Barack Obama received a rapturous welcome as he addressed the Canadian Parliament on Wednesday during what was almost certainly his last visit to Canada as president of the United States.
In a speech often interrupted by prolonged applause and punctuated by the president’s signature one-liner jokes, Obama called for North American unity amid growing protectionist sentiment both in Canada and the United States, but also globally.
(click to listen Barack Obama’s speech)
ListenLooking relaxed and at ease, Obama addressed Canadian parliamentarians, dignitaries and celebrity guests in the House of Commons following a warm but somewhat awkward introduction by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau followed by another round of applause.
“Thank you for this extraordinary welcome, which tempts me to just shut up and leave,” said Obama drawing laughs from the audience, “because it can’t get any better than this.”
In his 48-minute speech, Obama emphasized the urgency of dealing with climate change, the importance of inclusiveness, diversity and “inalienable rights” for sexual and religious minorities, and the “extraordinary alliance and deep friendship” between Canada and the United States.
Obama lauded Trudeau for his “outstanding leadership” and thanked him for having brought “new energy and hope” to the relationship.
“We Americans can never say it enough, we could not ask for a better friend or an ally than Canada,” Obama said.
Obama lauded the relations between Canada and the United States as an example for the rest of the world.
“In a world where too many borders are a source of conflict, our two countries are joined by the longest border of peace on Earth,” Obama said. “And what makes our relationship so unique is not just proximity, it’s our enduring commitment to a set of values.”
Canada and the U.S. are also linked together by a shared history of fighting to preserve freedom from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of Afghanistan and Iraqi Kurdistan, and by “the institutions that we’ve built to keep the peace” – the United Nations, NATO, and NORAD, Obama said.
The two countries are linked by a “vast web of commerce,” friendship and family, Obama said.
“Our relationship is so remarkable precisely because it seems so unremarkable,” Obama said. “Which is why Americans often are surprised when our favourite American actor or singer turns out turns out to be Canadian.”
The enduring alliance between Canada and the United States is “as close as it’s ever been” and the two countries are “more closely aligned than ever before,” Obama said.
“We meet at a pivotal moment for our nations and for the globe,” Obama said.
The international order that Canada and the U.S. have helped to create has enormously benefited the world, he said.
“But we can see that same order increasingly strained by the accelerating forces of change,” Obama said.
The world remains riven by old divisions and fresh hatreds, he said, and even as economies grow more prosperous there are also rising inequalities between haves and have-nots.
“If the benefits of globalization accrue only to those at the very top, if our democracies seem incapable of ensuring broad-based growth and opportunity for everyone, then people will push back out of anger or out of fear,” said Obama.
“And politicians, some sincere and some entirely cynical, will tap that anger and fear.”
Obama alluded to the referendum in Britain to leave the European Union and the turmoil it created worldwide.
“Despite some of the initial reactions, I am confident that the process can be managed in a prudent orderly way,” Obama said. “I expect that our friends on both sides of the Channel will develop a workable plan for how to move forward.”
How countries respond to the forces of globalization and technological change, and the problems of inequality, dislocation and the resulting social division will determine the durability of the international order that ensures security and prosperity for future generations, Obama said.
“And fortunately the partnership and the United States shows the path we need to travel,” Obama said.
Canada and the United States are “so well positioned to succeed in the 21st century,” he said.
“Our two nations know first hand the awesome power of free markets and innovation,” Obama said. “It’s what created these extraordinary economies of ours.”
Obama’s comments also seemed to have been directed at the controversial presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, Trump slammed the North American Free Trade Agreement, promising either to renegotiate it or scrap it altogether.
“Restricting trade or giving in to protectionism in this 21st century economy will not work,” Obama said. “Even if we wanted to, we can’t seal ourselves off the rest of the world.”
Few industries can sever what is now truly a “global supply chain,” Obama said.
“The answer is not to try and pull back from our inter-connected role,” Obama said. “It is rather to engage with the rest of the world, to shape the rules so they’re good for our world and good for our business.”
The experience between Canada and the U.S. points the way for the rest of the world.
“The United States and Canada have the largest bilateral trade relationship in the world and we are stronger for it,” Obama said.
Obama also championed once again the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, which was signed by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper during the fall’s election campaign, and which Trudeau is yet to openly endorse.
He also thanked Canada for its role in helping to negotiate the normalization of ties between the U.S. and Cuba.
Obama also vowed to destroy Islamic State militants and to continue to fight terrorist networks. His mention of Canadians Robert Hall and John Ridsdel, who were beheaded by terrorists in the Philippines, also drew a round of applause.
Obama vowed to work with Muslim communities around the world to “offer a better vision and a path of development, and opportunity, and tolerance.”
Obama praised the Canadian Forces and received a round of applause when he said, “The world needs more Canada.”
He also called on Canada to participate in a peacekeeping mission in Colombia, which is coming out of half a century of war between its government and Marxist rebels.
Ahead of the NATO summit July 8-9 in Poland, the president called on Canada to help promote global co-operation.
“We’ll be more secure when every NATO member, including Canada, contributes its full share to our common security.”
However, there is one threat facing both Canada and the U.S. along with the rest of the world that cannot be solved with military might, Obama said.
“That’s the threat of climate change,” Obama said. “Climate change is no longer an abstraction, it’s not an issue we can put off for the future, it is happening now. It is happening here, in our own countries.”
Obama said he witnessed the effects of climate change as the first U.S. president to visit the Arctic.
“Sceptics and cynics can insist on denying what’s right in front of our eyes but the Alaska natives that I met, whose ancestral villages are sliding into the sea, they don’t have that luxury, they know climate change is real, they know it is not a hoax,” Obama said. “And from Bangladesh to the Pacific Islands rising seas are swallowing land and forcing people from their homes.”
Obama is the eighth American president to have addressed the Canadian Parliament, and the first since Bill Clinton in 1995.
The list of guests included party leaders, MPs and Senators, provincial premiers, Aboriginal leaders, the chiefs of Canada’s security agencies, and celebrities such as singer Nelly Furtado, two members of The Tragically Hip and Mrs. Universe 2015.
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