If you’d visited Brockville during the afternoon of August 18, 1938, you could be excused for thinking it was a ghost town. Many of its residents had driven or sailed west, taking advantage of a holiday proclaimed by city officials to recognize a historic event: the opening of the Thousand Islands Bridge, near Ivy Lea. The star attraction at the ceremony would be Franklin Delano Roosevelt — the first American president to officially visit Ontario. What audiences heard FDR say in speeches at the bridge and at Queen’s University that day made an impact amid growing fears of war in Europe and beyond.
Roosevelt’s visit began when he arrived in Kingston via train around 10 a.m. After a brief reception at the station, his motorcade headed toward Queen’s University. Thousands of spectators who lined the route were transfixed by Roosevelt’s famous smile as he rode by. When he arrived at George Richardson Memorial Stadium, he entered, according to the Kingston Whig-Standard, “with arm extended at full length and his face burst into a spontaneous smile in response to the whole-hearted applause of the audience.”
Photo of the presidential motorcade from the August 19, 1938, issue of the Kingston Whig-Standard.
Around 7,000 spectators watched Roosevelt receive an honorary doctorate and heard him deliver a 13-and-half-minute minute speech. He addressed the worsening diplomatic situation in Europe, as Nazi Germany had recently sent troops along its border with Czechoslovakia for what it claimed were army exercises. “A few days ago, a whisper, fortunately untrue, raced round the world that armies standing over against each other in unhappy array were to be set in motion,” he said. “Your businessmen and ours felt it alike; your farmers and ours heard it alike; your young men and ours wondered what effect this might have on their lives.” (The German troop build-up was among the events that the following month led to the Munich Agreement, one of the preludes to the Second World War.)
After noting that the Americas were no longer isolated from events happening elsewhere in the world, Roosevelt said two lines that made everyone take notice: “The Dominion of Canada is part of the sisterhood of the British Empire. I give to you assurance that the people of the United States will not stand idly by if domination of Canadian soil is threatened by any other empire.”
FDR making his speech at Queen's. (Kingston Whig-Standard, August 19, 1938)
Though the United States still embraced the isolationism that had marked its foreign policy since the 1920s, Roosevelt’s speech was the second that week by American officials to suggest a greater interest in facing down aggressors. Two days earlier, Secretary of State Cordell Hull had delivered a radio speech and appealed to the world to “turn the tide of lawlessness.” He had warned that all governments should “be on guard against certain dangerous developments which imperil them” and offered a seven-point peace plan. The Globe and Mail felt Hull’s speech “ought to serve to awaken those who take event complacently, overconfident that things will turn out satisfactorily in the long run.”
Roosevelt’s promise to stand by Canada if needed also reflected ongoing discussions between both countries about military co-operation. While Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King still had faith that the British policy of appeasement toward Germany’s ambitions would avoid war, his government was increasing defence spending and indicated it would support Great Britain if war broke out. Federal defence officials saw Roosevelt’s speech as the kick Canada needed to boost its level of preparedness.
Reaction to the speech was swift, generally positive, and welcomed by the European democracies. The Canadian press found it a strong reinforcement of the ties between the two countries. The New York Times saw it as a warning that the United States was interested in maintaining international law and preserving democracies that might be threatened. In Great Britain, the Labour-leaning Daily Herald said that Canada was lucky in that it would be defended by the Americans and the British. The Conservative-leaning Daily Telegraph believed it was “one of the utterances that change the face of things” and would contribute greatly to stability “at a moment when plain, unambiguous speech may be potent for good.”
Whig-Standard publisher Rupert Davies (father of author Robertson Davies) was visiting London and found that most “typical Britishers” he talked to “were delighted that the President had expressed himself so definitely. They hope his plain speaking will ease the tense European situation.” (Davies also noted that the British press was amused that so many cameramen were scrambling to take photos of Roosevelt and the other dignitaries.) Among the dissenting voices was the Daily Express, which believed that the American public would never support any actions that rejected the country’s isolationist tendencies.
FDR and Mackenzie King cutting the ribbon at the Thousand Islands Bridge. (Ottawa Citizen, August 19, 1938)
Reflecting on Roosevelt’s Queen’s speech in his diary, King wrote that “I think at last we have got our defence programme in good shape. Good neighbour on one side; partners within the Empire on the other. Obligations to both in return for their assistance. Readiness to meet all joint emergencies.”
