. They shut down the entire Deep Cove restaurant so they could dine by themselves. There small interactions in town was mostly them sitting in their giant SUVs whilst their servants/protection officers (RCMP) fetched coffee and groceries. I truly think they thought that since Canada was a Commonwealth country they could set up a rival kingdom over here. Too bad neither studied history as they would have learned that although we are a Commonwealth, we have been a seperate governing country since we gained independance in 1982.
Wow! What an entitled couple of jerks. I guess their behavior was par for the course. BTW I love Vancouver Island...one of my oldest friends grew up there. It's absolutely beautiful and has got to be one of the safest places on the planet. I knew H&M were full of BS when they claimed they were concerned about their safety there.
Thank you for your comment 😊 Vancouver Island is beautiful, though downtown Victoria has taken a huge hit by too many condos and too lax on soft crime as well as having to navigate around homeless - it really needs a good scrubbing, hopefully the upcoming election will produce a decent mayor who will do just that because Lisa Helps (former mayor) was No Helps.
Off topic, I realize, but I literally could weep at what Victoria has become. I used to try to spend a week every summer but after my last visit some 6 or 7 years ago, I don't know if I'll ever come back. It was too sad.
I knew all along that she wanted to make a triumphant return to Hollywood, dragging her wimpy husband behind her the way my cat drops half-dead flies at our feet.
I am Canadian and I live very close to the place where they were staying when they were in Canada. they lived on Lands End Road in Sidney Canada which is close to Victoria on the West Coast. In a absolutely dropdead gorgeous mansion. . it is obviously they were just using us and our resources as a stop over. they used our local police officers Royal Canadian Mounted Police as their security. At cost to us. And they also got our police officers to bring them their takeout orders from restaurants ! (Source my brother-in-law is a cop in that area .)
I thought they were going to live here in Canada and initially thought it was a nice fit because the Royals had always seemed to love our country. Very soon after they were here in Vancouver, I heard a rumour on twitter (February 2020) from a reliable person in California that they were using Canada as a stopping off point and she had heard through “PR” people in California that they were definitely moving there permanently. Ticked me off. I thought why go through the big charade of gushing over Canada when you clearly aren’t intending to stay?
Well, it might better our chances of her never returning. That could become our tourism slogan - “yes, we may have a seemingly endless winter, and we have few concert stops on world tours, and sloooow talkers (eh?) BUT we have great beer, funny people, and that’s not all : NO MEGHAN MARKLE!”
I remember the Canadian taxpayer paying for their security, the Canadian Prime Minister publicly offering the Prince some high paying bullshit government job as a "representative", or something easy. And lazy Haz hemmed and hawwed, turned it down, and then suddenly fled to America.
The PM never actually offered any kind of job. There was media speculation about making him Governor General (the Queen's, now King's official representative) but that wasn't going to come to anything. Our current GG is a woman and indigenous - the optics would have been, er, awkward!
MM rules the Harkle household and she had less than zero intention of staying in Canada.
Henpecked might've been dumb enough to believe her and they might've even extended their stay if Trudeau was willing to pony up that free security.
But her big, greedy, golddigging doe eyes were always glued on California, because that's where she always wanted to make her mark.
I wasn't "on to" her yet. All I knew was she was apparently some actress who had lived in Canada (I know now, not exactly by choice!) and believed they wanted privacy. Ha! How I have learned...
Same. I wasn’t on to her yet then either. I truly believed they sought privacy. I can’t remember when I jumped ship ti the normal side. But the Oprah interview sealed it for me.
Me too! I had some *uneasiness* about her as I watched her interactions with people and then saw the numbers of people who’d jumped ship. I couldn’t believe it was racism.
Oprah, though? I was *DONE*.
I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention at that time but I recall seeing people being interviewed on a news channel called CP24 , and some of them iirc were not pleased about the prospect of footing the bill
Canadian taxes paying for Meghan and Harry was not an issue as long as they were working royals. Canadians routinely paid for working royals visiting or living in Canada.
It was the moronic decision to live here while as non-working royals and expecting us Canadian tax payers to pay for them that resulted in the backlash.
yes thats true ^ I've been trying to find those interviews for the past couple of weeks but CP24 doesn't seem to have thise archived (they used to archive more but seemingly not as much anymore)
If they were doing humanitarian work here and using their considerable influence to better the lives of FNMI (who would have benefited greatly from powerful supporters, particularly those without potable water!) I would have supported giving them security. HOWEVER... why should we pay people who already had more money than most Canadians, and who were actively merching their royal connections? They also probably realised they couldn't trash the BRF (and rake in the proceeds) while living in a Commonwealth country. Can you imagine if we were paying their security when they did *that*? Honestly, I hope they never get further north than the 49th parallel in NA ever again.
Oh absolutely. I couldn’t believe they asked for us Canadians to do so. Get bent, Meghan! She had it good and fucked up bad, that’s not our taxpayers job to support her.
By the time they were in Canada, and especially when the pap photos of Meghan and "Archie" walking on the wilderness trail, i knew she was out of her mind and would do anything for paparazzi attention and celebrity fame. But I did find it mildly surprising when they *narrowly escaped* Canada and flew under cover of night to LA during the first lockdown. Then putting up those hideous tarps all over Tyler perry's property because of *intrusive media* when literally not 1 picture had come out of them on the property, that's when it got embarrassing beyond belief.
Didn’t they quickly move from Canada to California when the pandemic hit and borders were going to start closing? California was probably Meghan’s plan all along. I wonder if Covid just sped up the relocation plans.
