Mike Pence is coming to Ottawa — but why hasn't Trump made a state visit to Canada yet?

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Mike Pence is coming to Ottawa — but why hasn't Trump made a state visit to Canada yet?

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is coming to Canada next week to meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss what the U.S. embassy calls the "swift adoption" of the new NAFTA trade agreement — but there's no sign of U.S. President Donald Trump planning a state visit north of the border.

Trump is, instead, set to embark on a state visit to the United Kingdom in June, his second visit there as U.S. president.

Canada seems to be much lower on POTUS's travel do-to list. Trump has ventured north of the border only briefly to visit his country's closest ally and largest trading partner, and did so much later in his term than his recent predecessors.

Trump went to the U.K. in July 2018 on a working visit to meet British Prime Minister Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth II. His upcoming trip follows on an invitation first extended shortly after he took office in 2017.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau extended just such an invitation to Trump early in the president's mandate. Trump hasn't said yes yet.

That tardy RSVP breaks with recent tradition. From Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, recent U.S. presidents have established a loose practice of making Canada the first or second foreign country they visit after being elected for the first time.

Obama, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton all made Canada their first foreign stop upon taking office, while Reagan and George W. Bush made it their second.

Every American presidential visit to Canada is different. Some are cast as working trips, others are planned as official or state affairs, and sometimes the trip north occurs when Canada just happens to be hosting an international summit.

A state visit is the most formal type of presidential visit. It typically includes a meeting with the Governor General, a state dinner, military honours and the planting of a ceremonial tree at Rideau Hall.

An official visit is one step down from a state visit on the formality front. It's generally what happens when a president comes to Canada at the invitation of the government, and typically includes military honours.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien and United States President Bill Clinton point to reporters during a joint news conference after meeting in Ottawa on Parliament Hill, Friday, October 8, 1999. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

On working visits, the president is hosted by the prime minister; such occasions involve no military honours or other ceremonial displays.

Trump paid a working visit to Canada last year: the president arrived June 8 and left the following morning after attending the G7 summit in La Malbaie, Que.

Trump's attendance at the meeting did little for Canada U.S. relations. The day before Trump flew into Quebec — and shortly after his administration extended controversial steel and aluminum tariffs to cover exports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union — he described Trudeau on Twitter as "being so indignant" in talking up Canada-U.S. relations without mentioning Canada's dairy quotas.

After a day of meetings that extended late into the night, Trump left the summit the next day, June 9, to fly to Singapore for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Once aboard Air Force One, Trump tweeted that he was instructing his officials to withdraw support for the summit's closing communiqué.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump at the G7 summit in La Malbaie, Que. in June 2018. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump's visit to Canada was a diplomatic train wreck. It also broke with recent tradition; Canada was not the first, or even the second country Trump visited after being elected, but the 17th. And the visit came almost a year and a half into his mandate.

"It's a gesture, but maybe the Canadian government is secretly relieved that Trump hasn't accepted the (formal) offer yet," said Roland Paris, associate professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa. He was a foreign policy adviser to Trudeau before returning to academia in mid-2016.

"I think any Canadian government might be afraid of what might come out of his mouth.

"The government has not forgotten how Trump behaved at the G7 meeting, but I am sure that the invitation is genuine and that they would accommodate and welcome him were he to come."

U.S. President George Bush gives a thumbs up while meeting with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in Ottawa in this 1990 file photo. (Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press)

Both Obama and Bush Sr. came to Canada for working visits a month after taking office. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton came for working visits three months after taking office, and Reagan went north for a state visit — and addressed Parliament — two months after taking office.

Look beyond recent presidential history, however, and it becomes clear that the tradition of presidents making Canada one of their first foreign destinations after taking office is neither absolute nor consistent.

In July, 1923, Warren Harding became the first U.S. president to visit Canada. It was his third and final trip abroad, taking place a little over two years after he assumed office.

Calvin Coolidge and Herbert C. Hoover didn't visit Canada at all. Dwight D. Eisenhower came to Canada in November, 1953, 10 months after becoming president; Canada was his third foreign trip. Harry S. Truman made Canada the sixth country he visited as president in July 1947.

President Richard Nixon looks up at some stone carvings pointed out by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the Rotunda on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in this Apr.14, 1972 photo. (Canadian Press)

John F. Kennedy, made Canada his first destination, travelling to Ottawa for a state visit and addressing Parliament four months after taking office in 1961.

Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, also made Canada his first foreign trip, travelling to Vancouver for informal meetings with Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in September 1964, 10 months after his elevation to the presidency following Kennedy's assassination.

Canada was the 27th country that Richard Nixon visited. That visit, in April 1972, happened close to the end of his first term; the visit was a formal state affair that saw him address Parliament.

Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford never visited Canada.

President John F. Kennedy with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in Ottawa during Kennedy's 1961 visit to Canada. (The Canadian Press)

 

[春风吹]

用CBC自己的新闻回答CBC自己的问题。是不是加拿大这一届，就是'An insult'。离你远点也许更好。

'An insult': Families of dead soldiers offended at being left out of low-key Afghanistan memorial event
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DND says it wanted a 'humble, internal event ... to ensure proper reverence'
Murray Brewster · CBC News · Posted: May 22, 2019 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

Josee Belisle, mother of Cpl. Yannick Scherrer, sobs at the sight of her son's remembrance plaque on the cenotaph to fallen Canadians at Kandahar Airfield, on Tuesday May 24, 2011. She is comforted by Maj. Grahame Thompson, the senior Canadian task force padre, and an unidentified friend of her son. (Murray Brewster/The Canadian Press)
A number of families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan say they feel betrayed by a decision made by bureaucrats at the Department of National Defence to privately dedicate a memorial last week containing the Kandahar battlefield cenotaph.

