It was on this date in 2006 that US President Gerald R. Ford passed into history.  Ford took office in August of 1974 in the aftermath of the resignation in disgrace by Richard Nixon. Pierre Trudeau was our Prime Minister at the time and immediately established a close friendship with Ford.  In fact, in his political-retirement writings, Mr. Trudeau wrote that, from his standpoint, President Ford was the best U.S. President for Canada of the five he faced.  Most importantly, of course, is the fact that Ford went to bat for Canada in 1976 and, over the objections of the Europeans, had Canada admitted to what is now the G7.  We’ve been at the all-important table ever since. My late father was a big fan of President Ford’s and I remember calling him on the proud (for me) day in 2001 that I got to interview the former President for the Kingston Whig-Standard.  I wrote to Ford ahead of the first anniversary of the death of his friend and cross-border colleague, Pierre Trudeau.  Our interview took place on September 4, 2001.  Here are some excerpts from my interview with President Ford:

“I think the catalyst of the friendship was the inauguration of the G7 program … I was very insistent that we needed another Western hemisphere participant; over the strong objections from some of our European friends...I finally got Canada a membership and Pierre was forever grateful for that leadership on my part.  Pierre was so grateful that I, frankly, stood up to the French and said, ‘Damn it, we’re going to have one more country from the Western hemisphere …’ No doubt about it.  It was important to have somebody other than the United States representing the Western hemisphere and Pierre was a first-class member of that elite group.”