Melting the Canadian Ice

Through the cavernous corridors of Ottawa's Government House last week padded Canada's Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker on his way to pay his welcoming respects to the bright young American couple who had just moved into the Royal Suite. Within minutes of crossing the threshold, the Prime Minister was plainly captivated by the U.S.'s Jack and Jackie Kennedy--and so, it seemed, was most of Canada.

The Kennedys paid their state visit to Canada not knowing quite what to expect. Many Canadians are resentful of their nation's economic and cultural dependence on the U.S., and Canada strongly opposed U.S. intervention in Cuba. But the Kennedys soon melted the Canadian ice. At a formal state dinner for 100, every head snapped around as though at parade-ground command to admire the entrance of Jackie Kennedy in her pure white silk sheath. At the following reception for 500, her husband deftly fielded all topics, talked wheat with a Saskatchewan reporter, education with a college girl, trucks with a transport official and freedom of the press with a publisher. The wife of Defense Production Minister Raymond O'Hurley told Kennedy that her relatives in Ohio and Connecticut had all voted for him. "Well," replied the President, laughing, "with a name like O'Hurley, they should." Watching Kennedy in action, Diefenbaker declared in admiration: "I hope he doesn't come across the border and run against me."

Friendly Partnership. The next day Horse Lover Jackie whisked off to watch wide-eyed as 34 red-coated Mounties put their horses through an intricate drill. President Kennedy, settling back in a rocking chair that Diefenbaker had provided for the occasion, talked informally with the Prime Minister. The substance of Kennedy's views came out in his address later in the day before the massed members of the Canadian Parliament, who banged their desks in a traditional salute for Jackie when she entered the gallery, and banged them again for the President when he appeared behind the floodlit lectern just below the Speaker's throne.

"I feel that I am truly among friends," began Kennedy. "Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies. This is a partnership, not an empire. We are bound to have differences and disappointments--and we are equally bound to voice them, to bring them out into the open, to settle them when they can be settled, and to respect each other's views when they cannot be settled. We have not forgotten the poet Robert Frost's reminder that 'good fences make good neighbors.' "

Hemisphere Family. As he continued, Kennedy's phrasing was deliberately diplomatic--but his meaning was clear as he urged Canada to make major policy shifts. The President, who wants Canada to join the Organization of American States, called on Canada to take a more active role in Latin America. "The hemisphere is a family into which we were born--and we cannot turn our backs to its troubles."

On NATO, Kennedy pledged the U.S. to increase its capability to wage conventional war in Europe. He asked Canada to do the same. To strengthen NATO's atomic force, Kennedy again offered to give the command five Polaris submarines that would "make clear our own intentions and commitments."

Common Cause. In conclusion, Kennedy reminded his Canadian hosts that like it or not, they were caught up in the same life-or-death fight as the U.S. "We should not misjudge the force of the challenge we face--a force that uses means we cannot adopt to achieve ends we cannot permit. Nor can we mistake the nature of the struggle. It is not for concessions or territory. It is not simply between different systems. It is the age-old battle for the survival of liberty itself."

President Kennedy's speech drew a roaring ovation from Parliament. He got no specific promise of action from any legislator or from Prime Minister Diefenbaker--but Kennedy had expected none. Canada is in no hurry to join the OAS. Still the President had done what Canadians have often accused the U.S. of not doing. He pointedly singled out Canada for his first foreign visit to assure the northern neighbor of U.S. concern for its problems and respect for its increasing importance. He also hoped to make sure that the Canadian government was sympathetic to the U.S. Administration. At week's end, it seemed to be.

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