[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 9 (Monday, March 6, 1995)]
[Pages 315-317]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Breakfast With Business Leaders in Ottawa, Canada

February 24, 1995

    Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister, Ambassador Chretien, 
Ambassador Blanchard. Ladies and gentlemen, Ambassador Blanchard's 
introduction of me is a sterling illustration of what is known in our 
little circle of friends as Clinton's third law of politics, which is, 
whenever possible, be introduced by someone you have appointed to high 
office. They'll lie about you every time. [Laughter]
    I want to thank Jim Blanchard for the wonderful job that he has done 
representing the United States in Canada and representing Canada to the 
United States. I want to say the second half of that again, Mr. Prime 
Minister: representing Canada to the United States. Sometimes he comes 
to see me in the White House and he works me over for 10 or 15 minutes 
about one of these rather complicated issues that we are trying to 
discuss between our two countries, and I look at Jim and I say, ``Now, 
whose side are you on, anyway?'' which is, I think, the best compliment 
I could give him in being part of the cement that holds this remarkable 
relationship together.
    I want to welcome all the business leaders here from Canada and the 
United States. Thank you for coming today. I'd also like to thank you, 
madam, for hosting us in this magnificent, magnificent hall in this 
wonderful facility. It's a tribute to the vision of the people of Canada 
in building it for all of the citizens here and others who visit.
    I ran for President of the United States primarily because I wanted 
to help get our country's economic policy back on track, because I felt 
that unless we had a strategy for moving into the 21st century in ways 
that would give all of our people a chance to be rewarded for their work 
and succeed as workers and as members of families, we were going to have 
a very difficult time in preserving the magic of the American dream.
    And we have worked very, very hard for the last 2 years in our 
administration, in our country to try to do the things that, seems to 
me, are critical to pursuing that mission: to increase trade, to 
diminish the deficit, to increase the level of partnership between the 
public and private sectors, to advance the cause of American interests 
around the world, to improve our investment and the quality of our 
investment in the education and training of our people, to do those 
things, in short, which would increase the productivity of the American 
work force in ways that would actually generate not only more jobs but 
higher incomes.
    Canada has almost exactly the same challenges because all the 
advanced economies of the world face the same challenges in the global 
economy of the 21st century. One key to that for us is making the most 
of our relationship. And Jim Blanchard mentioned that when we first met 
12 years ago when we were both young Governors, I had--even though I was 
a long way from Canada, I was asked to be one of the Governors that 
promoted the interest of what subsequently became NAFTA, the first 
agreement between the United States and Canada, among the Governors and 
then tried to sell it in the Congress and especially among those who 
were somewhat more protectionist in our Congress. I was glad to be able 
to do that.
    And since then, I am pleased with the progress that we have made 
working with Canada and NAFTA, which has increased our bilateral trade 
by about 15 percent last year alone; in the GATT agreement; in the Asian 
Pacific Economic Cooperation group that we're a part of that's now 
agreed to open markets in Asia early in the next century, something 
very, very important to those of us here in the West; and of course in 
the Summit of the Americas, trying to open the markets in Latin America 
to all of us. And

[[Page 316]]

