later become Governor General of Canada); Prince Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), and Prince George, Duke of Kent, in 1919 and 1941; and King George VI was the first reigning monarch to reside at Government House when he and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, stopped in Winnipeg during their cross-country tour of Canada in 1939; from Government House, the King broadcast over the radio a speech to the British Commonwealth, the table at which he sat still in the residence. Their daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and each of their children have also stayed at Government House over the years. The architect Frank Worthington Simon included in his plans for the Manitoba Legislative Building a new Government House, to be constructed on the bank of the Assiniboine River, opposite the parliament. This plan never came to fruition, however, and the Victorian Government House was adapted over time to suit the lieutenant governor's changing needs. In 1978, the mansion was designated as a historical structure by the Manitoba Heritage Council and in 1999, at the initiative of Shirley Liba, wife of Lieutenant Governor Peter Liba, the house underwent a major renovation, in which many of the original features of the mansion were uncovered and restored. Use Government House, owned by the King in Right of Manitoba, is where members of the Canadian Royal Family and visiting foreign dignitaries are greeted and often stay while in Winnipeg. It is also where numerous royal and viceroyal events take place, such as the bestowing of provincial awards or inductions into the Order of Manitoba, as well as luncheons, dinners, receptions, and speaking engagements. It is also at the royal residence that the lieutenant governor will drop the writs of election and swear-in new members of the Executive Council. The viceroy's office is located at the Legislative Building, behind Government House; it is there that legislation is given Royal Assent and the lieutenant governor meets with the premier. Architecture and interiors Manitoba's Government house is a structure of solid masonry walls and timber floor framing, the original block being square and four storeys in height, counting the basement level, covering a total of approximately , including the tower. The volume and its facade composition was at first symmetrical along an east-west axis through the centre of the building, though this arrangement was later altered by the addition