White House throws State Dinner for Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"The White House cordially welcome Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau, for a State Dinner with President Barack Obama and his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama."

The actual invitation is likely fancier than our introduction, but the Canadian prime minister is being honored with a state dinner for the first time in 19 years.

Will the entertainment include Sarah MacLachlan and the Barenaked Ladies? Will poutine be served?

These and other questions will be answered after the dinner happens. We do know there will be a total of 120 chairs in play, about a third of those seats will go to non-political guests.

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While the focus is on dinner and entertainment, major discussions and announcements will also dominate. Some of the highlights so far … .

• Increasing pre-clearance for border crossings: This progress has been hinted but should be officially announced today. The idea is to clear customs earlier to reduce traffic jams, as just one example.
• Climate change, post Paris: Trudeau and Obama are of similar minds on this issue. There was an announcement on reducing methane emissions earlier this morning.
• Foreign policy: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Trudeau today. The two leaders will follow up on the "mini amigos" summit hosted by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu, January 29 in Quebec City.
• Softwood lumber: This is more of a pipe(line) dream. The previous agreement expired in October; the two countries are in the middle of a 1-year tariff freeze, so a new deal needs to happen soon.

Trudeau might be the one to host a Three Amigos summit in 2016 since then Prime Minister Stephen Harper cancelled the last one, scheduled for Canada, in 2015.

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The two leaders have done some friendly trash-talking leading up to the state dinner. The Chicago NHL team was recently at the White House; of course, the president is from Chicago. President Obama joked he wanted to casually place the Stanley Cup in the middle of the room during the state dinner.

Trudeau responded on Twitter that he would bring Canada’s Olympic Gold medals from 2002 and 2010. The Americans took silver in both Olympic Games.

We know the last White House State Dinner that featured a Canadian prime minister goes back to the days of Bill Clinton and Jean Chrétien in 1997. After going through extensive research, there is no complete list of White House State Dinners. Even the Wikipedia page is puny and incomplete.

Through various sources, we have found 10 previous official White House State Dinners that honoured Canadian prime ministers. Not to pat myself on the back, but this might be the most comprehensive list on this topic in the known universe. If we missed something on this list or left an event out, please let us know in the comments section.

White House State Dinners to honour Canadian prime ministers

Date	U.S. President	Canadian honoree
March 10, 2016	Barack Obama	Justin Trudeau
April 8, 1997	Bill Clinton	Jean Chrétien
April 27, 1988	Ronald Reagan	Brian Mulroney
March 18, 1986	Ronald Reagan	Brian Mulroney
September 7, 1977	Jimmy Carter	Pierre Trudeau*
February 21, 1977	Jimmy Carter	Pierre Trudeau
December 4, 1974	Gerald Ford	Pierre Trudeau
December 6, 1971	Richard Nixon	Pierre Trudeau
March 24, 1969	Richard Nixon	Pierre Trudeau
June 3, 1960	Dwight Eisenhower	John Diefenbaker
November 10, 1945	Harry S. Truman	W. L. Mackenzie King
* one of many country leaders from the Americas

 

Let's throw out some caveats in reverse chronological order:

• George H.W. Bush and Brian Mulroney certainly liked each other and spent a lot of time together. They had the U.S. Canada Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA in common. I tracked down 3 private dinners in Washington: May 4, 1989; November 29, 1989; and August 6, 1990. I even found a dinner hosted by Mulroney on May 20, 1992. There are plenty of moments where the two got together from time in Kennebunkport, Maine to Toronto where Bush attended the 1991 All-Star Game. For whatever reason, I couldn't find proof of a State Dinner in Mulroney's honour.
• Mexico got the first State Dinner under Jimmy Carter, but the fact that Trudeau was the honoured guest within 33 days of the Carter presidency is rather remarkable. In all, Trudeau was at a State Dinner under 3 different presidents.
• Ford had only been president since August when he invited Trudeau for a State Dinner. This was the last White House State Dinner where the parties were in political opposition. I would argue that Ford and Nixon were somewhat moderate Republicans and Trudeau ran a centrist party in Canada. Also, the mindset in those terms was less partisan than today.
• Trudeau took power in 1968 but Lyndon Johnson did not get along with Trudeau. All the more impressive that Nixon scheduled the first of 2 State Dinners within a couple of months in taking office in 1969.
• The State Dinner for Diefenbaker could be seen as a rare time back then when the White House had a Republican and Ottawa had a Conservative prime minister. However, the likely motivation for the State Dinner was Eisenhower trying to convince Diefenbaker to join the Organization of American States (OAS). The dinner did not help as Diefenbaker ultimately said no to OAS.
• Governor General Vincent Massey was honoured with a State Dinner by Dwight Eisenhower on May 3, 1954. Massey also served as Canada’s first ambassador to the United States from 1926-1930.
• Lester Pearson was prime minister of Canada but never had a State Dinner in his honour. But Pearson was the guest of honour at a State Dinner from President Harry S. Truman when he was serving as Secretary of State for External Affairs under Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent. Humphrey Hume Wrong, Ambassador to Canada, was also honoured at the State Dinner on April 4, 1949.
• Alexander Cambridge was Governor General back in the era where the post was filled by British citizens over the Dominion of Canada. The dinner also came less than a month before Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945.
• Governor General John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, had a hectic day on March 30, 1937, which included tours of Fort Myer and Arlington National Cemetery as well as Mount Vernon before a State Dinner with FDR.
• Governor General Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, got the honour of the first official State Dinner for a Canadian individual during the Calvin Coolidge Administration on December 6, 1927.

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C-SPAN schedule has a block for the State Dinner with Justin Trudeau starting at 6:15 pm (all times Eastern). C-SPAN2 has a White House State Dinner preview at 9:17 am Eastern that will last approximately 8 minutes. C-SPAN3 will carry the arrival ceremony at 9 am Eastern and the joint press conference at 11:40 am Eastern.

The C-SPAN channels will have other Canadian-related programming throughout the day on Thursday. Click here for the full schedule.

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photos credit: Canadian Press
Twitter credit: @JustinTrudeau