Taking His Act on the Road

Reagan plays the good neighbor and gracious host

Twenty-two scarlet-uniformed Royal Canadian Mounted Police on matched chestnut horses flanked the motorcade. An exaltation of fighter jets swooped in low against a snow-flecked sky. Demonstrators on the gracious lawns of Ottawa's Parliament Hill waved signs protesting a variety of U.S. policies. With all the requisite pomp, pageantry and protest, Ronald Reagan began his first state visit, a trip to America's No. 1 trading partner. Standing before the Gothic tower of Parliament, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau welcomed him: "Our long relationship has been based on more than neighborhood. It has been based on friendship and on a sharing of values." Mixing French and English diplomatically, Reagan responded: "Merci. C'est un plaisir to be here with you today."

The pleasure seemed to be real and mutual, despite several testy issues that divide the countries. As two men determined to like each other who find to their surprise that they actually do, the polished Trudeau and the affable Reagan took to each other warmly. They even exchanged lines of poetry from memory when they discovered, after a long lunch at the Prime Minister's residence, a mutual fondness for the poems of Robert Service.* Above all, Reagan succeeded by simply being Ronald Reagan, thanking the Canadian Parliament for such exports as Mary Pickford and Art Linkletter, and saying that the demonstrators who had marred his welcoming ceremony "must have been imported to make me feel at home."

The auspicious start is important. Canada is upset over the decision by Reagan earlier this month to withdraw part of a treaty, signed two years ago but held up in the Senate by New England opponents, that would apportion fishing rights in the rich Georges Bank fishery off the East Coast. Canada is also dismayed about the "acid rain" that results from some 6 million tons of sulfur dioxide drifting north from U.S. industries—a problem that could be exacerbated if U.S. pollution laws are relaxed. The Ottawa government has also been pushing for faster U.S. action on plans for the joint construction of a gas pipeline from Alaska across the Canadian West into the U.S. And the U.S. is worried about Canadian proposals to make American firms reduce their ownership in Canada's energy-related industries.

While making no specific proposals on the problems facing the two nations, the U.S. did say that it would be willing to work out a temporary plan to conserve fish supplies in disputed East Coast waters until a final resolution can be reached.

This only partly satisfied Trudeau, who expressed Canada's "deep disappointment" over the fisheries problem and later warned that "more delay would be irresponsible." On the acid rain issue, Secretary of State Alexander Haig claimed that the U.S. shared Trudeau's "concern"—an assurance that did little to allay Canada's fears. But the important thing, from the Canadian viewpoint, was the groundwork that was laid. Reagan had wanted to make a quick unofficial visit to Canada, as he did to Mexico before his Inauguration, to stress his still undefined notion of a "North American accord." Because of scheduling problems, he ended up going to Canada on his first state visit as President.