Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was at the White House on this date in 1983 where President Ronald Reagan – host of that year’s G-7 Summit to be held at storied Williamsburg, Virgina – briefed him on preparations for the upcoming gathering of leaders.
President Reagan reported on his talks with his Canadian counterpart very briefly in his diary. I have placed the entry in full below to help illustrate the whirlwind days leaders often experience.
Reagan Diary: Nancy left for Phoenix—we’ll be apart until Monday. I don’t like this but I know it can’t be helped. The wires, phone calls & mailgrams are running about 3 to 1 in my favor on the speech. Today named Dick Stone former Dem. Senator as personal envoy to Central America. Sen. Dodd & other far out liberals & left wingers are all over the tube screaming foul. Dodd calls me ignorant. His claim to expertise on Central Am. is 2 yrs. as a peace corps vol. many yrs. ago in Dominica. P.M. Trudeau of Canada here for meetings & lunch. It turned out alright & he’s pleased with our plans for the summit. I phoned Lin Vann the little Cambodia refugee who had been here 4 yrs. (12 yrs. old) and has just won a spelling contest in Tenn. Presented Presidential medal (to Frank Carlucci) after 30 yrs. of govt. service. Rcvd a gold medal from the “Four Chaplains Chapel group” Patti (his daughter called—she’s been looking for work quite awhile—needed to borrow some money.
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.