Latin America, as all of you know, is the second fastest growing set of 
economies in the world and an enormous opportunity for all of us here, 
as well as an enormous responsibility in terms of what we should be 
doing in preserving democracy and open markets in that part of the 
world.
    I am pleased with all of that. I'm especially pleased that a few 
months ago, for the first time ever in our country, there was a survey 
which said that more people saw trade as a source of hope than as a 
threat for the first time since we had been taking such public opinion 
surveys. That is very important. My premise is that unless all of us 
intend to just close our markets, we will get the downside of global 
trade and global economics just by living and getting up every day. And 
the only way we can get the upside is to aggressively push these trade 
agreements and then work on having the kind of arrangements necessary to 
expand the frontiers of opportunity. So I feel very, very strongly about 
all of that. And I hope that all of us can be working on that in the 
years ahead.
    In the meanwhile, let's not forget that there's something to be said 
for doing more to make the most of what's right here in front of us, our 
own relationship. And the aviation agreement that we're going to sign in 
a few minutes is an example of that. It will make it easier for 
businesses to do business by significantly expanding passenger and cargo 
services between our two countries. It will mean billions of dollars in 
new business activity and thousands of new jobs on both sides of our 
border. Now, the only bad news is for those of you with frequent flier 
accounts; it means you'll earn fewer miles because it will be so much 
easier and quicker to get back and forth between Canada and the United 
States. That's also a high-class problem in this context. [Laughter]
    Let me say one other thing. This summer the  Prime  Minister  is  
going  to  host  the G-7 nations in Halifax. And one of the questions we 
will be dealing with there is a question, it seems to me, that's central 
to the economic future of our nations in the 21st century. And no one at 
least with whom I have talked has the answer to this question, but I 
invite you to ponder it. What we are trying to determine is whether or 
not the institutions that were developed for the global economy after 
the Second World War, the IMF, the World Bank, all the others, can adapt 
within the terms in which they must now operate to the challenges of the 
21st century.
    We're very mindful of that here in the United States and in Canada 
now because of the recent financial challenges that Mexico faced and how 
we saw that reverberating throughout Latin America, the impact in 
Argentina, the impact in Brazil, the kinds of things that could happen 
just as we're building up democracy and free markets and real 
opportunities for us there.
    And so, the last point I want to leave you with is this: We are 
getting the enormous benefits of the market, and we are pushing those 
benefits as aggressively as we know how. But in the end, what sustains 
support for democratic governments and market economics is that they 
work for ordinary people. That's what sustains them in the end.
    Every day, whether the sun shines or not, no matter who's in the 
White House or giving the speeches in Ottawa, most of our folks get up 
every day and go to work and do the very best they can and live out 
their dreams as best they can and raise their children as best they can. 
And they must believe that if they do this, that somehow they will be 
rewarded; that in our system, if they work hard, if they play by the 
rules, if they're the best workers, the best mothers, the best fathers 
they can possibly be, then a good society will give them a chance. The 
same thing must be true in these developing countries that we're trying 
to bring into our way of believing about politics and economics. They 
have to believe that if they do the right thing, they will be able to 
build a better life.
    And all the institutions that we developed at the end of the Second 
World War had certain assumptions about the way the world economy would 
work that are no longer accurate. They are trying to adapt to this new 
world. Whether they can or not is the question we will deal with in 
Halifax. The Prime Minister's been very active in pushing this debate. I 
have tried to be active in pushing this debate. We invite all of you to 
be a part of this debate because, after all, your interests, your 
future, your companies, your work- 

[[Page 317]]

ers, their families will be very much affected by what we do.
    In the meanwhile, I am absolutely confident that our common 
endeavors to make the most of our own relationships may be the most 
important thing we can do in the near term to further the dreams of all 
of our people.
    I'd like now to close by inviting Prime Minister Chretien up here by 
telling you that, as the President of the United States, one of the most 
important responsibilities I have and one of the great joys of my job is 
getting to know a huge number of the leaders of the countries of the 
world. And it's no small comfort to me--I must say this 20 times a year 
after I have a meeting with somebody from somewhere--I say, ``You know, 
now that I've met him or her, I understand it's no accident that this 
person got to run that country.'' The selection systems in all these 
nations tend to produce people who have the capacity to do what they're 
supposed to do at the time they're required to serve. But I can tell you 
that in many, many years in public life I have rarely met anybody that I 
thought had the particular blend of strengths that Prime Minister 
Chretien has, a man who cares passionately about ordinary people and the 
problems that they face and is also terrifically engaged in the great 
intellectual challenges that governing in this new time presents and 
that has the practical sense to build the bridges between the great 
challenges of the time and the ordinary concerns of real citizens. He is 
a very, very good leader for this time, and I am very glad to have him 
as our partner in trying to build our dreams for the 21st century.
    Prime Minister.

Note: The President spoke at 9:56 a.m. in the Great Hall at the National 
Gallery of Canada. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Jean 
Chretien; Canadian Ambassador to the United States Raymond Chretien; 
U.S. Ambassador to Canada James J. Blanchard; and Shirley Thomson, 
director, National Gallery of Canada. This item was not received in time 
for publication in the appropriate issue.