[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[October 8, 1999]
[Pages 1725-1727]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1725]]


Remarks at a Dedication Ceremony for the New United States Embassy 
Building in Ottawa, Canada
October 8, 1999

    Thank you, and good morning. Madam Governor General, I congratulate you on your--you told me the proper 
word was installation. I might have said elevation, coronation. 
[Laughter] It's a wonderful thing for Canada and for us as your friends.
    Mr. Prime Minister, members of the 
Cabinet, distinguished justices of the Supreme Court, members of 
Parliament, Mr. Ambassador, members of the 
diplomatic corps, ladies and gentlemen: I would like to begin by 
thanking the Canadian and American military bands, and the four young 
men who sang our national anthems, equally well, I thought.
    I also want to thank the Prime Minister for his words and the Prime 
Minister and Mrs. Chretien for their friendship to us.
    You know, having said all these--you're supposed to only say nice 
things at an event like this. But I really resent Jean Chretien. [Laughter] He first came to Ottawa to 
represent the people of Canada when President Kennedy was in the White 
House and I was in high school. [Laughter] Now I have more gray hair 
than he does. [Laughter] And he's not even term-limited. [Laughter]
    Your wonderful Ambassador to our country, Raymond 
Chretien, once joked that the Prime 
Minister is, I quote, ``the only leader in the 
G-7''--that includes me; therefore, it's a put-down--``the only leader 
in the G-7 who could still slalom on water skis with one of his 
grandchildren on his shoulders.'' [Laughter] It is true that even if I 
had grandchildren, I could not do that. [Laughter]
    Well, Prime Minister, that's not the only 
way in which you carry the children of this country on your shoulders. 
And I thank you for being my friend and partner.
    I also want to say a special word of appreciation to the men and 
women who serve in our Embassy here, both American and Canadian 
citizens, and to my good friend Ambassador Giffin, who gave me an unusually generous introduction, 
confirming Clinton's fourth law of politics: Whenever possible, be 
introduced by someone you have appointed to high office. [Laughter]
    You know, Gordon's had an unusual life. He 
grew up in Canada, then moved to Georgia, where he became one of the few 
people in the South who had ever stood on frozen water. [Laughter] For 
years, Atlanta had no hockey team; no one there could even skate. Now 
they have a hockey team. The NHL announced it was awarding a new team 
there as soon as he came here. [Laughter] Instead of divided loyalties, 
he is for both the Senators and the Atlanta Thrashers.
    We even have two minor league hockey teams in my hometown of Little 
Rock, now, if you can believe that. The whole American South has gone 
hockey-mad. And since we're all dealing with global warming, it's 
becoming increasingly difficult to pursue the sport. [Laughter]
    I just had the honor of touring this new building. It was nice of 
the Ambassador to mention that the words of 
four of our Presidents are on this wall: President Kennedy's very 
memorable description of our relationship and wonderful quotes by 
Presidents Eisenhower and Reagan, and this is the first time I've ever 
had anything I've said carved in stone. I've had one or two speeches 
sink like a stone over the years. [Laughter] I've had several audiences 
sit like a stone. [Laughter] I'm glad to be carved in stone.
    As was said earlier, I'm not the first member of my family to visit 
here, nor is this my first visit here. Hillary was here just last week and, among other things, had 
the opportunity to dedicate the new sculpture out front of the Embassy. 
And I want to thank the renowned artist, Joel Shapiro, for honoring both our countries with such a beautiful 
piece of his work.
    I have now been here five times. Jean says 
I must learn to speak French, so let me say, Je suis chez moi au Canada. 
He also says if I come one more time, I have to start paying taxes. 
[Laughter] I think that's more important than the French to him. I don't 
know. [Laughter]

[[Page 1726]]

    More than a decade ago, I came to Canada* with Hillary, our young 
daughter, and my mother-in-law. We celebrated the new year. We had a few 
wonderful days in Montreal. We drove to Chateau Montebello. In 1990 
Hillary and Chelsea and I had a wonderful vacation in the summer in 
Victoria and Vancouver.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    *White House correction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    And 6 years ago this month--something that means a great deal to 
me--my mother, just 2 months before her death, took one of her last 
trips to Ottawa, where she spoke to the Ontario Cancer Society. She, 
typically, gave a new wrinkle to American relations when she turned down 
a visit to the Parliament or the Supreme Court so that she could visit 
something called Elvis Lives Lane. [Laughter] My mother was always a 
great fan of Elvis Presley. She's convinced that he's going to appear at 
one of my speeches one day. [Laughter]
    Today we add another chapter to the remarkable history of the 
friendship of our people. It is true, I believe, that in the 223-year 
history of our country, the President has never left the United States 
to dedicate an Embassy. If that tradition were ever to be abandoned, it 
would have to be here in Canada. In a world where too many regions are 
torn by conflicts and too many nations torn by hatred among people of 
different racial, ethnic, and religious groups, our two nations, the 
harmony we seek to promote within, and the friendship we seek to promote 
between us, have shown the world a better way and given ourselves a 
great responsibility for the new millennium.
    If we took the border we share and stretched it across Europe, it 
would reach the combined distance from Lisbon to Moscow, Belfast to 
Tehran, across lands scarred by warfare for many centuries. Yet our 
border has been undefended for 180 years now. It's hard to believe the 
Rideau Canal, which passes a few blocks from here, originally was built 
after the War of 1812 to protect Canada from the United States. It's a 
sign of how far we've come that today the canal isn't a barrier, but the 
largest outdoor skating rink in the world.
    The United States and Canada have benefited from sharing our 
continent. We, in particular, have learned from you, a parliamentary 
democracy with two official languages, many distinct cultures, an 
inspiring commitment to social justice and solidarity. Our culture is 
richer, much richer, for the writings of Robertson Davies, the 
photographs of Yousuf Karsh, the magnificent music of Oscar Peterson, 
and for those of us who are country music fans, we were thrilled when 
Shania Twain was named the Country Music Star of Year. And last week, of 
course, when number 99 was raised to the rafters in Edmonton, most 
people on both sides of our border agreed that Wayne Gretzky is the 
finest hockey player ever to be seen.
    Our two nations have a wonderful tradition of standing together in 
moments of difficulty and need. During last year's terrible ice storm, I 
was proud to hear that linecrews from Vermont helped restore power to 
some small towns in Canada. And we in the United States will always be 
grateful for the way in which the people of Nova Scotia responded to the 
tragic crash of Swissair flight 111.
    All of you know well that we share the world's largest trading 
relationship, with more than a billion dollars a day passing over the 
border. Our NAFTA partnership, together with Mexico, has resulted in a 
100-percent increase in trade within North America in just 5 years and 
the creations of millions of new jobs in both our countries. I know 
Canada is looking forward to hosting the third Summit of the Americas in 
Quebec City in early 2001, to talk about ways to strengthen trade within 
our hemisphere.
    We also share a responsibility to help to spread the benefits of 
freedom and democracy beyond our borders. That's what my quote on the 
wall is all about inside. It is fitting that the first American Embassy 
in Ottawa--the first American Embassy in Ottawa--was opened the same 
week that the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was dedicated at Arlington 
National Cemetery in Washington.
    For in this century, young Americans and young Canadians have fought 
side by side again and again to turn back tyranny and defend democracy. 
Together, we stood against mass killing and ethnic hatred in Bosnia, in 
Kosovo, and East Timor. Together, we have worked to build peace and 
democracy from the Balkans to Haiti. We have stood against aggression in 
the Persian Gulf. And together we must continue to work for the day when 
all the world can look to us and see how much stronger the bonds between 
nations can be when freedom and human rights and the diversity of human 
beings are all respected, how much richer society can be when we work to 
build each other up in our