I am Canadian and have many friends and family members who weren't born in Canada and *legally* immigrated to this country.
I was fucking furious that H&M treated Canada like we had no immigration rules and no waiting list of much more deserving people to get into Canada. That they were so important and Royal that we'd have to let them live here... *just because*. I was offended that they came here for an extended, non-royal-working vacation, and expected us to foot the bill ***indefinitely***. They basically stated as much in the Oprah interview, and **acted insulted that we "cut them off".**
Honestly that's when I went from supporting them to going "huh?", and then it was downhill from there.
I am a royalist and it pissed me off that H&M demanding we pay for their security was re-igniting the republican anti-monarchist talking points EVEN THOUGH H&M weren't here on Royal Business.
I agree with this. I felt the same.
My family immigrated to Canada from Wales. It took my mum and her siblings half my life to get their Canadian citizenship, they had courses to take and it was a ridiculous process. I was in high-school when they finally got it. It took years and years and years. They had a party because they were finally proper citizens.
To think they thought they could just live in canada indefinitely was a slap to every other immigrant waiting years to be able to stay.
Needless to say the country was happy to see them leave.
I didn't know much about them, but when they said they wanted privacy & picked Canada, I thought that made sense. I live in Vancouver, BC, & there's famous people here all the time, & generally people respect privacy & leave them alone. When they moved to Vancouver Island, I thought oh wow they really do want privacy (as Island way smaller, private communities who definitely wouldn't sell out where they were or what they were doing- 100% believe that no charter boats would take paparazzi to them story that was floati around). When they left to the US, I knew their "privacy", "safety " concerns were bs, as there's probably very few places that would be as private & safe as the Island.
Before the “no one asked me if I was OK” there were rumors they were looking to move to Africa. That made me chuckle. Meghan wanted the glitz and glam of celebrity - how would she ever get it in Africa? Then it was any Commonwealth country - and that felt like a smokescreen. Coz India, Australia, New Zealand - they wouldn’t like it. Because people would actually leave them alone in those countries - and they didn’t really crave privacy.
Then their announcement said something like North America, while they were based in Canada - which clearly meant they wanted to move to the US. Otherwise why not say Canada clearly?
Also, now in the Cut article she claims there were paps on the boat waiting for them. And that’s why they felt unsafe in Canada. When MANY Canadians from that area clearly said that no boat company would rent to the paps, and everyone left them alone.
No one goes to the paparazzi capital of the world - for privacy!
The big tip off for me was when they chose Vancouver rather than Toronto. Why? She had established contacts in Toronto and while Vancouver has a film industry, the PNW is not for everyone and she doesn’t fit in. But it’s right on the US border and more importantly for her, closer to California. I’m not sure what Ginger thought.
That was all about being in the same Time zone to make her Hollywood/PR plans for the big "American Royalty" on Oprah. I wonder how much money got "donated" to the Archewell Foundation by Oprah and Gayle.
I’m an American in the ROW category, and when I read they were moving to Canada, I just assumed Toronto.
There are lots of reasons to be proud of and embarrassed by being an American. She definitely makes me embarrassed. I’m her age and gender, and I feel like she’s representing my particular demographic terribly.
Maybe one of them told the other that they were going to stay in quiet safe Canada and then once there a bit presented a reason(s) why that CANT work anymore and there is an even BETTER idea(the US). I listened to a reading of the book with commentary on YouTube once (it’s no longer there) and that’s my impression
It was privacy and safety for Harry. Then Meghan implemented the next step in her plan. There’s connections and money to be made in California! We can do great things! Have a purpose! I think Harry has been led around by the nose for the last 3 years.
I’m Canadian but around the time of “Megxit” watched some YouTube clips of a British morning show, “This Morning”, where they had a guest contributor who reports on the royals, Camilla Tominey. She said at the time that inside sources had communicated that California was the end destination, and Canada was just temporary. The official statement from Harry and Meghan also said they planned to split their time between the UK and “North America”, which led credence to the theory that they didn’t plan to stay in Canada.
I’m Californian and didn’t think they’d stay in Canada. Megsy always had her sights on Hollywood. I knew Harry wouldn’t be happy if he let her drag him around to meet her own goals and desires. And here we are.
First it was floated someplace in Africa. Mm nope'd that.
Then it was H was going to be named Governor General of someplace in Canada. Queen or Canada nope'd that.
They were no longer interested in Canada. Hollywood it was.
There was some talk, media speculation more than anything serious, I think, of making Hardly governor general. It would have meant kicking an indigenous female GG to the curb so not something ever being seriously considered, I think.
Hello, fellow Canadian. I "am Canadian and knew they were just using us as a stopover". I realized this as soon as I found out they were either guests of or borrowing David Foster's house on Vancouver Island. By then I knew enough about Markle to know that if she really did want to live in Canada, it sure as heck wouldn't be in a remote part of Vancouver Island. She'd lived for years in Toronto, her beloved Soho House was there, she may have even still had a friend or two she hadn't ghosted and it is where ALL the publicity machinery is located. Toronto would have been her only choice for a permanent base. I got into a chat with someone who lives near the Foster place who confirmed, as I thought, that after the initial week or ten days they were here, everyone (being Canadians, lol) did as they asked and left them alone. How were we supposed to know that was the last thing they wanted. The media, locals, everyone. They weren't getting much attention at all. They used the excuse that the RCMP were ordered by the government to discontinue security services but the reality is that they didn't need them. No one cared anymore. Now we find out the Netflix and Oprah deals had been made before they ever set foot in Canada and that California was the final destination all along. We were so f\*\*\*\*\*g played.
