Elected only months before, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was gearing up in December 1984 in preparation for his summit meeting with President Ronald Reagan that would took place in Quebec City in early 1985. It would be informally known as the Shamrock Summit. On this date in 1984 Canada’s 18th Prime Minister sent a letter to Reagan outlining his and Canada’s goals at their upcoming talks.
“My hope is that our governments can accomplish together something of lasting significance,” Mulroney wrote. “I want to manage our bilateral relationship with the civility and priority that befit our respective roles as each other’s greatest economic partner and ally. Quebec is where our predecessors (FDR and Mackenzie King) and Mr. Churchill carried out the first spadework on the foundations of the Atlantic Alliance. Our joint economic security and prosperity depend on Western security.”
Mulroney then, as he had in his two previous meetings with Reagan, made sure his American friend knew he’d be putting environmental concerns on the agenda.
“There is also the defence of our common environment in front of us,” Mulroney said frankly. “I have spoken to you of the public expectations in Canada that we can make some concrete progress in the very near future in cutting back the causes of acid rain. I urge you to give this matter your generous attention.”Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.