The last time Prince Charles landed in Canada in 2001, he stepped on a mat of disinfectant to prevent the spread of a Britain-based outbreak of livestock hoof and mouth disease.

On Monday he starts an 11-day coast-to-coast visit in St. John's, this time with second wife Camilla at his side, amid a swine flu scare that has already affected the couple's welcoming ceremony.

A Newfoundland children's choir from Conne River, N.L., cancelled its performance after several children in the rural community developed flu-like symptoms.

Charles is also up against an apparent apathy that could see him received with at least as much indifference as enthusiasm. A leaked poll, phone-in shows and online comments have suggested growing ho-hum feelings when it comes to royalty.

"Just when you thought things couldn't get much worse around here," wrote Willie Hunt of Pouch Cove, N.L., on a website announcing the prince's 15th visit to Canada.

St. John's historian and author Paul O'Neill, 81, has no time for such derision.

"I hear a lot of people being interviewed on radio and television saying they couldn't care less. I do care less. I think these people are wonderful people. They've done a great job in great difficulties. And I'd rather be in a colony of England than part of the United States," he said.

"They're a family that has had a lot of tragedy."

Looming large over that troubled past is Diana, whose 1997 death in a Paris car wreck still casts long shadows.

"Such a faction of Canadian society still looks at Charles through the Diana glasses," said Robert Finch, dominion chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada.

"This is an opportunity now to not focus on the past. It's to focus on the present and the future ... to get to know him a little bit better and also to be introduced to Camilla."

There are good reasons why people should tune in, Finch said.

"This is the future king of course," he said.

"This is a man who was an environmentalist long before it was the in-thing to be green, the man who really helped legitimize the idea of organic farming."

Charles, 60, has also raised millions of dollars for disadvantaged kids through his Prince's Trust and for other causes.

Charles was warmly greeted by crowds lining his tour routes in 2001, especially in Ottawa where his visit this time will wrap up Nov. 11 and 12 after stops in Newfoundland, Toronto, Victoria, Vancouver and Montreal.

He starts his trip with visits to two of North America's oldest settlements at Cupids and Brigus on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula. He will open the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, tour sites in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games and drop in on the Cirque du Soleil in Montreal.

Throughout the tour Charles will meet several times with members of the Canadian Forces, including soldiers who've recently returned from Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams are slated to speak at the welcoming ceremony Monday in St. John's.

Quebec, where the Queen herself has been jeered at by protesters, is the one place where the Charles and Camilla caravan might hit a rough patch.

The Montreal branch of the sovereigntist Societe St-Jean Baptiste wrote an open letter to Charles, saying he'll only be welcome in the province if he apologizes for a historical laundry list of alleged British offences.

It includes what the group calls the cultural genocide of francophones by the British after their conquest in North America. Namely, deportations of Acadians in 1755, the establishment of an English-language majority in Canada with the Act of Union in 1840, and the patriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1982 without Quebec's consent.

The radical sovereigntist group the Reseau de Resistance du Quebecois went further, warning Charles to stay out of the province or face protesters.

"Quebecers have nothing to do with the British monarchy," leader Patrick Bourgeois wrote in a recent Le Quebecois newsletter. He called the monarchy "crassly anti-democratic."

"We promise to scorch the ears of the one in line to sit next on the English throne if he dares to put his feet in Quebec."

The RRQ helped force the cancellation of a planned military re-enactment of the 1759 French defeat at the hands of the British on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City.

Despite the prince's wealth and supposed privilege, historian O'Neill says he feels for Charles.

"Poor man, I pity him. He's in his 60s now and he's still no closer to the throne than he was when he was in his 20s," he said.

"And his mother is a strong, healthy woman. She's going to live well into her 90s. He's probably going to be 80-something before he gets to the throne."