Remarks by U.S. Ambassador David H. Wilkins

Waterloo, Ontario Rotary Club

April 8, 2008

As prepared for delivery.

Click here to listen to the speech made by Ambassador Wilkins
(18mb)

Thanks Neil Aitchison for that kind introduction. And thanks to all five Chamber presidents and your members for your warm welcome. It’s is wonderful to be here with all of you in beautiful Waterloo.

I have a very full schedule today meeting with lots of you and I’m looking forward to it. But I have to confess that I hope the day goes fast because this afternoon I get to 'tap the keg' at 'Oktoberfest in April'! What a great way to end a great day.

I want to thank and recognize our Consul General John Nay from Toronto for being here. He does a terrific job representing our country in this province.

And speaking of doing a terrific job representing their country abroad, I also want to recognize and thank John Tennant, the CEO of Canada’s Technology Triangle, for all he does. John is a former diplomat who served as your Consul General in Detroit, and did an outstanding job working with our office in Toronto on coordinating today’s program.

I also understand my good friend David Blamey flew all the way up from my hometown of Greenville, South Carolina just to hear me speak this afternoon. I have to tell you David, I wouldn’t leave Greenville to hear me speak!

And just to show you what a small world it is, and how strong the U.S.-Canada business partnership is, Melloul-Blamey Construction, based right here, also has a branch in Greenville, South Carolina. And, they built the indoor track at my beloved alma mater, Clemson University.

When I was talking with David and Burney and Neil earlier they were telling me how much this area reminds them of the Greenville-Spartanburg area of South Carolina. And they are so right!

In both places you find folks infused with warmth and friendship and an entrepreneurial spirit. And you also find innovation and excellence in both the private and public sectors.

Endowed Chairs/University of Waterloo

Here in Waterloo, it’s called the Accelerator Centre at the University of Waterloo.  I don’t have to tell all of you what this innovative, high-tech facility has meant for your community and what it means as you plan for your future.

We did the same thing in South Carolina when we created I-Car:  Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research.   

This world-class automotive research and engineering educational facility was born because one of our state’s most forward-thinking governor’s recruited BMW to South Carolina Upstate in the late 1980s. With that South Carolinians began to see for ourselves that we could transform our economy. Soon all the spin-off companies were locating to our state.

Back then I was in the State House and we worked hand-in-hand with folks like you in the business community and the chambers to pass common-sense business incentive packages to make our state even more attractive to existing and locating companies.

In fact, we used to say that we make it our business to be pro-business. It’s a philosophy I believed in then and it’s one I certainly believe in now as I’ve seen first hand just how strong, powerful and productive the trade relationship is between our two great democracies.

It’s a relationship that grows and gets better despite the politics of the day... and that’s because of folks like you who grow the economy, not government.

Having said that, I am a strong believer in government doing a few things and doing them well, and in public-private partnerships just like your Accelerator Centre.

One of the single things we created back in South Carolina was our endowed chairs program. Very much like your Accelerator Centre, our endowed chairs program provides the funding for our three flagship universities to attract world-class talent to South Carolina to facilitate the cutting-edge research that is putting our tiny state on the map in terms of economic development and job creation.

I know getting folks to understand and appreciate the endowed chairs program was and continues to be a tough sell. So let me just tell you I applaud and appreciate what you’re doing here through education and business partnerships.  These dynamic relationships truly do work and they truly do touch the future. 

This afternoon rather than give a formal speech, I’d like to have a conversation among friends and share with you some insights and observations based on my two and a half years in Canada. I’d like to touch on just a few of the important issues we’re facing right now:

1. The general state of the relationship
2. The presidential elections
3. NAFTA
4. Passports
5. Afghanistan

Then open it up for questions and comments from you. 

Presidential Politics

Are you all enjoying watching the primaries down south? For a political junkie like me these are the best of times in the United States!

Even after all this time, I’m still overwhelmed by how much Canadians understand and are engaged in the U.S. political process. 

Right now, in the heat of our Presidential election, candidates have to campaign on “change” – what they’d do better. So we hear a lot about what’s wrong, what should be done differently – the whole glass-is-half-empty theory.

I suppose that’s the nature of political campaigns, same in your country. But it is not what you will hear from me today.

I have said this from day one in this job: I would accentuate the positive. I would talk UP this relationship and not talk it down.

Because when you have the single best, most peaceful and productive relationship in the world, you ought to be looking for ways to make it even stronger, to be contributing to its success and growth.

That certainly doesn’t mean you ignore the few irritants we have, or ignore very real issues we need to resolve.

It does mean that you look at examples like acid rain, and mad cow and softwood lumber and know that getting things done is what defines our relations and not our differences.

That’s why I’m really concerned – along with a lot of you and many other Canadian and American citizens – when I hear talk about withdrawing from our NAFTA obligations.

As President Bush has said: “The idea of just unilaterally withdrawing from a trade treaty is not good policy on the merits and it’s not good policy as a message to send to people who have in good faith signed a treaty and worked with us on a treaty.”

