01 March 07
Ambassador David H. Wilkins' Remarks
Empire Club
Keynote Address
Toronto, Ontario

Public Remarks and Principal Speeches By U.S. Ambassador to Canada David H. Wilkins

Well thank you very much, John (Niles, Empire Club President), for that warm introduction. It is truly a privilege and a pleasure for me to be back here in Toronto and back at the Empire Club. I truly appreciate those out with the pending snow storm coming and you are out - you truly honor me with your presence. Where I come from, we would all be home by now building a fire and getting the hot chocolate. I'd have stopped by the drugstore for milk, bread, and hot chocolate. We'd be hunkered down in our homes waiting for the two or three inches of snow that we might expect.

Well, thanks for being here. I am also delighted that John Nay, our outstanding consul general in Toronto is here to my immediate left. He does a great job representing our country in your country.

As many of you know, I have been privileged - and John alluded to this - I have been privileged to be here now 20 months and to travel your vast and beautiful country and getting out and seeing folks from all walks of life and literally talking to thousands of Canadians across your country and it really has been a great privilege. I have had the great fortune of getting to know many of you. Some of you have had the fortune or misfortune of having heard me probably on more than one occasion.

So this afternoon, I thought I would do something a little different. Rather than begin by giving you a few of my standard jokes about surviving the Canadian winter -- and I am almost through my second winter now. I am still skating. It is still pretty ugly but I still do it.

Rather than give a formal speech, I really thought I would just have a conversation -- a conversation with friends -- and talk a little bit about maybe four issues, pressing issues, that we are dealing with right now; and then just share some personal insights, personal thoughts, with you about what I have seen and learned in your great country; and then, if we have time, take a few questions.

I have been profoundly blessed to be in Canada during this unique time in history. So many moments stand out. I got to visit the troops heading to the Gulf Coast in Halifax; a thousand young Canadians going down to help us after Katrina. I then visited the folks from the Vancouver rescue squad as they returned from New Orleans after pulling 119 Americans off roof tops and tree tops. I have seen examples of that all over this country. Wherever I visited: friends were helping friends, neighbors were helping neighbors.

And when I got here, the first thing I said, "I want to accentuate the positive." And my goal, although it may be simplistic stated and it may be subjective, my goal is to leave the relationship stronger, more resilient than the day I found it.

I think we are making some progress toward doing that. I think the relationship between our two countries now is on the upswing. Recent polls bear this out. It seems to me that our leaders are looking at problems as a shared responsibility, working together, and working to fix problems rather than fix the blame.

I think tone at the top matters and leadership matters. I give the President and the Prime Minister a great deal of credit for the upward swing in the U.S.-Canada relationship, the fact that it is getting stronger. And I think there are tangible examples of that.

Last year: Softwood Lumber. The one issue people told me when I came up here, "Wilkins, that will never be resolved on your watch." And I saw - I witnessed in Cancun last March, when the Prime Minister made a very compelling case to the President about the need to resolve that issue and the President got engaged and had the serious discussions and both leaders used their influence to effectuate an historic agreement or an issue that was really a - it had been very much an irritant and by many a defining issue in our relationship. Now, that is behind us because that is what friends do. We work out problems. We resolve issues.

BSE. When I got here, the borders were closed to Canadian cattle. The President said we want to open the borders. We want to follow the scientific data from the agriculture department but, ultimately, we want the borders open to Canadian cattle. We are well on our way to getting back to pre-2003 status where the borders will be fully open. They are now, pending regulations that are out there waiting -- during the comment period, that will further reopen the borders to Canadian cattle seven years and younger.

And so we will be virtually back to 2003 standards and that is a great example. Even now when you have a mad cow discovery, the borders remain open for the cows 30 months and younger because there is a process settled between our two countries, a process in place to make sure folks on both sides of the borders are protected and the borders don't get closed and the cows continue down south.

That is a great example of working through problems.

Diplomacy depends on relationship building. When you get right down to it, it is like a marriage or a business or friendships or politics; it is all about building relationships and building foundations of trust. I believe that is exactly what is happening now. I see it every day: phone calls going back and forth between top officials on both sides of the border.

Just last week, for example, you had the White House Drug Czar, John Walters, in Ottawa meeting with his counterparts. You had Secretary Chertoff meeting with his counterparts. You had Secretary Rice meeting with her counterparts. You had Commerce Secretary Gutierrez meeting with his counterparts. All meeting, all strengthening their relationship, one meeting, one friend at a time. I think that bodes well for the relationship and for both our countries.

