Canada’s and the United States’ Enduring Partnership

On June 20, 2024, Senator Omidvar gave a statement to recognize Canada’s strong relationship with the United States.
Watch her speech:

Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, with my American cousins in the gallery, I wish to remark on the relationship Canada has with our neighbours to the south. We are, indeed, from the same family, but like cousins, we have different histories, sensibilities and personalities. We are both democracies but have found different expressions of it in our governments. We may speak the same language — at least they speak just one of ours — and we share significant parts of our cultural norms with them, but we are not the same.

It is not easy living next to the most powerful country in the world. The metaphor has often been drawn of a mouse and an elephant. The elephant is likely to forget that the mouse exists, and the mouse worries daily that it will get crushed. As Lester Pearson so aptly remarked:

The American authorities often tend to consider us not a foreign nation at all but one of them. Because they take us for granted they are perplexed when we show an impatience at being ignored and an irritation at being treated as something less than an independent state.

The next few years may present Canada with new challenges, depending on the outcome of the November election. There will be tricky waters. As we navigate them, perhaps it is best to remember our biggest strength: our people-to-people connections.

Americans may not remember Ken Taylor, but we do because he put his life and the lives of Canadians in Iran at risk during the Islamic revolution when he hid U.S. embassy staff in his home before ferreting them out of Iran.

 Americans may not remember the spirit of the welcome that was extended to U.S. travellers in Gander, Newfoundland, after 9/11 — but we do. In fact, we put on a play, which went to Broadway, just to remind them of it.

Americans may not know that the new bridge connecting Windsor to Detroit, which will bring untold benefits to both nations, is being funded entirely by Canada. I am, of course, relying on my American cousins to spread the news.

The warmth of this relationship found its best expression during the tenure of former prime minister Brian Mulroney and former President Reagan. We need to ensure that it reaches for — and extends beyond — the same heights, remembering always that we are different from them. In that difference between them and us — between life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness on the one hand and peace, order and good governance on the other — are the foundations of a relationship that shall endure.

 Thank you.