“What’s Going on in Canada?” A California Governor wants to know

In a surprise request in May 1974, Ronald Reagan, soon to finish his second term as California Governor and widely viewed as a probable Republican Presidential candidate in 1976, asked to meet Robert Adams, Canadian Consul General in San Francisco to learn “What’s going on in Canada ?” Such a request was rare from a California Governor, particularly one not known to have had strong international interests.  In a 90 minute meeting that included individuals later prominent in the Reagan administration, Michael Deaver and Edwin Meese III, Adams explained the Canadian political system, economy and attitudes towards the United States. Adams assessed afterwards that Reagan was charming and affable, but the questions he and aides posed were “simple and narrow,” and it was clear that he was strongly market-oriented and critical of big government.  Adams believed the meeting was still useful, but it foreshadowed some of the challenges he would have later with Trudeau. Surprisingly absent were discussions of the federal election campaign then under way (which gave Pierre Trudeau’s Liberals a new majority mandate) and the Watergate scandal that soon forced Richard Nixon from the White House.