Thirty minutes into his address to Parliament on Friday afternoon, Joe Biden was talking about the values shared by United States and Canada when he turned to one of those values, a commitment to gender equality. He was proud, he said, to note a historic achievement: for the first time, both countries have cabinets that are 50 per cent women, 50 per cent men.
As the Liberals rose in applause, joined by most of the Conservatives’ female MPs, the President stole a glance to his left, at a block of male Tories, who remained rooted to their seats like tree stumps in a storm. “Even if you don’t agree, guys, I’d stand up,” he said. Slowly, sheepishly, they rose, to a chorus of good natured laughter.
It was small moment – one of a number of departures from script that helped to make Biden’s 27 hours in Ottawa (an “official” working visit) a spectacular success. From the moment on Thursday evening when Justin and Sophie welcomed Joe and Jill with hugs on the steps of Rideau Cottage and invited them in for dinner with the three Trudeau children, the visit took on the comfortable feel of a family gathering. “Family” became a theme the President and Prime Minister kept returning to.
It was “my friend, Joe” and “my pal, Justin” – staunchest of allies, best of friends and more: the leaders of two nations sharing one vision and the leadership of the world’s liberal democracies in their struggle against aggressive authoritarian regimes – whether Russia in Ukraine, China in the Pacific or Iran in the Middle East, or the covert activity of those regimes as they try to undermine democratic institutions in North America and beyond.
Trudeau had three practical reasons for being delighted with the visit.
First, Biden’s agreement to amend the Safe Third Country Act got the Prime Minister out of a losing political fight with the government of Quebec over the tens of thousands of undocumented refugees who had been pouring into the province from upstate New York through the unofficial crossing at Roxham Road. With Roxham closed, refugee claimants are being sent to regular border crossings to be interviewed and documented by immigration officers.
Second, the President made it clear he shares Trudeau’s commitment to a green future. The two countries, he promised, would share the benefits of an integrated North American green economy: thousands good-paying new jobs in such endeavours as the manufacture of electric vehicles and the creation of a transborder corridor for the production and assembly of next-generation semiconductors.
The two leaders’ enthusiasm for a green economy was a contrast to the weary cynicism of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre whose party cannot agree whether climate change is real, and who believes Canada should increase, not phase out, oil production, and denounces the carbon tax as a job-killer that he will scrap when he is prime minister. He seemed out of place, a relic of the 1950s who had fallen, backward, out of a time machine.
Third, the visit gave Trudeau an opportunity to regain control of his agenda and priorities. Day after day, he had been hammered by the opposition about allegations of Chinese interference in the federal elections of 2019 and 2021. What had he known? When had he known it? Why hadn’t he done something about it?
It was a brilliant stroke to bring “the two Michaels” – Spavor and Kovrig – to Ottawa as honored guests. Their presence in Members’ Gallery set the stage for Biden and Trudeau to describe how, by working closely together, they had negotiated the release of the two Canadians after 1,020 days of harsh imprisonment.
The “two Michaels moment” signaled a shift from the problems of today to the promise of a green future, as articulated by the best buddies. It is a shift to be savoured, while it lasts.
Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens is an author and former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail and Maclean’s. He welcomes comments atgeoffstevens40@gmail.com