There is perhaps nothing more exciting for Ottawa's journalists (and politicos) than a visit to Ottawa by a U.S. President.  And, the excitement hits an even higher level if the President is scheduled to address Canada's Parliament.  I was a young reporter, working in the Parliamentary Press Gallery 36 years ago, in 1995, when President Bill Clinton addressed our MPs, Senators and Canadians.  I will never forget the excitement in the air as we all awaited Mr. Clinton’s address.One of my favourite stories from that historic day came about after the big speech.  My friend and fellow journalist, Mike Scandiffio, then a reporter with the Hill Times, quite literally ran into President Clinton shortly after the President’s speech.  Mike was in one of the hallways when he looked up and saw the President coming towards him.  Besides Secret Service and RCMP security officers, no one else – particularly reporters – were around.Mike phoned me in great excitement after his Presidential encounter.  “Did you get a quote from him?” I asked.  In his answer, Mike was sheepish, swearing me to secrecy.“Art,” he said, “I choked.  All I heard coming out of my mouth was ‘Tell Hillary that the ice is patchy near the Pretoria Bridge [on Ottawa's Rideau Canal].’”  And he had a point as First Lady Hillary Clinton and Mrs. Aline Chrétien were scheduled to skate on the Canal later that day.I howled, swearing to Mike that his secret was safe with me and that I would never tell anyone that he had become tongue-tied when speaking with the 42^nd American President.Little did I know that Mike would have the last laugh.  A few years later I, myself, encountered Bill Clinton at an event in Syracuse, New York.  I was a reporter with the Kingston Whig-Standard and had hoped to secure a quote from the President at the New York State Fair.  Sure enough, I ended up with Bill Clinton in front of me, in no hurry at all, and happy to answer a question from a Canadian reporter.“Mr. President,” I heard myself saying, “Canadians love you!”  Yup, Clinton thanked me for Canada’s support and moved on. Yup, I had pulled a Scandiffio and didn’t get my quote.  This time, Mike was the one to laugh when I called him in Ottawa to confess my own journalistic sin.  We were even.To watch President Clinton’s Parliamentary address that historic day in 1995, click here.[caption id="attachment_542034" align="alignnone" width="450"] President Clinton addresses Parliament[/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.