The Queen's Special Victoria Day Phone Call To Justin Trudeau

The Queen called Justin Trudeau over the weekend to wish him a happy Victoria Day.

The prime minister shared a photo of himself on his phone in his home office while speaking to Her Majesty, who turned 94 last month. Victoria Day is held on the last Monday before May 25 each year in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday.

"I spoke on the phone with Queen Elizabeth II today," Trudeau tweeted on Monday. "We talked about the state of the world, COVID-19, and more. I also thanked her for the hopeful messages she has sent during these difficult times, and I wished her the very best this Victoria Day."

The Queen is still at Windsor Castle, where she and Prince Philip have been isolating due to COVID-19 since late March. Her Majesty has made two broadcasts to the Commonwealth since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic.

In her first address, made on April 5, she encouraged everyone to do their best to work together to beat the virus. Quoting Dame Vera Lynn's famous "We'll Meet Again," the monarch thanked frontline workers and those in essential workplaces for the efforts they're putting in during this time.

"While we have faced challenges before, this one is different," she said. "This time, we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed - and that success will belong to every one of us. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again, we will be with our families again, we will meet again. But for now, I send my thanks and warmest good wishes to you all."

In her second broadcast, made May 8, the Queen recognized the 75th anniversary of VE Day, and equated the pride she felt at the end of the war with how she feels about all the work everyone is doing to fight COVID-19.

"Our streets are not empty; they are filled with the love and the care that we have for each other," she said, as she thanked both frontline workers and those who died during the Second World War to preserve the freedoms and democratic rights we share.

Trudeau has been keeping Canadians up-to-date on the domestic fight against the coronavirus with daily updates from outside his home at Rideau Cottage. Like the rest of us, he has also been working from home while there.

As of this writing, there have been more than 4.8 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide. The United Kingdom has had more than 247,000 of those cases, and the virus has sickened more than 79,000 Canadians. More than 1.8 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus.

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