Luncheon hosted by the National Press Club

It is a great honour and privilege for me to speak to the National Press Club here in Washington. I am sure that it will come as no surprise to you that, as someone who has spent the better part of my life in politics and in government in Canada, I am somewhat of a junkie of American politics. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to listen to, read and watch many Washington journalists. Sometimes I consider myself very fortunate that some of you are covering Washington and not Ottawa!

Two years ago, President Clinton paid a very successful visit to Ottawa. When I introduced him in our Parliament, I reminded him that each of his predecessors who had spoken in the House of Commons had been re-elected for a second term. It is because of my deep and abiding belief in reciprocity that I was so delighted to accept his invitation to Washington.

There is another reason I am pleased to be here today. It is to be able to celebrate an extraordinary relationship, a partnership that serves as a model for the world.

The partnership between Canada and the United States is often taken for granted; it should not be. It is too important to both of us. And that is why these visits of heads of government are so valuable. They serve to remind us of the importance of the values and the interests we share in common. They serve to highlight what we can learn from each other. And sometimes they even serve to explain where we may differ.

Trade and economics are at the centre of our continental partnership. You are our most important customer. More than 80 percent of all Canadian exports go to the United States. But whether you know it or not, we are also your most important customer. Nearly a quarter of your exports go to Canada -- more than to Japan, and more than to the European Union. Several million jobs on both sides of the border depend on this trade.

Fifty years ago on June 11, 1947, President Truman spoke in the Canadian House of Commons. He boasted that "last year the flow of trade in both directions across the border reached the record peacetime total of 2.25 billion dollars". Fifty years later, I can say that the flow of trade in both directions across the border will surpass 2.25 billion dollars in the less than 3 days since I have been in Washington.

Ours is probably the most fruitful and complete economic relationship between any two countries on earth. Running our economies, preserving our environment, and cooperating on foreign policy, define a relationship that is unique in scope and quality.

Today I will not dwell on the economic relationship. I want to speak to our values -- what we share in common and where we may be able to learn from each other.

Together we share a continent. Champlain established a settlement in Quebec a few years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. And yet we consider ourselves a younger nation. It was almost a century after Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence that we Canadians came together as one country.

Your country was born in revolution under the banner of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Ours evolved peacefully from colony to nation with the objective of peace, order and good government. Yet we share the same fundamental values of democracy, freedom, tolerance, respect for the rule of law, respect for diversity and for the opinions of those with whom we disagree. And that is why so many millions of people from around the world have come to make a better life in both of our countries.

We are countries of opportunity for all. Where else would a boy from Hope, Arkansas, or from Shawinigan, Quebec, be able to rise to the highest elected office in the land? And because we share common values we can share common heroes. My political hero has always been Harry Truman. And when President Clinton came to Ottawa a few months after the mid-term elections of 1994, I found he too had Harry Truman as a hero!

We are countries that share not only an extraordinary economic relationship, but extraordinary personal relationships. So many of us have friends and relations on both sides of the border. And so many of us take for granted our vacations in each other's country. And so our relations are personal, not just political, or just business.

And yet there are differences between our two countries. Yours is a melting pot; ours is a mosaic. We were founded on an explicit accommodation to protect differences in language, religion and culture. That fundamental approach has conditioned the rest of our history. We Canadians believe that our two official languages and our multicultural heritage are great sources of richness and a model in a world where there are too many conflicts based on race and ethnicity. Indeed, in his speech in the House of Commons in Ottawa two years ago, President Clinton said: "In a world darkened by ethnic conflicts that literally tear nations apart, Canada has stood for all of us as a model of how people of different cultures can live and work together in peace, prosperity and respect."

Over two hundred years or more you have developed a sense of unabashed patriotism while we in Canada are quieter about our love of country and less inclined to wear it on our sleeve. I believe that it is something we can learn from you.

If we have not developed the same practice of unabashed patriotism, we have definitely developed a sense of community of which we are particularly proud. We Canadians have a deep commitment to social values and to a sense of collective social responsibility. For us, liberalism is not a dirty word or a relic of the past. It is a badge of honour and the gateway to the future.

Canadians are very proud of our social achievements. We have developed a system of universal public health care -- Medicare -- which has become a part of the very fabric of our society. We do not believe in two-tier health care. For us, access to the health care system must be determined strictly by an individual's medical needs, not by the size of his or her bank account or insurance policy. Every survey shows it has the support of 90 percent of the public. It is the single most popular social program.

We have succeeded in building a system where not only do patients have complete freedom to choose their doctors, but where the total cost of health care as a percentage of GDP is far lower than yours. And Canadians are determined in the years ahead to secure, modernize, and expand our universal public health care system to meet the new health care requirements of the 21st century.

Our sense of social responsibility means a deep commitment to ensuring a decent retirement for our senior citizens. We recognize, as you do, that the aging of the baby boomers will put pressure on our public pensions and seniors benefit programs. Many countries have been unable to make the reforms necessary to sustain what you call entitlement programs. I am very proud that we Canadians have recently been able to make the difficult decisions required to ensure the modernization and sustainability of our public pension system well into the 21st century.

Our sense of community is found in the commitment to safe streets and safe cities. One way of achieving safe communities is to learn the hard lessons of others. We have recently enacted one of the toughest gun control laws in the western world. And I must say that we are very pleased that, even with open trade between our two countries, the National Rifle Association was unsuccessful in its attempt to export some of its expertise to Canada.

