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Today in Canada's Political History: October 7, 2001, In a telephone call after the 9/11 attacks, PM Jean Chrétien assures President Bush that “we are with you”

  • Arthur Milnes

  • National Newswatch

  • October 7, 2026

Arthur Milnes, creator of Art's History on National Newswatch, is an accomplished public historian, award-winning journalist, and in-house historian at the Frontenac Club Hotel who brings Canada's political history to life through engaging stories, historical insights, and personal anecdotes drawn from his encounters with many of the country's leading figures.

Canada’s Prime Minister had a brief telephone call with American President George W. Bush on this date in 2001. And Jean Chrétien’s message to Washington was clear: “The two leaders discussed the American request for Canadian contribution to the military coalition against international terrorism,” a redacted Canadian report on the discussion states. “The Prime Minister said again “We will be there.”

The call concluded with the Prime Minister telling Bush “We are with you.”

Full credit goes out to the University of Toronto’s Canada Declassified project for making these documents available to Canadians.

You can read the very brief memorandum on the Bush-Chrétien discussion at this link: https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/exhibits/show/cabinet-and-september-11--2001/-pm-chr--tien-s-phone-call-wit

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.