[[Page 1727]]

common humanity, rather than to acquire political advantage by putting 
each other down.
    It is no surprise that the word ``multicultural'' actually comes 
from Canada. For two centuries, you have shown the world how people of 
different cultures can live and work together in peace, prosperity, and 
mutual respect in a country where human differences are democratically 
expressed, not forcefully repressed.
    Earlier this year, we in the United States were pleased to see 
Canada's rich tradition of democracy deepen with the creation of the new 
territory of Nunavut. We are proud to be your partners and allies. And 
we deeply value our relationship with a strong, united, democratic 
Canada.
    Of course, as any two nations as complicated as ours are, we have 
our differences, and we don't always see eye to eye. It's kind of 
interesting to watch Jean Chretien and me get 
in an argument. It's kind of like getting in an argument with your 
brother, you know? You have to do it every now and then just to keep in 
practice. [Laughter]
    When we do have our differences, we try to approach them in good 
faith and directly, as true friends must. And we have shown that when we 
work together, on nearly every issue we can reach agreement.
    I know that there's still one big issue out there that the Canadians 
are really pretty tense about. But I simply do not have the legal 
authority to order Doug Flutie to return to 
Canada. [Laughter]
    Let me say to all of you, in closing, as we move into this new world 
of the 21st century; as we contemplate whether our children and 
grandchildren live to be 100 years or more because of the decoding of 
the human gene; as we imagine whether poor people across the world, from 
Africa to Latin America to Asia, will be able to skip 50 years of 
economic development because of the availability of the Internet and the 
cell phone and the rapid transfer of knowledge; as we imagine all the 
glories of modern technology in the modern world, it is well to remember 
that for all this race to tomorrow in technology, the deepest problem 
the world faces today is the most primitive problem of human nature, the 
fear of the other, people who are different from us.
    What have we done, Jean and I, since we've 
been in our respective positions around the world? We tried to stop 
people from killing each other in Bosnia and Kosovo because of religious 
and ethnic differences. I spent an enormous amount of time trying to 
help the people in the land of my forbears in Northern Ireland get over 
600 years of religious fights. And every time they make an agreement to 
do it, they're like a couple of drunks walking out of the bar for the 
last time. When they get to the swinging door they turn around and go 
back in and say, ``I just can't quite get there.''
    It's hard to give up these things. Look at the Middle East. For all 
of our progress, it is so hard for them because of millennial 
differences. Why were all those people slaughtered in Rwanda?
    When we have differences here in our homes, in our neighborhoods in 
Canada and in the United States, it is well to remember that the effort 
we are making to remind our own citizens that our common humanity is 
always more important than the things which divide us. They make life 
more interesting, our differences, but we must constantly reaffirm that.
    Canada and the United States, I think, have a special responsibility 
to the new millennium. It would be tragic if all the dreams that we 
share for our children and our grandchildren's future, if all the 
potential of the modern world, were to still keep crashing on the rocks 
of mankind's oldest failing.
    Let us show the world we don't need to be afraid of people who are 
different from us. We can respect them. We can differ honestly. But 
always--always--we must reaffirm our common humanity. That, to me, is 
the true story of our long friendship, which this magnificent building 
embodies.
    And now, it is with great pride and privilege that I declare this 
Embassy officially open, in service to the people of the United States 
and in friendship to our greatest neighbor and ally, the people of 
Canada.
    May God bless the people of Canada and the United States of America. 
Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 10 a.m. at the McKenzie Street entrance at 
the U.S. Embassy. In his remarks, he referred to Governor General 
Adrienne Clarkson of Canada; Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and 
his wife, Aline; U.S. Ambassador to Canada Gordon Giffin; the 
President's mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham; and NFL Buffalo Bills 
quarterback Doug Flutie.