Here in the states we sometimes forget that our neighbors to the north in Canada are part of the British Commonwealth.  So they are deeply feeling the loss of Queen Elizabeth II, their Monarch for 70 years.  And that includes residents in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, where the Queen spent a 10 day visit in 1973.

Niagara on the Lake is a picturesque Ontario town with an important place in history.  The town was established in 1792 when it was chosen as the first capital of Upper Canada.

The flags are now flying at half staff at Fort George, where Queen Elizabeth II visited, as well as on Queen Street in the center of town.  Lord Mayor Betty Disero said the community is feeling the loss. "Although people talk about feeling free, or wanting to be more and more independent --that comes, but she represented us in various ways, always with grace and dignity and um we're just very pleased...to have had her with us for 70 years of reign," Disero said.

Residents are remembering how the Queen had a room in the Pillar and Post Hotel, an inn where she hosted a dinner of 230 select guests before officially opening the brand new Shaw Festival Theatre.  

And whether they saw her and waved Canadian flags as school children, attended the special dinner or theatre opening, or just heard about the visit, they're thinking fondly of it now, and are saddened by her loss.

Jodi Gonzalez was one of those school children bused from Laura Secord School in Queenston Heights to see the Queen. "I just have the vivid memory of us being all excited, we all got little Canadian flags, we were all put on a bus and they bused us down here right to old town and being by the Pillar and Post and I just vividly remember the car going by, and her wave, so it was quite exciting."

Gonzalez now works serving tea at the Prince of Wales Hotel, and she's a fan of television series about the royals called The Crown.  She was emotional the day she heard the news of the Queen's passing.   "I was actually off that day and I had heard that she wasn't well so, I was actually watching the BBC live and I actually burst out sobbing when they announced it so, I didn't expect myself to act that way, so I was glad I was home alone, but it hurt."

Paul McIntyre, Vice President of Operations for Vintage Hotels and Niagara's Finest Hotels showed us the photograph of the Queen's visit on the wall in the lobby at the Pillar and Post. "It was an iconic visit to the Pillar and Post, and you know I’m generations removed, I was one when it happened, but still to this day the picture we have on the wall when the Queen arrived resonates with our guests, with the community, with me because I was the general manager of this property for a long time and I passed that picture," McIntyre said.

Pat Drope Balasiuk is proud of her Canadian heritage, but also calls herself a monarchist.  "Though we are 6th generation Canadian, we are also British subjects currently, but Canadian citizens and she is our Queen, so it is important to us."
 
Her father was the Innkeeper at Pillar and Post when the Queen visited.  Pat, only 18 at the time, attended the dinner there and followed on to see Queen Elizabeth open the new Shaw Festival Theatre. "It was just a remarkable feeling seeing her...the sense of awe in the theatre when she walked in was amazing,  It was like a gasp that people felt," she said.
 
Canadians we talked with have been watching the coverage of the Queen's death around the clock, and they'll be watching the funeral on Monday.  Erie News Now will share more thoughts from our visit to Canada in the coming days.