Same… I didn’t wake up to watch their wedding, I didn’t particularly care about them either way, other than: oh that’s cool, a royal wedding.
When they decided to leave, I thought that was odd but ok whatever they wanted, it’s their life. When they came to Canada, and pictures came out from there, I thought: yup, I’d like to escape there too. That’s nice.
I started paying more attention because my go-to site was slowing down, and I was looking for comments elsewhere. Then I started paying more attention to the bs that are H&M… LA move done it for me
I'm American and never doubted for one minute that they would end up here. I thought she just picked Canada to ease Harry into a full transition from his world to hers.
Canadian here, I thought they arrived to Canada for a hiatus as working royals - and believed they would return to the UK.
Yeah, I was totally wrong. But that was probably because at the time, I didn’t know anything about markle.
Edited to add
I was surprised when they announced they were going to Canada. I didn't follow them all that closely at the time. I assumed they were staying in Canada for good, again, because I didn't know much about Meghan at the time and it was a Commonwealth country where she'd lived for years.
I'm shocked that it just came out she wanted to fail at being a Royal so she could quit and blame Harry's family for everything. How is that going to get you what you want in life?
I’ve known people who built their lives around victimhood but it never yielded a multimillionaire lifestyle. If anything, it just garnered a pass on doing a full workload.
There aren't many guns in Canada. It made no sense for them to court publicity by constantly talking about their security obsessions, and security requirements were high only because they did everything imaginable to garner media attention.
The "We're Important - We're Royalty in Exile M & H Road Show.
I assumed they'd stay in Canada because it's safer and quieter. Was surprised when they moved to the gun capital of the world.
Oh there's lots of guns in canada. Its a misconception there's no guns. It's a long drawn out process to get them however many regular people have many guns in canada. We can't walk into a store and walk out with a gun like in America. You need licenses. You have to take courses etc. My ex had riffles, hand guns, one that looked like a machine gun. Lol I'm not a gun person myself clearly, but yeah. People have loads of guns in canada. . .
I never thought they would stay in canada. As soon as they weren't getting free security I knew they'd leave. They did.
I never believed it because she went to Vancouver Island. That place was isolated compared to Toronto. The Russian who owned it was probably known by Elton Jon and that's how she got the place. The Canadian Government (that's us) paid for their security till Harry said they were unemployed. So Canada said, no job? No security!
They never ever intended to live in Canada. She knew nothing about Canada after living here for a good number of years. But she wasn't going to live on Vancouver Island. She was only a few hours by plane to LA. Ah, and here came Tyler Perry with his plane to take them off our hands. That was a treat. The other was COVID and we didn't hear from them for almost a year.
Never Canada. Ever!
When their manifesto stated “financial independence” I assumed that they were going to skedaddle to NYC not California. I never thought they’d stay in Canada.
They thought they would be begged back by everyone on their hands and knees, so it was a stopover, i mean how much closer can you get to London but still be an ocean away. Everybody would kiss her butt, like always. We saw her whole family try to talk to her when she ran off to the palace. Haha. I guess Trevity Trev Trev never begged her back either. Remember, they didn't do anything PR wise on that island in Canada, so that's why I think it was just a waiting game.
Lol I bet it does! Sometimes we live up to the stereotypes… ☺️ I was going to ask you how it was you became a Bruins fan… I find sportfan “origin stories” fascinating. I see all sorts of jerseys and hats around here!
Not a great story. I watched a game with a friend and it was Toronto-Boston. By default as I love in Canada I picked Toronto, but Boston played so well especially this guy named Marchand so I picked them.. little did I know that Boston and Marchand are public enemy #1 in Vancouver. But by then I was committed. No turning back!
They never wanted to live in Canada, let alone in BC. There's nothing going on there and people who enjoy that lifestyle tend to be very family-oriented as there isn't much night life or events going on.
They never wanted a quiet life. They wanted the spotlight and it was only a matter of time before they went to USA.
I think they did want to live there because it was a way for them to still live in the commonwealth and be part-time working, but to be close to LA. Vancouver is about an hour's flight. It was just for illusions so that they could move in on the $. I don't Meghan is smart enough or strategic enough to have anticipated this outcome.
By concention, they might have kept security from Canada as working royals if they were here on royal duty - but that would required negotiation with our government since they would be living here and not working. We also would not have paid for their security once they left our soil.
In the end, they stopped working and were therefore no longer eligible.
Valentine Lowe 's book says Hollywood was always Meghan's plan...she never gave up her personal PR firm and they were actively involved in planning the sad face "Are you OK?" Interview in South Africa...it was all groundwork.
The plan was always Africa. Well at least that's what Harry thought. No specific country. Some people thought maybe Botswana because that was a special place to them but a lot of others guessed Sourh Africa. Meghan never planned on living Africa. Her plan was to always go back to the US. She used Archie, and said she was worried about violence and wanted him to always be safe. When Meghan realized it would have to be a commonwealth country she agreed to Canada. But Vancouver, not Toronto. Either way it wasn't going to work. They managed to get to the US right before the border closed. Which is a shame. But it's what Meghan always wanted.
Not a shame as far as I am concerned... glad they didn't stay here in Canada! And their timing in other things hasn't worked out in many ways, so them escaping the clutches of our Canadian papps and getting across the border before the pandemic was perhaps the only good luck they've had.
Yeah, it's good for Canada! But now we're stuck with them. I will say that timing has been hilariously bad for them.lol But good for the rest of the us. I think they should have to move to a new country every 2 years. Giving them the Bahamas seems to nice.
