TRUMP & TRUDEAU
We’re going to have a great relationship with Canada, maybe as good or better, hopefully than ever before. The last thing Canadians expect is for me to come down and lecture another country on how they choose to govern themselves.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump went better than anyone in the PM’s camp could have hoped, writes John Ivison. Indeed, the foundation for a working relationship has seemingly been laid.
In a surprise start to the first meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his U.S. counterpart, President Donald Trump said he met Trudeau’s father in 1981.
“I’m honoured to be here with Prime Minister Trudeau, whose father I knew and respected greatly,” Trump said at the opening of a joint lunch with Trudeau.
Trump appears to have met Pierre Trudeau once. The meeting occurred in November 1981 at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The elder Trudeau, in his 12th non-consecutive year of being prime minister, had come to New York to accept the Family of Man award.
Presented by a society affiliated with the Council of Churches of the City of New York, the award was given to anyone showing “an outstanding example of excellence in society.”
Justin Trudeau was often hauled along on his father’s trips. The past 16 months have seen a number of international meetings begin with Trudeau reminiscing about his pre-pubescent encounters with a country’s leaders. An eight-year-old Justin met the Queen, for instance, and also shook hands with then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
However, any link between Trump and Trudeau was not widely known before Monday.
The prime minister jogged Trump’s memory with a framed photo of the pair. The black and white image shows a 35-year-old Trump at the Waldorf’s lectern while a tuxedoed Trudeau sits to his right.
“What a great picture, I will keep that in a very special place,” Trump said.
Pierre Trudeau’s address that night in 1981 included a comment about U.S.-Canadian relations.
“We are able to stand, for extended periods without strain, simultaneously eyeball-to-eyeball and shoulderto-shoulder,” he said.
The Nov. 5 photo was snapped five months before Trudeau successfully patriated the Constitution. It also captures the Canadian leader just as his popularity began a prolonged decline that would end with the Liberal party’s massive defeat in 1984.
Trump, meanwhile, was not yet registered as a member of any political party and was a year away from seeing the completion of Trump Tower.
This appears to be the first time Trump has publicly mentioned Canada’s 15th prime minister, although his professed respect may not necessarily speak to any special interest in the elder Trudeau.
Trump, more than most who have occupied the White House, has assigned glowing praise to all manner of people he has briefly encountered.
As bilateral gifts go, the Waldorf picture was a bargain. The pewter, maple leaf frame is sold in the Canadian Museum of History gift shop for $91, although presumably the Prime Minister’s Office buys them in bulk.