Prime Minister wishes U.S.A. a happy 250th birthday, reveals Canada’s gift

"Today, as the United States marks 250 years of independence, Canada joins in celebration," says Prime Minister Mark Carney. Photo by David Ryder /Bloomberg

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The United States marks its 250th year of independence on Saturday, and Prime Minister Mark Carney is wishing Canada’s southern sibling a happy birthday — and announcing our official gifts.

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Carney announced Saturday that Canada’s embassy in Washington, D.C., will be illuminated, and Niagara Falls will be lit, in red, white, and blue. Canadian vessels will join the American fleet in Sail250 in Norfolk, Baltimore and New York City.

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Canada is also sending “a lasting symbol of the roots that connect our peoples,” he said. The country is giving 250 maple trees to be planted in Washington, D.C., and across the 13 American states share the border with Canada.

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“On behalf of the Government of Canada, my best wishes to the American people as you celebrate this 250th birthday,” Carney posted on X on Saturday.

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Carney noted the two countries’ “enduring friendship” that has included fighting “side by side in battle” and journeying “to the dark side of the moon together.”

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The X post links to an official statement from the prime minister.

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When the U.S. celebrated its 200th anniversary, then-prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau presented U.S. President Gerald Ford with Canada’s gift to America for the celebration of America’s bicentennial in White House Rose Garden. It was a book of photographs, titled Between Friends/Entre Amis, comprising photos taken within 30 miles of the Canada-U.S. border by Canadian photographers.

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In today’s statement, Carney cited another U.S. president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who stated in 1936: “The noblest monument to peace and to neighbourly economic and social friendship in all the world is not a monument in bronze or stone, but the boundary which unites the United States and Canada.” The prime minister says Roosevelt spoke these words before women and men from both countries fought together in Normandy and later in Korea and Afghanistan.

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Despite the trade and other tensions that have arisen between the two countries in the last 15 months, Carney’s statement lights on major economic cooperation, such as building St. Lawrence Seaway, and military cooperation evident in the creation of NORAD. He also points to joint space exploration, with “our astronauts … aboard Artemis II.”

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He continues: “Together, we have stood in the face of tragedy, from American firefighters helping to combat the flames in Fort McMurray, to Canadians opening their homes to stranded American passengers after 9/11. Together, we have built more opportunity and prosperity for our workers than we ever could have apart.”

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