US Presidents and Canada

How many US presidents are buried in Canada?  None, of course, so this is an exception to a typical Magee vacation, but we can work presidents into any vacation.  Just ask our kids.

The birther campaign against Barack Obama was not the first controversy of its type.  In the 19th century, Chester Arthur's father was Irish and the family had traveled around a lot including spending time in Canada.  After Garfield was assassinated, rumors spread that his successor, Arthur, was not qualified for office since he was born in Canada.  A book was even written on the subject, but most people paid no attention and Arthur went on to serve out his term. 

Over the past century, there have been 37 US presidential visits to Canada by 12 presidents.  Its one of the more common places to visit.  C'mon the Canadians are so nice, how could you resist.   The first president to visit was Warren Harding in 1923 and things did not work out too well for him because he died a few weeks afterward.  Since then only two presidents have not visited:  Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.  

Franklin Roosevelt made the most visits (8).  Three of those were vacations to Campobello Island where his family vacationed since he was a child.  It was at Campobello in August 1921 where he contracted polio.  Roosevelt and Churchill had two wartime conferences in Quebec City in 1943 and 1944.  At the first Quebec conference, they discussed efforts to remove Italy from the Axis powers, discussed strategies for conducting operations against Germany on the European continent and discussed cooperation on the atomic bomb.  The second conference focused on post war strategies and the war against Japan.

President Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II dedicated the St. Laurence Seaway on June 26, 1959, the very day Ida was born.  How's that for trivia!

Nine presidents have addressed the Canadian parliament, while the Queen has only addressed parliament three times in her long reign.  Sometimes presidents went for special occasions such as the following:

Dedication of the Thousand Islands Bridge          August  1938      Franklin Roosevelt
Dedication of the St. Laurence Seaway                June 1959           Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth
Expo '67                                                                May 1967           Lyndon Johnson
Dedication of new US embassy                            October 1999     William Clinton

Most times they were just state visits or summits with other leaders.  President John F. Kennedy told Parliament in Ottawa in May 1961 that "Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder."