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On This Day in Canada’s Political History: Richard M. Nixon is Born

  • Arthur Milnes
  • January 9, 2021
January 9, 1913, was the birthdate of the man who would later become the 37th U.S. President, Richard Milhous Nixon.Through a long career – that ended badly with his resignation in 1974 – President Nixon became well-acquainted with Canada's Prime Ministers all the way from Louis St. Laurent to Brian Mulroney.  In fact, Nixon sent a $500 personal donation to the fund established to honour John Diefenbaker after the Dief’s death in 1979.What is less well known, however, is that it wasn’t just Canadian Prime Ministers that were on his finely-tuned political radar.  Thanks to the diligent research by distinguished Canadian legal historian -- and my best friend from high school back in our Homeland of Scarborough! -- Dr. Thomas Harrison, I’ve been reminded of the unlikely relationship Nixon formed with the Mayor of tiny Picton, Ontario.I’ll let Dr. Harrison tell the story.

“Richard Nixon,” Dr. Harrison reminded me recently, “had a faithful friend in a small-town Ontario politician.  Vice-President Nixon met Picton’s Mayor Harvey J. MacFarland during an unofficial holiday of sailing and golf in Canada with friends the Eisenhower VEEP took in 1957.  Taking a break after a rough Lake Ontario crossing, Harvey greeted the American politician at the town’s Yacht Club on July 6 that year with gifts of maple syrup and cheddar cheese.”

“Nixon, when President, later recalled his weekend in the Bay of Quinte as the most memorable of his Canadian travels in official remarks on a State visit at Rideau Hall.  Nixon’s fond memory was probably assisted by the annual Christmas cards, gifts of cheese and the occasional bottle of whisky that MacFarland sent Nixon over the years.  MacFarland’s generosity earned him an invitation to the President’s 1968 inauguration and to the Oval Office in 1972.  When the Mayor died in 1974, even in the midst of the Watergate crisis, Nixon took the time to send personal condolences to MacFarland's widow.” Here's a link to one of the famed Watergate Tapes where President Nixon and his secretary, Rose Mary Woods, discuss Picton’s Mayor and the President presents Mayor MacFarland with some White House goodies to take back to Picton.Being the history geek high school student I was, I actually wrote to former President Nixon in the 1980s, requesting that he sign and dedicate for me my copy of his first book, Six Crises.  Mr. Nixon did just that and I still cherish my special copy today.And before closing out my report on Richard Nixon I also have to share, from YouTube, the audio from an unsolicited phone call Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made to President Nixon at the height of the Watergate crisis. It helps to put to bed, in my view anyway, the Canadian myth that Trudeau Sr. and Nixon couldn’t get along.  While not best friends by any means, the pair actually did some good bilateral work together.  Anyway, enjoy the phone call. It’s from May 11, 1973.[caption id="attachment_532158" align="alignnone" width="600"] (Ollie Atkins, White House photographer)[/caption]Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.