Mr. President, Prime Minister, Madame Grégoire Trudeau, Mr. Speaker of the Senate, Excellencies, hon. senators, members of the House of Commons, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
Mr. President, on behalf of everyone here, I thank you for your speech. We are so very pleased to see you in Ottawa again and to welcome you when the city is at its loveliest.
As you mentioned, sir, the last time you dropped by, in February of 2009, the weather was decidedly cooler, so all of Ottawa still remembers that you braved the cold to stop in at a nearby bakery to pick up some maple leaf cookies for your daughters.
Sir, you mentioned the few flecks of grey you have in your hair. When our newly minted Prime Minister Trudeau visited you last fall in Washington, you very kindly tried to prepare him for the greying effect of leadership, telling him, “if, in fact, you plan to keep your dark hair, then you have to start dyeing it early”. May I just say to you both, it could be worse.
There is an inscription embedded in granite on the International Friendship Monument that marks the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and power project, dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. vice-president Nixon near Prescott, Ontario, in 1959. It reads as follows:
This stone bears witness to the common purpose of two nations, whose frontiers are the frontiers of friendship, whose ways are the ways of freedom, and whose works are the works of peace.
It would take too long to list the many ways in which Canada and the United States are working together to help create better lives not only for their own people, but for all of humanity. However, over the years, several of our countries' leaders have commented on the close friendship that unites us.
Almost 40 years ago, former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau remarked, in a speech to Congress, “The friendship between our two countries is so basic, so non-negotiable, that it has long since been regarded by others as the standard for enlightened international relations”.
When you last visited us, in 2009, sir, you echoed those sentiments, saying, “As neighbours, we are so closely linked that sometimes we may have a tendency to take our relationship for granted, but the very success of our friendship throughout history demands that we renew and deepen our cooperation here in the 21st century”. As a good neighbour, here you are again doing just that.
Mr. President, thank you for your visit, for your friendship, and for strengthening the enduring ties of family that bind our two nations together.
Thank you very much, goodbye, and have a safe trip home.
[Applause]