(2 of 2)
In the context of Canadian concerns, Nixon's speech to Parliament was weighted with more meaning than the usual rhetoric of presidential visits, and it seemed to hit exactly the right note. "It is time for us to recognize," he declared, "that we have separate identities, that we have significant differences, and that nobody's interests are furthered when these realities are obscured. Each nation must define the nature of its own interests, decide the requirements of its own security, and determine the path of its own progress."
Nixon also took care to correct a public gaffe he had made last August, in inaccurately describing Japan as the U.S.'s largest trading partner. "Canada," said Nixon, to the applause and then the laughter of the assembled M.P.s, "is the largest trading partner of the U.S. It is very important that that be noted in Japan too."*
Despite the vast differences in their political and personal styles, Nixon and Trudeau have always been at ease with each other intellectually. In private talks, they agreed to press their negotiators to reopen talks—stalled since last December—on the economic issues. They also traded travelers' notes—Nixon on Peking, which has invited Trudeau for a visit, and Trudeau on Moscow, where he met Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev last spring.
No presidential visit is complete without a signing ceremony, and negotiators for both sides rushed to complete one important document in time: the five-year Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement that commits both governments to initiate programs by 1975 which would "restore and enhance" polluted waters from Lake Superior to the St. Lawrence River. Expanding on the theme, Nixon and Trudeau raised the possibility of a similar agreement covering all the waters along the border —which would be more than ample reason for another presidential visit, if and when both men are reelected.
*As Nixon corrected that clinker, he dropped another, smaller one. After tackling a passage of his speech in atrociously bad French, he apologized for his pronunciation of "a language I studied 37 years ago." He had asked his translator, Major General Vernon Walters, whether he could speak French in Ottawa, Nixon explained, and the General had told him to go ahead "because you speak French with a Canadian accent."