Princess Margriet Returns to Ottawa for 100,000 Tulip Tribute
Princess Margriet is back in Ottawa this week, returning to the city where she was born in January 1943 at what was then the Ottawa Civic Hospital. princess margriet will visit her birthplace and attend the Canadian Tulip Festival, a trip that links her family’s wartime history with a public ritual Ottawa still marks each spring.
Princess Margriet and her husband, Professor Pieter van Vollenhoven, met with Prime Minister Mark Carney on May 7, 2026. Carney thanked Princess Margriet for her lifelong commitment to Canada and the friendship between the two countries, saying, “Every year, the Canadian Tulip Festival serves as a symbol of the lasting friendship between our two nations. It was an honour to meet Princess Margriet in Ottawa today,” in a social media post on Thursday.
Canadian War Museum visit
On Thursday, Princess Margriet visited the Canadian War Museum, took part in a wreath-laying ceremony and saw an exhibit on the liberation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. Senator Rebecca Patterson, who was at the museum, said, “It reconnects us to the roots of Canada,” and added, “It’s kind of revisiting history and restrengthening bonds in a time when our traditional allies... it’s disrupted.”
Margriet Vonno, the ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Canada, said, “She has always kept bonds with Canada,” and added, “It’s also nice if you have a friend that you can trust because then you’re stronger together,” and, “I wish that Canada would come closer to the E.U. and it’s happening.” The remarks tied the royal visit to the broader effort by Canada and the Netherlands to renew their ties and strategic partnership.
Tulip Festival and royal roots
Princess Margriet will go to the Canadian Tulip Festival this weekend. The festival was founded to celebrate the Dutch royal gift of tulips and to commemorate Princess Margriet’s birth in Ottawa, making her visit more than ceremonial: it places the city’s wartime memory, royal history and annual festival in the same frame.
Carney said Princess Margriet was born in Ottawa during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and he noted that Princess Juliana gifted 100,000 tulip bulbs to Canada after the war in gratitude for the role Canadian soldiers played in liberating the people of the Netherlands and for providing refuge to the Dutch royal family. Public Services and Procurement Canada said 517,650 tulip bulbs were planted in 2025, after 537,145 in 2024 and 540,880 in 2023, with 431,800 planted in Ontario and 85,850 in Quebec in 2025.
Ottawa meetings this week
Princess Margriet will also attend events held by Margriet Vonno and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, visit the Canadian Museum of Nature, meet with veterans and visit Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. Princess Margriet is the only royal ever born in Canada, and this week’s itinerary keeps the focus on the city where that history began while giving Canadian officials a public chance to restate the relationship they want to preserve.
For Ottawa, the next fixed point is the Canadian Tulip Festival this weekend, where Princess Margriet’s appearance will connect the royal visit with the tulips that became a permanent symbol of the Dutch-Canadian bond.
