Historic Meeting: 1st Black President Meets 1st Black Governor General
Posted February 19, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The first black president of the United States and Canada’s first black Governor General appeared to hit it off the moment they met each other.
Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean was the first of a handful of Canadian dignitaries to greet Barack Obama as he stepped off Air Force One onto Canadian soil in Ottawa for the first time as U.S. president.
The two held an animated conversation on the tarmac that seemed to go beyond the formal dictates of protocol before the president was introduced to the other dignitaries, including Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Wilson.
An Obama quip had Jean leaning back, laughing and throwing an arm around the president’s back as they strode side-by-side into the reception centre for a private chat.
During a media photo opportunity inside prior to their scheduled 20-minute private session, Obama and Jean sat in armchairs smiling and leaning toward one another while keeping their voices low to prevent their discussion from being picked up by microphones.
The two apparently discussed Jean’s recent visit to the land of her birth, Haiti, and its new prime minister, Michele Pierre-Louis.
Obama listened intently as Jean was heard to utter the word “hope,” a key element of the president’s successful “Yes We Can” campaign leading to his historic election victory Nov. 4.
On inauguration day, Jean proclaimed Obama’s election as the first African-American president a “joyful” occasion “filled with symbolic meaning on a global scale.”
“A new page in the history of civilizations is being written before our very eyes,” she said, “fulfilling the wishes of so many youths, women and men, from every background and every creed, to see our world become more just and more human.”
