Kenneth Curtis, a past Governor of Maine and Jimmy Carter’s Ambassador to Canada from 1979 to 1981, was preparing to vacate Ottawa office on this date in 1980. He had represented the United States in our capital since 1979. This had proved to have been a crucial period in bilateral relations as the two countries had worked secretly (and successfully) to smuggle six American diplomats out of revolutionary Iran after they had sought shelter at Canada’s embassy in Iran when the US embassy was taken over by militants.
Ahead of his departure, Ambassador Curtis sent a detailed confidential memo to the State Department stating his views on the future of Canada-US relations.
“The complexity, diversity, and sheer scope of our relations with Canada can hardly be overstated,” he wrote. “Our trade with Canada is nearly twice that with our next largest foreign customer, Japan, and is equal to our trade with all of the countries of the European Community combined. Over a fifth of our foreign investment is located in Canada. There are some 68 million crossings of our common border by Americans and Canadians annually. Our joint agenda includes a staggering array of issues from potato imports in Maine to a proposed dam in Washington state and includes the major global concerns such as the response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and cooperation in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. It is clearly the most extensive relationship we have with any country and in many ways one of the most important.”
One recommendation Curtis had for the incoming administration in Washington was his suggestion that a Presidential visit to Canada should take place as soon as possible after the inauguration of the new President.
“There has been no visit by an American President to Canada since 1972, during which time there have been some six visits by the Canadian Prime Minister to the United States,” he wrote. “This has become a sore point in Canada, and an early visit would be an important element in setting the right tone for a constructive relationship between the new administration and the Trudeau government. To do the job, it has to be separate from the President’s participation in the Ottawa Summit in July. If a Presidential visit cannot be scheduled before then, a firm commitment should be made for such a visit in the fall, and in any case, a visit by the new Secretary of State very early in the new administration would also be most helpful.”
Ambassador Curtis signed off with the following: “This is a time of opportunity in our relations with Canada if we accept the challenge and devote the resources and attention to this relationship that it requires and deserves,” he wrote. “It is important that we do not only in terms of our vast bilateral interests, but also in light of the contribution that Canada can make to our efforts in support of global goals and purposes, such as the advancement of peace and freedom, on which we are in broad and fundamental agreement.”
You can read the Ambassador’s memo in full at this link: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1977-80v27/d87
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.