Editor's note: Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will give his acceptance speech tonight at his home in Delaware. Biden was originally scheduled to deliver that speech during the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee. In honour of the Biden acceptance speech, we look back at when Biden made a special state visit to Canada in December 2016.
Vice President Joe Biden visited Canada in December 2016 for a state dinner in his honour. President Barack Obama had made a state visit to Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was welcomed to the White House.
The honour was a bit of a surprise for a sitting vice president who would be out of that job in little over a month. The visit seemed to be a reinforcement of what Obama and Trudeau had in the time from Trudeau's win in 2015 as well as what Canada was going to have to deal with once January 20, 2017 would come along.
"The world is going to spend a lot of time looking to you Mr. Prime Minister. Viva la Canada because we need you very, very badly." — Biden said during that trip to Canada.
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Biden has not been a stranger to Canada. The sitting vice president was at the FIFA Women's World Cup final in Vancouver in 2015. Biden also met with then Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
We focus on the U.S. presidential candidates and their knowledge and interest in Canada. Biden served on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for many years. The senator became the ranking minority member in 1997 and chaired the committee in January 2001; June 2001 to January 2003; and 2007-2009. Obama had a keen interest and appreciation in Canada and Biden as vice president was a part of that team.
The current regime has not made an official state visit to Canada and has shown considerable hostility toward their neighbours to the north.
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We wrote about the Montréal connection with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) — Biden's vice-presidential running mate — last week. Harris was in Montréal at an incredible time, coming out of the 1976 Olympics, the rise of the Parti Quebecois (think Bill 101), and the 1980 sovereignty referendum.
Would love to read a whole book on her time in La Belle Province.
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The 2020 U.S. election seems like a long way away but will be November 3. We will have more questions for Biden and Harris if they win in November. We would love for the Three Amigos concept to return with the leaders of Canada, United States, and Mexico working together to solve problems and other issues.
photo credit: Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press via AP
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