Our sense of community and our relatively small but far flung population have meant that government has played an important role in the development of our country. We believe that government can and must be a force for good in society. But we also know that the only way a government can focus on the needs of the future is to deal effectively in the present with the financial problems inherited from the past.

Our government is well into the fourth year of its mandate. When we took office, we faced enormous fiscal problems. A deficit approaching 6 percent of Gross Domestic Product and ever increasing interest payments on the national debt were severely restricting our freedom to make decisions about our collective future. The more we paid to bankers, the less we had for the priorities Canadians value. The more indebted we were, the higher our interest rates, the less business could invest, with the consequence that unemployment was over 11 percent when we took office.

We took dramatic, decisive action. And we did so with the support of Canadians without whom it would have been impossible. We cut government spending; we eliminated old programs; we cut subsidies to business; we succeeding in overhauling the federal government, something you call re-inventing government, and what we call getting government right.

From the worst fiscal record in the G-7 next to Italy, we now have the best. By the end of the current fiscal year our deficit will be less than 2 percent of Gross Domestic Product. And by 1998-99, if we were to measure our accounts in the same way as you do yours and other western countries do theirs, we will be the only G-7 country in balance. And our interest rates are the lowest they have been in 35 years.

Getting our fiscal house in order does not relieve government of its responsibilities. It allows governments to fulfill their responsibilities. I believe that governments in western countries will be judged not only on their ability to get their fiscal house in order, but also on the priorities they choose once they have fiscal room to act. The priorities a government chooses are a reflection of the values it holds. In our last budget, just a few weeks ago, we began to take steps in three priority areas to prepare our country for the next century. First, we began to allocate resources to reduce child poverty, something that is truly unacceptable in societies as prosperous as ours. Second, we allocated substantial resources to the research and development infrastructure of our country, in post-secondary institutions, teaching hospitals, the environmental sector -- the areas where we will find the jobs of the next century. Third, we allocated resources to modernizing our cherished public health care system. These will continue to be our major priorities as we have more and more fiscal room.

Getting our fiscal house in order has meant creating a climate for strong economic growth. In 1997, our GDP growth will be the strongest in the G-7. Today, we see strong employment growth and all the indicators are that we will continue to create many new jobs. However, we have clearly not been as successful as you have in getting our unemployment rate down. We must learn from your success in creating an economy that can compete in new products, services and technologies with anyone in the world. As Prime Minister of Canada, I cannot be satisfied until the Canadian economy does better at providing employment opportunities for all those who are looking for them.

I spoke earlier of our common values. I want to say now that they are not limited to domestic issues. We have extensive shared interests and often complement each other's role in international matters. We have been allies in war in the past; we are often partners in building democracy and promoting peace and fundamental human rights around the world. We have worked together in Bosnia and Haiti. We also both have championed liberalized trade around the world as a means for improved standards of living and ultimately national and international security and stability.

We do have our differences. I know that we do not agree on the best approach to Cuba; we do not hide our fundamental disagreement with the Helms-Burton Act. Nor do we agree on the need and the means to protect Canadian cultural industries. Friendship also means having the honesty and mutual respect to be able to disagree when we must and to be able to face those disagreements, not hide from them. And in a commercial relationship such as ours, we must also remember that sometimes we must separate business and friendship and act in what we believe is in our country's best interest. But when we canvass our relationship in general, we cannot but be struck by how few are our differences and how widespread the area of common accord.

Canada understands the special position of the United States as the only super power in the world today. We recognize the expectations that this creates abroad and the problems it creates domestically.

But as a friend, we can only urge that you resist the temptations both of isolationism and sometimes of unilateralism. Canada has always been a great supporter of the United Nations and of a multilateral approach to dealing with problems of international affairs or international trade. This is particularly important in the post-Cold War world.

We must work together to support continued trade liberalization and the achievement of greater human security, especially among the most impoverished of the world.

In closing, I want to speak for a moment about the bridge to the 21st century. I profoundly believe that the bridge which you heard so much about during your election campaign, is the bridge that will span the Pacific Ocean. Both Canada and the United States were built in the 19th and 20th centuries by a bridge over the Atlantic. And both our countries worked very hard after World War II to develop close links with Europe. I believe the 21st century will be the Pacific Century. We share the good fortune of being Pacific countries as well. In fact, my government has declared 1997 as Canada's Year of Asia Pacific. The Asia Pacific region has great importance to Canada. After the United States, five of our ten largest trading partners are in Asia. Over two million Canadians are of Asian origin. We have very close ties to Hong Kong.

But the Asia Pacific region is also of extraordinary importance to the United States.

Building APEC, breaking down barriers to trade and investment and creating a better business environment are goals that our two countries share.

I look forward to hosting the APEC leaders in Vancouver in November of this year. Canadians want both our countries to redouble our commitment to reducing economic and trade barriers around the globe. The prosperity generated through free trade is real and visible everywhere you turn. It would be truly unfortunate if the vision we set forth together gets lost in the battles of special interests. In these efforts, your country is truly indispensable -- its leadership and participation are absolutely essential.

In his speech in Ottawa 50 years ago, President Truman said "the example of accord provided by our two countries did not come about merely through the happy circumstance of geography. It is compounded of one part proximity and nine parts goodwill and common sense".

Today we can say that our relationship stands as a model for the world.

Together, we reach out to the world with a common vision of democratic societies, social justice and humanitarian concern.

And, together, we have a unique contribution to make to the international community.