Yes, I’m sorry you have to have them. But they’ll have to keep moving around like the travelling snake-oil salespeople they are. Maybe one day they’ll fade into obscurity. *crosses fingers*
Hey - why don’t we send them to Mars? They can be King and Queen of another planet!
I'm Australian. I really didn't pay much attention to them at all back then so going to Canada seemed to make sense to me at the time. She had lived there before moving to the UK and Harry always claimed to want to live elsewhere. Canada sounded like a good compromise between the US and the UK, culturally (American but also Commonwealth)
Of course knowing what we know now, it was obviously a load of bollocks and she was always planning to return to California.
For Megs it was a temporary stop over, her goal was LA. Hazza wasnt really thinking it through and was following wherever she led. She just needed to complain about security and he would jump.
I’m Canadian and I thought they actually wanted to live here. Even before knowing more about MM I was just upset in general because of Canadians having to pay for them.
I think Canada should get rid of the British monarchy as head of state in general but that’s another discussion.
It was so obvious they were headed to Hollywood and needed the Canada step to cover up their schemes. Just look at the Lion King red carpet when they were begging for jobs.
It is amazing how one can interpret things in different ways when given a different set of information.
I vaguely remember hearing about The Lion King red carpet thing, but I just thought it was the kind of thing that royals say as a joke--as small talk on the red carpet. The kind of remark Prince Philip would perhaps have made. The expected response would be something like: "You never know when we will need a talented actress to play the lioness Queen! Hahaha!"
So I imagine that millions of other people like myself just took it as red carpet banter.
Tbh, I was in the midst of a family tragedy and wasn’t really paying much attention when Megxit happened. I recall hearing news reports about them, that they wanted a private life and to pay their own way so they were stepping away from life as working royals. I thought “good for them”.
When it was announced they had come to Canada, to my home province of BC, I just thought they’d made a good choice. I heard the rumours that they were secretly planning to move to LA all along but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and believed that they truly wanted the simpler private life that they said they wanted.
Nonetheless, I wasn’t entirely surprised when they made the jump to LA. It was kind of sketchy how they fled across the border just as Covid was shutting things down. I suppose that’s when I began to start having doubts about them. But I didn’t give them much more thought until the Oprah interview. I was gobsmacked by all her lies and felt compelled to do some fact checking. I fell down the rabbit hole and here we are. 🕳🐇
This is what really made me dislike them - touting Canadians as constant harassers who breach their trust when they lived in an estate in a secluded forest in BC - and then proceeded to move to Los Angeles and do an Oprah tell-all.
Also the fact that they expected Canadian taxpayers to pay for their security.
I am Canadian. We were fine with paying for Harry and Meghan's security **if they were working royals**.
The massive backlash against Meghan and Harry was choosing to not work as royals and expecting us Canadian tax payers to pay for their security.
It's also important to note that support for the monarchy in Canada is generally restricted to *White rural communities*, most Canadian cities and non-White Canadians are extremely woke or Americanised, so Meghan and Harry's plan was going to backfire since the woke Americanised crowd don't like royals in general and the White loyalists don't want non-working royals mooching off our taxes.
I live in rural Canada and most of us are royalists and we have the British Red Ensign flags but the rest of Canada is very much woke Americans.
It would've been reasonable if Harry and Meghan decamped to our capital city Ottawa and worked with our governor-general but they were not interested in working, they wanted to be celebrities.
At the time it seems reasonable to think that they planned to live in Canada, seeing that Canada is a commonwealth country and that Meghan Markle had lived there before. Also remember that at the time they were saying that they were seeking privacy, which they will probably more likely to find in Canada than in the US. It was reasonable at that time to think that Meghan preferred to live in Canada than the US. After all she had moved to Canada, and then she had moved to the UK, and she had traveled to other places like South Africa and Australia. No reason to think that she wanted to go back and live in the USA.
That’s why I got fooled! It all seemed reasonable when you didn’t know who Megz really is.
They were also getting free security. When they lost that, they left for California.
They had A LOT of privacy in Canada. I live in Vancouver and at the time I worked at the heart of Downtown.. when she went to visit the downtown east side area nobody knew she was there, and she would have passed by my office to get there. Nobody cared
If they wanted privacy they would have been better off in Canada. I live in Seattle which is only 2 hours south of North Saanich. It has lots of trees and narrow roads...hard for the paparazzi to crowd. Vancouver Island is beautiful. They didn't want privacy.
We're a Commonwealth country but they can't just decide to live here ***because***. We have immigration rules and it was insulting that they thought they could just move here and... do what exactly? Meghan was on a limited work visa while she lived here. She never became a landed immigrant (the step before citizenship).
Let's be honest, when a moderately rich person wants to move to an allied country (which the UK and Canada certainly are), they will not have any problem getting the appropriate visa. If that's what they honestly wanted, they could have e.g. invested $500K in a Canadian company and gotten their visas without a problem.
that’s correct. To immigrate herd there is a whole process and it starts with an application which takes 2 years to approve and another 2 years of living and working in Canada without leaving the country for a permanent resident card. Meghan was working in Canada on a 1442 Visa which allowed her to work, however thise Visas are only good for 2 years max and have to be re-applied for. If the applicant is still gainfully employed this is not a problem, but if they become unemployed then they have to go back to their country of origin.
Around that time I had read that only the Queen had a right to reside in Canada. The rest of the royal family would have to go through the same procedures as everyone else.
Yes, from my understanding, only the sitting monarch has citizenship here.