One other thing I have observed since I have been here is the fact that we are two great democracies side by side but we practice democracy somewhat differently. I am fascinated being a political junkie and having been in politics for 25 years, on the ballot 13 times, I am fascinated by the differences. I don't know that one country does it better or worse. We do it differently. I think we both do it very well.

Your Prime Minister - although the President of the United States is often thought of as the most powerful person in the world - your Prime Minister when he has a majority government has a much greater concentration of power in that one position than we do. We have more of a check and balance system, more of a clear separation of powers. But the Parliamentarian system is a combination, as you know, of executive and legislative branch together.

Could you imagine the dynamics that would be changed in Washington, D.C., if the President of the United States could appoint members to the Senate or if he could appoint Cabinet officials or judges without confirmation hearings? I mean, up here you appoint one day and the minister starts work the next. It would change the dynamics. Or what if the President every day - I mean, I marvel at your Question Period -- what if every day the President had to travel to the Hill and take questions for 45 minutes from Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid? It would truly change the dynamics in Washington. And so it is sort of fascinating to compare what if we adopted this or you adopted that.

Another thing I have observed is people everywhere I go, people ask, who are going to be the presidential candidates? A Democrat. A Republican. Well, we don't know, there is great speculation. Up here, you know. You know. We know when our election is. Up here, you spend all your time talking about when the election is! And so it is great to compare and great to see the differences.

I want to talk to you seriously about a couple of issues, though. The one that seems to be on everybody's mind - and we get the most attention of and certainly concerns are expressed and rightly so - is passports.

WHTI: The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. Adopted by our Congress in 2004 that will require passports for people traveling from Canada, the Caribbean, and Mexico heretofore excepted from that requirement, now will require them coming into the United States to have passports or a trusted traveler program card like NEXUS to enter.

The air portion of WHTI went into effect January 23. And it went very, very smoothly all across Canada. Very few people did not have passports - 99 percent compliance. And those that didn't comply, our security folks used good common sense and discretion and allowed people if they had the proper identification to travel along to the United States. Folks like John Nay, and all across Canada, our consuls general are working very closely with your officials, airline officials, and airport officials to make sure there was a smooth implementation. And we are all very pleased with the way that went.

The land portion and the sea portion of that goes into effect, as you know, sometime between January of 2008 and June of 2009. And there is a lot of speculation of when that might be. The Secretaries of State Homeland Security have to certify to Congress, after consultation with Canada and Mexico, that they are ready to implement and then three months later, it goes into effect -- but not later than June of 2009.

Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff and Secretary of State Rice were here in Canada last Friday. Based on what comments they made and what I understand, I believe it will be implemented. I believe the land portion and sea portion will be implemented sometime during 2008. It could be implemented as early as January. It is up to Secretary Rice and Secretary Chertoff to certify when it will be ready, but I believe it will happen sometime during this Administration. I do not believe it will happen after the Administration leaves office. It is a law passed by Congress. It is required to go into effect. The only way it won't go into effect is if Congress rescinds the law and based on the comments I have heard in Washington, I do not believe that is going to happen but, obviously, they have every right to do that if they so choose. But I believe we need to get ready for it.

Simply put, the message I try to give to Americans and to Canadians is get a passport. It is that simple. Or a NEXUS card or other trusted traveler card.

I know there are those who push back on that and those that say it is going to cause confusion at the border and cause delays at the border. I would submit to you that I think if we all could buy into it and all get behind it and all work to implement it smoothly, it will have the opposite effect. It will make it easier.

Just think. Now there are literally thousands of documents that security officers have to look at: drivers' licenses, birth certificates. If you narrowed that down to a passport or a NEXUS card or, in the case of American citizens, a passport card that will be available for American citizens some time this summer, it will actually speed up the process. It will make it easier. It will facilitate trade and travel, not impede it. There is no one in Washington, no one in the United States that wants to impede or do anything detrimental to this wonderful trade relationship we have with our friend Canada. The largest trading relationship the world has ever known. We don't want to do anything to impede tourism between our two countries.

But what we need to do, I believe, is all get onboard and work toward a smooth implementation. Just last week, Secretary Chertoff announced that minors 16 years and younger would be exempted from this requirement and those who are 17 and 18, if they are part of a team, a ball team or a group with an adult with the proper document, then they would be exempted. Those are the things we are working on. It is still a work in progress. There are still rules to be promulgated on this.