NAFTA has put food on the table for North American families since its inception. It has created a massive amount of jobs over the past 14 years. It has strengthened North America's manufacturing and exporting economy, making us far better able to cope with the rise of big emerging economies. 

In my opinion, reopening NAFTA will only risk turning back the clock, making us less competitive against global forces and less able to defend the jobs and prosperity we have built in North America.

Our three way trade in North America has roughly tripled since NAFTA came into effect, from $297. billion in 1993 to $930. billion in 2007.

President Bush knows this. He is and always has been a NAFTA supporter and free trader. As long as he’s in the White House, and I’m here in Canada, we will continue to talk about the importance of NAFTA and defend this very vital treaty that has been so very beneficial to both our countries.

But no matter who eventually wins the next election, I am confident that he or she will look at the overwhelming evidence, understand that enhancing trade and productivity with our best friend and ally Canada is the answer, and we’ll work it all out.

Because, like I said, that’s what we do: we work things out. And that’s why I’m confident that we’ll resolve another pressing concern to Canadians – the passport issue.

WHTI

As most of you know, WHTI or the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative requires everyone including Canadians and Americans traveling into the U.S. to get a passport or other approved security document.

That requirement has already been in effect for air passengers since January and by all accounts has gone very smoothly. We have listened to Canadian concerns:

• The implementation date has been delayed until June 1, 2009 at land and sea ports.

• Minors under 16 are exempted from the requirement.

• Passport cards for Americans are being issued this summer.

• The provinces of Quebec and British Columbia have committed to using Enhanced Drivers Licenses.

I still say, respectfully, that the best thing to do is to get a passport.

Americans are getting the message.  Close to 100 million now have passports. It is estimated that 30 million Americans will get passports this year.

Security doesn’t trump trade and travel. In this post 9/11 world, both are important and they are not mutually exclusive.  

We can’t turn back the clock but we can work together to make our borders smart, secure and efficient.

Afghanistan

I’d like to wrap up my talk by telling you just a little bit about my trip to Afghanistan over Christmas with Minister MacKay and General Hillier.

It was the most exciting, humbling and awe-inspiring experience of my life. A real eye-opener for me and very educational. It has a profound impact on me. A trip like that makes you appreciate what we have in North America. We are blessed and have so much to be thankful for. I wish that everyone could experience what I did.

I had the privilege of seeing for myself the progress that is being made. I went over simply to say thanks to Canadian Forces on behalf of my country for their service and sacrifice. 

It convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that we cannot leave. What we have accomplished so far is great, but the work left to do is greater still.

We arrived in Kandahar on Christmas Eve and went from there to a Forward Operating Base.

The living conditions are very spare. It’s dry and dusty everywhere. The soldiers live in an old school house. There’s no running water and no central heat. These are tough living conditions. And when you see the conditions these soldiers are living under, your heart goes out to them.

Sill, their spirit is strong and morale is high.

I spent Christmas Eve there. At midnight, we walked around to the guard posts and wished all a Joyeux Noel versus Merry Christmas. 

The landscape is dusty and flat. There was a full moon and you could see forever into the distance. This must be what it’s like to walk on the moon. The perimeter was heavily fortified.

The next morning, we flew to another Forward Operating Base and served Christmas breakfast to the troops there. Then to another camp that housed lots of civilians involved in the provincial reconstruction programs. It was back to Kandahar Air Base that night. We visited with more than 1000 Canadian soldiers. 

The next day we were off to Kabul. There we visited our Task Force Phoenix, primarily National Guardsman, 1800 of them from South Carolina. They are part of the 218th Infantry Brigade, tasked to train Afghan Army and Police.

There are in more than 300 different locations throughout Afghanistan imbedded with the Afghan Army.  They are making incredible progress and doing some very heavy lifting.

It would be a mistake of epic proportions for members of the NATO mission to leave Afghanistan before its army and police are better prepared to defend the Afghan people against the vicious forces that seek to destroy them and all liberty-loving nations.

In my opinion, it would be wrong for those of us who enjoy the blessings of freedom to now abandon Afghanistan’s 31 million people to the likes of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. We will only find ourselves in the position of once again having to save a failed state from the clutches of terror using it as a base of operations.

The race to secure Afghanistan is a marathon, not a sprint.  But it is a race we must win.   

Having said that, I fully understand and appreciate that it is up to Canadians and their elected officials to decide the extent and length of their involvement in Afghanistan.  I commend and congratulate Parliament for its March 13 vote to extend the mission through 2011 based on certain conditions.

Based on the very successful NATO meeting in Bucharest last week it appears that those conditions of additional troops and helicopter capabilities are being met. 

I’ll leave you with this: We should all be so thankful for everything we have in the U.S. and Canada.  We should never complain!

Our troops understand that what they’re doing is vitally important. They believe in their mission.  Their morale is high. Even with everything going on in the world and all of the set-backs, they believe that freedom finds a way and will take root in Afghanistan. 

Their hope is contagious, their cause just and they truly make all of us proud.

Thank you again for allowing me to share this time with you. I’d be happy to take your questions.

May God bless Canada and God bless America.

[end]