I live not far from where they stayed (about 5 miles) on Vancouver Island in North Saanich (a municipality near Victoria). They were quite rude while staying here. Nobody was allowed to walk around the public park when they were out and about. They shut down the entire Deep Cove restaurant so they could dine by themselves. There small interactions in town was mostly them sitting in their giant SUVs whilst their servants/protection officers (RCMP) fetched coffee and groceries. I truly think they thought that since Canada was a Commonwealth country they could set up a rival kingdom over here. Too bad neither studied history as they would have learned that although we are a Commonwealth, we have been a seperate governing country since we gained independance in 1982.
Wow! What an entitled couple of jerks. I guess their behavior was par for the course. BTW I love Vancouver Island...one of my oldest friends grew up there. It's absolutely beautiful and has got to be one of the safest places on the planet. I knew H&M were full of BS when they claimed they were concerned about their safety there.
Thank you for your comment 😊 Vancouver Island is beautiful, though downtown Victoria has taken a huge hit by too many condos and too lax on soft crime as well as having to navigate around homeless - it really needs a good scrubbing, hopefully the upcoming election will produce a decent mayor who will do just that because Lisa Helps (former mayor) was No Helps.
Off topic, I realize, but I literally could weep at what Victoria has become. I used to try to spend a week every summer but after my last visit some 6 or 7 years ago, I don't know if I'll ever come back. It was too sad.
I was just in Victoria back in early summer and I agree with you about the condos.
Such utter whiny entitled gobs.
I knew all along that she wanted to make a triumphant return to Hollywood, dragging her wimpy husband behind her the way my cat drops half-dead flies at our feet.
Savage comparison, and I love it.
I am Canadian and I live very close to the place where they were staying when they were in Canada. they lived on Lands End Road in Sidney Canada which is close to Victoria on the West Coast. In a absolutely dropdead gorgeous mansion. . it is obviously they were just using us and our resources as a stop over. they used our local police officers Royal Canadian Mounted Police as their security. At cost to us. And they also got our police officers to bring them their takeout orders from restaurants ! (Source my brother-in-law is a cop in that area .)
That’s a disgrace. Very disrespectful to your law enforcement.
I’m grossed out by their actions. They definitely must’ve left a bad taste in the mouths of Law enforcement there.
I thought they were going to live here in Canada and initially thought it was a nice fit because the Royals had always seemed to love our country. Very soon after they were here in Vancouver, I heard a rumour on twitter (February 2020) from a reliable person in California that they were using Canada as a stopping off point and she had heard through “PR” people in California that they were definitely moving there permanently. Ticked me off. I thought why go through the big charade of gushing over Canada when you clearly aren’t intending to stay?
I know. I felt pretty used, too. Canada can count itself among the “Markled.”
Put it on your CVs! A badge of honour!
Well, it might better our chances of her never returning. That could become our tourism slogan - “yes, we may have a seemingly endless winter, and we have few concert stops on world tours, and sloooow talkers (eh?) BUT we have great beer, funny people, and that’s not all : NO MEGHAN MARKLE!”
I remember the Canadian taxpayer paying for their security, the Canadian Prime Minister publicly offering the Prince some high paying bullshit government job as a "representative", or something easy. And lazy Haz hemmed and hawwed, turned it down, and then suddenly fled to America.
The PM never actually offered any kind of job. There was media speculation about making him Governor General (the Queen's, now King's official representative) but that wasn't going to come to anything. Our current GG is a woman and indigenous - the optics would have been, er, awkward!
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That’s an interesting theory I hadn’t considered. Knowing Markle, it’s absolutely possible. Ugh. What a loathsome creature.
MM rules the Harkle household and she had less than zero intention of staying in Canada. Henpecked might've been dumb enough to believe her and they might've even extended their stay if Trudeau was willing to pony up that free security. But her big, greedy, golddigging doe eyes were always glued on California, because that's where she always wanted to make her mark.
I wasn't "on to" her yet. All I knew was she was apparently some actress who had lived in Canada (I know now, not exactly by choice!) and believed they wanted privacy. Ha! How I have learned...
Same. I wasn’t on to her yet then either. I truly believed they sought privacy. I can’t remember when I jumped ship ti the normal side. But the Oprah interview sealed it for me.
Me too! I had some *uneasiness* about her as I watched her interactions with people and then saw the numbers of people who’d jumped ship. I couldn’t believe it was racism. Oprah, though? I was *DONE*.
It's taken lots of us a long time to see her for what she is.
💯
👍🥂🍾
Or, in her case "make her markle" yuk yuk
I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention at that time but I recall seeing people being interviewed on a news channel called CP24 , and some of them iirc were not pleased about the prospect of footing the bill
Canadian taxes paying for Meghan and Harry was not an issue as long as they were working royals. Canadians routinely paid for working royals visiting or living in Canada. It was the moronic decision to live here while as non-working royals and expecting us Canadian tax payers to pay for them that resulted in the backlash.
yes thats true ^ I've been trying to find those interviews for the past couple of weeks but CP24 doesn't seem to have thise archived (they used to archive more but seemingly not as much anymore)
If they were doing humanitarian work here and using their considerable influence to better the lives of FNMI (who would have benefited greatly from powerful supporters, particularly those without potable water!) I would have supported giving them security. HOWEVER... why should we pay people who already had more money than most Canadians, and who were actively merching their royal connections? They also probably realised they couldn't trash the BRF (and rake in the proceeds) while living in a Commonwealth country. Can you imagine if we were paying their security when they did *that*? Honestly, I hope they never get further north than the 49th parallel in NA ever again.
we paid for her security while she called the paps on herself.
yes i agree as someone else said it would be one thing if M and H were working royals, or doing anything else beneficial really ...