But, again, I would say to you that Americans are getting the message. We are issuing passports at a record pace at well over a million a month now. Some 75 million Americans now have a passport. Well over the number at the rate more than a year ago. We'll probably issue 18 million passports this year alone to Americans. We are getting the message. We are getting the passport so we can travel -- travel to Canada.

And so I would just urge everyone to use your influence to urge your friends to get a passport and urge your elected officials to work together with us for the smooth implementation. If we can make it as smooth for the land portion as we did the air portion, it will be very, very good.

Second issue, very quickly: intellectual property rights, copyright laws. We are asking the Government of Canada to strengthen your copyright laws. There is a lot of pirating that goes on, a lot of counterfeiting of movies and songs and whatnot. And it is not some effort to protect some high-paid Hollywood star or studio, it is about ensuring that Canadian and American innovators and entrepreneurs are encouraged and protected so they will continue to make North America competitive in the world marketplace.

And we are working with the Canadian government now on that issue. We have met with Ministers Bernier and Oda and members of the Prime Minister's staff and we are requesting a stronger copyright bill be introduced and be passed. We are joined by the U.S. and Canadian motion picture and sound recording and computer software industries. Right now the copyright laws or the intellectual property right protection in Canada is considered the weakest of the G-7 countries. So we are asking that be strengthened. And it really does cost the Canadian economy a huge amount every year. It is estimated to be from some $10 to $30 billion per year.

Third issue: SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership). We had the ministers in Ottawa last week: Mexican, Canadian, and American. They were meeting in preparation for the Leaders Summit/Conference to be held in Canada later this year between Mexico, United States, and Canada. Now, there is a lot of speculation, a lot of talk about what the SPP is. Let me just quickly say what it is not. It is not about becoming a North American union like the European Union. It is not about creating a common currency or giving up our national sovereignties or our identities.

What is it about? It is about creating a North American strategy to compete in a global economy. It is about better coordination between our countries to respond to emergencies especially those that take place near the border. It is about coordinating response to situations and threats like the avian flu and developing communication plans and strategies on potential impact on border crossings. And it is about reducing the cost of how we do business and better integration, less duplicating regulations, and less bureaucratic red tape.

Fourth issue: Afghanistan. All freedom loving countries are truly grateful for Canada's role in Afghanistan as part of the UN-sanctioned NATO mission there. Brave Canadian troops continue to do some of the heaviest lifting as Afghanistan makes significant progress. It really is hard to argue with the success with the mission in Afghanistan.

Think about this. The Taliban have been driven from power. Al-Qaeda has been driven from its training camps. Afghanistan is a free nation. And Canada, which rightfully prides itself on its fierce protection of civil and human rights has been part of an historic and sweeping change that has carried the light of liberty to a people that for so long had only known darkness under the Taliban rule. Women who were oppressed and denied educations are now serving in Parliament; 91 of them. President Karzai has appointed the first woman to serve as a provincial governor. More than five million Afghan children are now in school. About two million of those are girls. The Afghan economy has doubled since liberation attracting $800 million in foreign investment. And more than 4.6 million Afghan refugees have returned to their country.

Afghanistan, like Canada and the United States, now enjoy a democratically elected president and national assembly. And that is because Canada and the U.S. and other freedom-loving countries stood in the gap. We didn't run when it was hard, when it was dangerous. As President Bush said, we didn't let this young democracy whither away.

And just imagine if we had. Imagine if the terrorists still had Afghanistan as a base of operation. If we leave now, the terrorists will follow us home. As President Karzai said when he visited Canada last year, the tragedy of September 11 showed us the cost of ignoring Afghanistan was far higher than the cost of helping it. Some places like Afghanistan and like the Sudan and Haiti, the U.S. and Canada as partners and as part of an international group are truly a force for good. Our multilateral efforts are important and they are making a difference to the world's poorest and most disadvantaged citizens.

Now, I have said this many times but I believe it bears repeating. I believe just as you do, that this U.S.-Canada relationship is so vitally important and it is worth our constant care and attention. And in these very turbulent times, it is comforting I think for all of us to be able to look across that border and see not only a neighbor but also your best friend and your ally now and in the future.

Thanks for sharing your time with me. Thanks for inviting me back. Hopefully, we have a minute or two for questions. I am happy to take questions.

God bless Canada and God bless the United States.

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