The marble and granite cenotaph structure, which stood outside of the Canadian task force headquarters throughout the war, was a focal point for soldiers who had lost comrades and families when they came on military-sponsored visits.

A special building — built behind the security cordon at the new DND headquarters in Kanata, in western Ottawa — was opened and dedicated on May 13 in a private ceremony. News of the dedication ceremony only became public in a social media post three days afterwards.

Families were not invited and were only informed of the event by letter.

"I wasn't given that opportunity to go to that event, but none of us were," said Anne Snyder. Her son, Capt. Jonathan Snyder, a Star of Military Valour recipient, died in 2008. "It's kind of an insult."

Anne Snyder poses with a photo of her son Jonathan at her home in Head of Jeddore, Nova Scotia. Capt. Jonathan Snyder, 26, was a member of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry who was killed while on a night patrol in the Zhari district of Kandahar. (Mike Dembeck/Canadian Press)
Errol Cushley, whose son Pte. William Cushley was killed in 2006, described how the department handled the situation as "shoddy" and said he would have made the trip to Ottawa from his southern Ontario home had he been invited.

"It seems like we're an embarrassment to them," said Cushley.

Closed to the public
DND's social media post last week said the memorial would not be open to the public — but families of slain soldiers could book appointments to see it when they're in Ottawa.

The defence department took half a step back from that approach on Tuesday, saying it was looking to "accommodate special visits by the public on appropriate occasions." DND still insists it's not possible to open the memorial up to the public completely.

"When I hear stupid things like that, yeah ... I get upset pretty easily," said Raynald Bouthillier. He lost his son, Trooper Jack Bouthillier, to a roadside bomb in 2009.

"If they can organize tours of the White House, don't tell me they can't organize something there."

The cenotaph — portions of which were displayed on Parliament Hill six years ago and subsequently toured the country — includes 192 black granite plates etched with the photographs of Canadian soldiers and civilians killed during the decade-long conflict, as well as those of Americans who died while under Canadian command in Kandahar.

A proposal by the previous Conservative government to create a lasting, public memorial to Afghanistan remains mired in bureaucratic disagreements among four different departments and agencies.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Lt. Gen. Stuart Beare unveil the travelling Afghanistan Memorial Vigil on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, July 9, 2013. (The Canadian Press)
In light of that, Bouthillier said, it's more important than ever for Canadian civilians to have a specific place to remember the soldiers who fought in the Afghan war.

"They were willing to die for this country," said Bouthillier. "So why can't the general public go and see their faces and remember those guys? You know, for me, Remembrance Day is not once a year."

Jean-Marc Doucet, a National Defence official and acting director of transformation at the department's Ottawa headquarters, told CBC News last summer the initial plan was to allow the general public to visit the memorial, but "the process, procedures and guidelines are still being worked on."

'Proper reverence'
DND was asked Tuesday why the decision was made to hold the cenotaph dedication in private. The department responded in an email.

"Given the solemnity of the memorial and to ensure a dignified, dedication service, a quiet, limited service was held in honour of those we have lost," said the statement. "The decision to hold a humble, internal event was made by senior leadership to ensure proper reverence."

The department said it waited to post news of the event on social media "in order to ensure correspondence with the families of our fallen had sufficient time to be delivered."

Cushley said he never received his letter.

Successive federal governments have struggled to find an appropriate tribute to the over 40,000 troops who served during the brutal counter-insurgency war. Five years ago, the governing Conservatives held a ceremony on Parliament Hill with the families of the 158 Canadians who were killed in the conflict.

Planning for that event happened at the last minute, however — and there was confusion about whether relatives were expected to pick up the cost.

The Conservatives carved the dates of the Afghan conflict into the national war memorial, but promised a separate, permanent remembrance.

Bureaucratic wrangling
Documents obtained by CBC News under access to information legislation show that getting Veterans Affairs, Canadian Heritage, the National Capital Commission and the Canadian War Museum to agree on a site — after the first one was deemed unacceptable — has been a tortured process.

The records show that there is a consensus on a location — a patch of land east of the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. But the various agencies "have not received further direction from [Veterans Affairs] on the next steps for this project," said an Oct. 28, 2018 briefing note.

Cushley said memorializing the war and the sacrifices that were part of it clearly hasn't been a priority for the Liberal government.

"They've let a lot of things with the military slip through the cracks with all the stuff they promised, including to veterans," he said.

 

[Teddy]

川普说缉拿大烧过他的白宫，一直认为有安全隐患，所有有纠结

 

[hcarleton]

主要是与大嘴与土豆不对路，戏子不知道自己几斤几两有关

 

[Jay Wang]

盘丝副总统这是干啥来了。

 

[GuardianAngel]

主要是与大嘴与土豆不对路，戏子不知道自己几斤几两有关

土豆如果下台，美国加拿大关系马上变好。

老川就是看不上这个土豆