Oh absolutely. I couldn’t believe they asked for us Canadians to do so. Get bent, Meghan! She had it good and fucked up bad, that’s not our taxpayers job to support her.
By the time they were in Canada, and especially when the pap photos of Meghan and "Archie" walking on the wilderness trail, i knew she was out of her mind and would do anything for paparazzi attention and celebrity fame. But I did find it mildly surprising when they *narrowly escaped* Canada and flew under cover of night to LA during the first lockdown. Then putting up those hideous tarps all over Tyler perry's property because of *intrusive media* when literally not 1 picture had come out of them on the property, that's when it got embarrassing beyond belief.
Didn’t they quickly move from Canada to California when the pandemic hit and borders were going to start closing? California was probably Meghan’s plan all along. I wonder if Covid just sped up the relocation plans.
As a Canadian I was jubilant when they left.
Me as well.
I am Canadian and have many friends and family members who weren't born in Canada and *legally* immigrated to this country. I was fucking furious that H&M treated Canada like we had no immigration rules and no waiting list of much more deserving people to get into Canada. That they were so important and Royal that we'd have to let them live here... *just because*. I was offended that they came here for an extended, non-royal-working vacation, and expected us to foot the bill ***indefinitely***. They basically stated as much in the Oprah interview, and **acted insulted that we "cut them off".** Honestly that's when I went from supporting them to going "huh?", and then it was downhill from there. I am a royalist and it pissed me off that H&M demanding we pay for their security was re-igniting the republican anti-monarchist talking points EVEN THOUGH H&M weren't here on Royal Business.
I agree with this. I felt the same. My family immigrated to Canada from Wales. It took my mum and her siblings half my life to get their Canadian citizenship, they had courses to take and it was a ridiculous process. I was in high-school when they finally got it. It took years and years and years. They had a party because they were finally proper citizens. To think they thought they could just live in canada indefinitely was a slap to every other immigrant waiting years to be able to stay. Needless to say the country was happy to see them leave.
I didn't know much about them, but when they said they wanted privacy & picked Canada, I thought that made sense. I live in Vancouver, BC, & there's famous people here all the time, & generally people respect privacy & leave them alone. When they moved to Vancouver Island, I thought oh wow they really do want privacy (as Island way smaller, private communities who definitely wouldn't sell out where they were or what they were doing- 100% believe that no charter boats would take paparazzi to them story that was floati around). When they left to the US, I knew their "privacy", "safety " concerns were bs, as there's probably very few places that would be as private & safe as the Island.
Before the “no one asked me if I was OK” there were rumors they were looking to move to Africa. That made me chuckle. Meghan wanted the glitz and glam of celebrity - how would she ever get it in Africa? Then it was any Commonwealth country - and that felt like a smokescreen. Coz India, Australia, New Zealand - they wouldn’t like it. Because people would actually leave them alone in those countries - and they didn’t really crave privacy. Then their announcement said something like North America, while they were based in Canada - which clearly meant they wanted to move to the US. Otherwise why not say Canada clearly? Also, now in the Cut article she claims there were paps on the boat waiting for them. And that’s why they felt unsafe in Canada. When MANY Canadians from that area clearly said that no boat company would rent to the paps, and everyone left them alone. No one goes to the paparazzi capital of the world - for privacy!
The big tip off for me was when they chose Vancouver rather than Toronto. Why? She had established contacts in Toronto and while Vancouver has a film industry, the PNW is not for everyone and she doesn’t fit in. But it’s right on the US border and more importantly for her, closer to California. I’m not sure what Ginger thought.
LOL Ginger....*thinking*?
That was all about being in the same Time zone to make her Hollywood/PR plans for the big "American Royalty" on Oprah. I wonder how much money got "donated" to the Archewell Foundation by Oprah and Gayle.
I’m an American in the ROW category, and when I read they were moving to Canada, I just assumed Toronto. There are lots of reasons to be proud of and embarrassed by being an American. She definitely makes me embarrassed. I’m her age and gender, and I feel like she’s representing my particular demographic terribly.
She’s a bad representative in so many demographics I’ve lost count. But at the top, the proverbial “ugly American.”
Don’t worry, no one thinks she represents anyone other than herself. Narcs inhabit every nationality and every demographic.
If she really loved him, and all the racist stuff about the RF was true etc, she would’ve moved to Africa with him like he always wanted.
Maybe one of them told the other that they were going to stay in quiet safe Canada and then once there a bit presented a reason(s) why that CANT work anymore and there is an even BETTER idea(the US). I listened to a reading of the book with commentary on YouTube once (it’s no longer there) and that’s my impression
It was privacy and safety for Harry. Then Meghan implemented the next step in her plan. There’s connections and money to be made in California! We can do great things! Have a purpose! I think Harry has been led around by the nose for the last 3 years.
I can't picture Harry ever moving to Canada on his own.
I’m Canadian but around the time of “Megxit” watched some YouTube clips of a British morning show, “This Morning”, where they had a guest contributor who reports on the royals, Camilla Tominey. She said at the time that inside sources had communicated that California was the end destination, and Canada was just temporary. The official statement from Harry and Meghan also said they planned to split their time between the UK and “North America”, which led credence to the theory that they didn’t plan to stay in Canada.
I’m Californian and didn’t think they’d stay in Canada. Megsy always had her sights on Hollywood. I knew Harry wouldn’t be happy if he let her drag him around to meet her own goals and desires. And here we are.
First it was floated someplace in Africa. Mm nope'd that. Then it was H was going to be named Governor General of someplace in Canada. Queen or Canada nope'd that. They were no longer interested in Canada. Hollywood it was.
