Prime ministers and presidents make for frequently frosty friends

Prime minister-designate Justice Trudeau had his first conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama the day after his Liberals triumphed over Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in the Oct. 19 election.

Trudeau promised to co-operate in advancing work on climate change but also told the Leader of the Free World that yes, he planned to keep a campaign promise to withdraw Canadian fighter jets from the war against Islamic State, while maintaining the mission’s training component.

Trudeau will deal with with at least two U.S. presidents in his government’s four-year term; Obama and whoever replaces him – possibly Hillary Clinton or maybe even Donald Trump. Personal chemistry between Canadian PMs and U.S. presidents can affect the important relationship between the two countries and, as a 2011 article on the web site Public Policy outlined, it’s often fraught with tension. Here’s a look at some famous examples:

William Lyon Mackenzie King and Franklin D. Roosevelt

The overall goal of Canada in dealing with the United States is to find common ground with its powerful neighbour while maintaining independent policy on key issues such as foreign affairs, defence and the economy. Nowhere was that more apparent than Mackenzie King’s relationship with FDR. Canada’s longest-serving PM developed a warm working relationship with Roosevelt over more than a decade, especially during the Second World War, helping raise Canada’s profile in the conflict that saw the U.S. emerge as a superpower.

John Diefenbaker and John F. Kennedy

‘Dief the Chief’ had a good relationship with Republican Dwight Eisenhower. The two were fishing buddies at Harrington Lake, the PM’s Quebec country residence. But things deteriorated when JFK took office in 1961. Faced with public protests, Diefenbaker backed out of a deal to station nuclear-tipped Bomarc interceptor missiles in Canada, leading to a low point in Canada-U.S. ties. The succeeding Liberal government accepted the missiles, which remained until 1971. The two also clashed over Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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Lester Pearson and Lyndon B. Johnson

Pearson, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, apparently got on well with Kennedy but when the president was gunned down in Dallas in 1963, things went south with his Texas successor. Pearson, the bow tie-wearing former diplomat, found himself bullied by Johnson. He reportedly grabbed the prime minister by the lapels the day after he’d given a speech at a U.S. university questioning U.S. policy in Vietnam. “Don’t you come into my living room and piss on my rug!” Johnson yelled during Pearson’s visit to the White House. Though Pearson resisted pressure to send Canadian troops to Vietnam, economic relations with the U.S. flourished in this period.

Pierre Trudeau and Richard Nixon

The testy relationship between Trudeau and Nixon coincided with deepening U.S. involvement in Vietnam and a rising Canadian nationalism, including Trudeau’s efforts to chart new course in Canada’s relations with the world. Nixon dismissed Trudeau as “a pompous egghead,” whose viewpoints baffled him. During a 1972 visit to Ottawa, Nixon candidly acknowledged the two countries were headed in different directions. “It is time for us to recognize that we have separate identities, that we have significant differences, and that nobody’s interests are furthered when these realities are obscured.” Trudeau characteristically sloughed off Nixon’s dismissal of him as an “asshole” on one of the Watergate tapes. “I’ve been called worse things by better people.”

Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan

Few presidents and PMs hit it off better. The two leaders were both conservatives and their relationship led to negotiation of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in 1988 and NAFTA four years later. No event symbolized the warm relationship more than the “Shamrock Summit,” named for their mutual Irish heritage. It culminated in Reagan, wife Nancy, Mulroney and his wife Mila, on a stage holding hands to sing “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.” Historian Jack Granatstein called the cringeworthy tableau “the single most demeaning moment in the entire political history of Canada’s relations with the United States.”

Jean Chretien and George W. Bush

Chretien got on with Bill Clinton like a house on fire in the 1990s. The two were self-made men of humble roots, superb retail politicians and frequent golfing buddies. Both countries prospered. But things soured when George W. Bush moved into the White House. Canadians felt snubbed when Bush, in his post-9/11 address to Congress, failed to include Canada among the allies that stood with America after the terror attacks, despite Canadians harbouring thousands of U.S. travellers stranded when flights were grounded after the attacks. Things chilled further when Chretien rejected requests to join Bush’s invasion of Iraq, though as a consolation he committed Canada to its deadly combat mission in Afghanistan.

Stephen Harper and Barack Obama

Given their different outlooks, it’s not surprising relations between Harper and Obama were never more than polite. Obama appears not to regard the Canada-U.S. relationship as anything special. The two governments were far apart on climate change and Harper could not get the president to green-light the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline (which Justin Trudeau also supports), despite famously calling the project a “no brainer.” Efforts to improve the flow of goods and people across the security-thickened border have dragged and the U.S. has not even committed to paying for its own customs plaza on the American side of the new Detroit-Windsor bridge. Canada’s picking up the tab.