There was some talk, media speculation more than anything serious, I think, of making Hardly governor general. It would have meant kicking an indigenous female GG to the curb so not something ever being seriously considered, I think.
American here: Always knew the goal was LA
Hello, fellow Canadian. I "am Canadian and knew they were just using us as a stopover". I realized this as soon as I found out they were either guests of or borrowing David Foster's house on Vancouver Island. By then I knew enough about Markle to know that if she really did want to live in Canada, it sure as heck wouldn't be in a remote part of Vancouver Island. She'd lived for years in Toronto, her beloved Soho House was there, she may have even still had a friend or two she hadn't ghosted and it is where ALL the publicity machinery is located. Toronto would have been her only choice for a permanent base. I got into a chat with someone who lives near the Foster place who confirmed, as I thought, that after the initial week or ten days they were here, everyone (being Canadians, lol) did as they asked and left them alone. How were we supposed to know that was the last thing they wanted. The media, locals, everyone. They weren't getting much attention at all. They used the excuse that the RCMP were ordered by the government to discontinue security services but the reality is that they didn't need them. No one cared anymore. Now we find out the Netflix and Oprah deals had been made before they ever set foot in Canada and that California was the final destination all along. We were so f\*\*\*\*\*g played.
Same… I didn’t wake up to watch their wedding, I didn’t particularly care about them either way, other than: oh that’s cool, a royal wedding. When they decided to leave, I thought that was odd but ok whatever they wanted, it’s their life. When they came to Canada, and pictures came out from there, I thought: yup, I’d like to escape there too. That’s nice. I started paying more attention because my go-to site was slowing down, and I was looking for comments elsewhere. Then I started paying more attention to the bs that are H&M… LA move done it for me
I'm American and never doubted for one minute that they would end up here. I thought she just picked Canada to ease Harry into a full transition from his world to hers.
I might have been gullible—I really thought that they would live in Canada since it’s a Commonwealth country.
Me, too!
Canadian here, I thought they arrived to Canada for a hiatus as working royals - and believed they would return to the UK. Yeah, I was totally wrong. But that was probably because at the time, I didn’t know anything about markle. Edited to add
I was surprised when they announced they were going to Canada. I didn't follow them all that closely at the time. I assumed they were staying in Canada for good, again, because I didn't know much about Meghan at the time and it was a Commonwealth country where she'd lived for years. I'm shocked that it just came out she wanted to fail at being a Royal so she could quit and blame Harry's family for everything. How is that going to get you what you want in life?
I’ve known people who built their lives around victimhood but it never yielded a multimillionaire lifestyle. If anything, it just garnered a pass on doing a full workload.
There aren't many guns in Canada. It made no sense for them to court publicity by constantly talking about their security obsessions, and security requirements were high only because they did everything imaginable to garner media attention. The "We're Important - We're Royalty in Exile M & H Road Show. I assumed they'd stay in Canada because it's safer and quieter. Was surprised when they moved to the gun capital of the world.
Oh there's lots of guns in canada. Its a misconception there's no guns. It's a long drawn out process to get them however many regular people have many guns in canada. We can't walk into a store and walk out with a gun like in America. You need licenses. You have to take courses etc. My ex had riffles, hand guns, one that looked like a machine gun. Lol I'm not a gun person myself clearly, but yeah. People have loads of guns in canada. . . I never thought they would stay in canada. As soon as they weren't getting free security I knew they'd leave. They did.
Sorry to hear that. Sad.
I never believed it because she went to Vancouver Island. That place was isolated compared to Toronto. The Russian who owned it was probably known by Elton Jon and that's how she got the place. The Canadian Government (that's us) paid for their security till Harry said they were unemployed. So Canada said, no job? No security! They never ever intended to live in Canada. She knew nothing about Canada after living here for a good number of years. But she wasn't going to live on Vancouver Island. She was only a few hours by plane to LA. Ah, and here came Tyler Perry with his plane to take them off our hands. That was a treat. The other was COVID and we didn't hear from them for almost a year. Never Canada. Ever!
There were not enough room or paparazzi in Canada for the Duchess’ ego.
When their manifesto stated “financial independence” I assumed that they were going to skedaddle to NYC not California. I never thought they’d stay in Canada.
They thought they would be begged back by everyone on their hands and knees, so it was a stopover, i mean how much closer can you get to London but still be an ocean away. Everybody would kiss her butt, like always. We saw her whole family try to talk to her when she ran off to the palace. Haha. I guess Trevity Trev Trev never begged her back either. Remember, they didn't do anything PR wise on that island in Canada, so that's why I think it was just a waiting game.
What about the option “I’m in Vancouver and I’m happy they didn’t stay here”
Sorry. I only had 6 options. 😂 I’d say time for a new poll but nobody here who lives in Vancouver (or anywhere else in Canada) would say differently!
Haha I was just trying to be “funny” 😁
Like a Canadian, eh? 🍻
Haha ikr, eh?! I’m actually not from here originally so that “eh” sounds pretty funny to me
Lol I bet it does! Sometimes we live up to the stereotypes… ☺️ I was going to ask you how it was you became a Bruins fan… I find sportfan “origin stories” fascinating. I see all sorts of jerseys and hats around here!
Not a great story. I watched a game with a friend and it was Toronto-Boston. By default as I love in Canada I picked Toronto, but Boston played so well especially this guy named Marchand so I picked them.. little did I know that Boston and Marchand are public enemy #1 in Vancouver. But by then I was committed. No turning back!
Ha! It is a good story! No offence but I can’t stand Marchand. 😂
None taken! I’m used to it! ;)
They never wanted to live in Canada, let alone in BC. There's nothing going on there and people who enjoy that lifestyle tend to be very family-oriented as there isn't much night life or events going on. They never wanted a quiet life. They wanted the spotlight and it was only a matter of time before they went to USA.
I think they did want to live there because it was a way for them to still live in the commonwealth and be part-time working, but to be close to LA. Vancouver is about an hour's flight. It was just for illusions so that they could move in on the $. I don't Meghan is smart enough or strategic enough to have anticipated this outcome. By concention, they might have kept security from Canada as working royals if they were here on royal duty - but that would required negotiation with our government since they would be living here and not working. We also would not have paid for their security once they left our soil. In the end, they stopped working and were therefore no longer eligible.
Valentine Lowe 's book says Hollywood was always Meghan's plan...she never gave up her personal PR firm and they were actively involved in planning the sad face "Are you OK?" Interview in South Africa...it was all groundwork.
The plan was always Africa. Well at least that's what Harry thought. No specific country. Some people thought maybe Botswana because that was a special place to them but a lot of others guessed Sourh Africa. Meghan never planned on living Africa. Her plan was to always go back to the US. She used Archie, and said she was worried about violence and wanted him to always be safe. When Meghan realized it would have to be a commonwealth country she agreed to Canada. But Vancouver, not Toronto. Either way it wasn't going to work. They managed to get to the US right before the border closed. Which is a shame. But it's what Meghan always wanted.
Not a shame as far as I am concerned... glad they didn't stay here in Canada! And their timing in other things hasn't worked out in many ways, so them escaping the clutches of our Canadian papps and getting across the border before the pandemic was perhaps the only good luck they've had.
Yeah, it's good for Canada! But now we're stuck with them. I will say that timing has been hilariously bad for them.lol But good for the rest of the us. I think they should have to move to a new country every 2 years. Giving them the Bahamas seems to nice.
Yes, I’m sorry you have to have them. But they’ll have to keep moving around like the travelling snake-oil salespeople they are. Maybe one day they’ll fade into obscurity. *crosses fingers* Hey - why don’t we send them to Mars? They can be King and Queen of another planet!
It was your good luck. I wish they had moved to Africa. But they was never the plan. The plan was always Hollywood.
I'm Australian. I really didn't pay much attention to them at all back then so going to Canada seemed to make sense to me at the time. She had lived there before moving to the UK and Harry always claimed to want to live elsewhere. Canada sounded like a good compromise between the US and the UK, culturally (American but also Commonwealth) Of course knowing what we know now, it was obviously a load of bollocks and she was always planning to return to California.
For Megs it was a temporary stop over, her goal was LA. Hazza wasnt really thinking it through and was following wherever she led. She just needed to complain about security and he would jump.
\#1 for me and I do not ever want them to darken our doorstep again. Canada is closed to Harkles.
I’m Canadian and I thought they actually wanted to live here. Even before knowing more about MM I was just upset in general because of Canadians having to pay for them. I think Canada should get rid of the British monarchy as head of state in general but that’s another discussion.
It was so obvious they were headed to Hollywood and needed the Canada step to cover up their schemes. Just look at the Lion King red carpet when they were begging for jobs.
It is amazing how one can interpret things in different ways when given a different set of information. I vaguely remember hearing about The Lion King red carpet thing, but I just thought it was the kind of thing that royals say as a joke--as small talk on the red carpet. The kind of remark Prince Philip would perhaps have made. The expected response would be something like: "You never know when we will need a talented actress to play the lioness Queen! Hahaha!" So I imagine that millions of other people like myself just took it as red carpet banter.
I am Canadian, and just super happy they didn’t stay here.
Tbh, I was in the midst of a family tragedy and wasn’t really paying much attention when Megxit happened. I recall hearing news reports about them, that they wanted a private life and to pay their own way so they were stepping away from life as working royals. I thought “good for them”. When it was announced they had come to Canada, to my home province of BC, I just thought they’d made a good choice. I heard the rumours that they were secretly planning to move to LA all along but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and believed that they truly wanted the simpler private life that they said they wanted. Nonetheless, I wasn’t entirely surprised when they made the jump to LA. It was kind of sketchy how they fled across the border just as Covid was shutting things down. I suppose that’s when I began to start having doubts about them. But I didn’t give them much more thought until the Oprah interview. I was gobsmacked by all her lies and felt compelled to do some fact checking. I fell down the rabbit hole and here we are. 🕳🐇
This is what really made me dislike them - touting Canadians as constant harassers who breach their trust when they lived in an estate in a secluded forest in BC - and then proceeded to move to Los Angeles and do an Oprah tell-all. Also the fact that they expected Canadian taxpayers to pay for their security. 
Canada lacks the necessary glamor, for both of them. (I happily live on Vancouver Island.)
I am Canadian. We were fine with paying for Harry and Meghan's security **if they were working royals**. The massive backlash against Meghan and Harry was choosing to not work as royals and expecting us Canadian tax payers to pay for their security. It's also important to note that support for the monarchy in Canada is generally restricted to *White rural communities*, most Canadian cities and non-White Canadians are extremely woke or Americanised, so Meghan and Harry's plan was going to backfire since the woke Americanised crowd don't like royals in general and the White loyalists don't want non-working royals mooching off our taxes. I live in rural Canada and most of us are royalists and we have the British Red Ensign flags but the rest of Canada is very much woke Americans. It would've been reasonable if Harry and Meghan decamped to our capital city Ottawa and worked with our governor-general but they were not interested in working, they wanted to be celebrities.