Following the speech, Roosevelt enjoyed a leisurely lunch on campus. When officials worried that he would be upset by the disruption to the schedule and suggested that perhaps they should head to the bridge, the president replied, “There is no hurry for me. I would just as soon stay here all afternoon.”
But move on they did, and the motorcade headed east along Highway 2, receiving a loud ovation as it passed through Ganonoque. At 3 p.m., King and Roosevelt cut the ribbon, kicking off three days of local ceremonies that included concerts, dances, and speeches.
When photographers tried to find ideal spots to take pictures of the ribbon cutting, New York state troopers forcibly corralled them into a tiny space. They considered boycotting the rest of the ceremony. “It isn’t the president’s fault,” one movie cameraman piped up. “Let’s not take it out on him.”
More than 50,000 people attended the ceremony, which was broadcast nationwide on the CBC and via CBS and NBC in the United States. The speeches stressed the long peace and good neighbourly feelings that had developed between the two countries. King talked about the importance of academic exchanges and how he had benefitted from pursuing his post-grad studies in the United States. He also gushed about the natural beauty of the St. Lawrence River and its importance as an artery uniting both nations. He believed the bridge and other international connections under construction at the time (the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia was nearing completion) were symbolic of “our common needs and our common will to live together as good friends and neighbours.”
Roosevelt elaborated on many of the same themes and added a pitch to build the St. Lawrence
Cartoon marking Roosevelt's visit and the increasing tensions in Europe. (Globe and Mail, August 18, 1938)
Seaway, which had been conceived as far back as the 1890s. As recently as May 1938, Hull had submitted a draft treaty to both countries to build one. “When a resource of this kind is placed at our very doors,” Roosevelt declared, “I think the plain people of both countries agree that it is ordinary common sense to make use of it.”
Roosevelt rebuked the “prophets of doom” who feared the harm increased sea traffic would have on railways, assuring his audience that a seaway would increase rail use. He also warned against private power operators coveting the opportunity to control any electrical production along the St. Lawrence River.
The Whig-Standard noticed that many in attendance were bored by the speeches. “The friendship about which the orators talked was so evident in the audience where citizens of the one nation could not be distinguished from the those of the other nation, that the spectators yawned and offered cigarettes to near neighbours whom they had never seen before, of whose names, nationality, and antecedents they were ignorant, and whom they were never expected to see again.”
Amid the celebrations and general good feelings, there was a party pooper: Ontario premier Mitchell Hepburn.
Depending on the source, Hepburn either purposely snubbed the visit or wasn’t invited. His
relationship with fellow Liberal King was deteriorating. Hepburn’s victory in the 1937 provincial election had increased his arrogance — and it didn’t help that Hepburn was among the loudest opponents of the St. Lawrence Seaway. He was frustrated that American and Canadian authorities rejected his plans to expand the province’s hydroelectric facilities along the Niagara River and claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy hatched by the King and Roosevelt administrations. His attempts to sell excess power to New York had also been rejected, as the U.S. State Department was concerned that the state might become too dependent on a foreign power source that could theoretically be cut at any time.
Hepburn’s main objections to the seaway were that it would harm struggling railway companies and add to Ontario’s power surplus, which stemmed from electricity contracts with Quebec that courts refused to let him break. Press and government officials from both countries suspected that Hepburn was in the thrall of private power companies just as he was with mining tycoons.
King’s advisers expected swift reaction from Hepburn — and they weren’t disappointed. In a letter to King that he also sent to the press, Hepburn raged that the seaway couldn’t be justified economically. He couldn’t conceive how public money could be spent on such as project when railways were in deep deficits and said that any harm to them would force unemployed rail workers onto public relief and threaten credit ratings at all levels of government. He concluded by warning King that “irrespective of any propaganda or squeeze play that might be concocted by you, you may rest assured that this government will resist any effort to force us to expend public funds in such an unwarrantable manner or to foist upon the people of Ontario an additional burden of debt and taxation.”
Front page of the second section of the August 17, 1938, Ottawa Citizen celebrating the opening of the Thousand Islands Bridge.
When asked for comment after a cabinet meeting, Hepburn repeated that Ontario didn’t need more power and that, whenever it did, “the problem will be handled by an extension of the present policy of public ownership.” He did admit that Roosevelt’s statement on defending Canada “should be very much appreciated by all Canadians.”
The Globe and Mail, which was usually friendly to Hepburn and shared his economic concerns about the seaway, felt that his absence “was an affront to the Ontario people, a violation of public amenities, and an incivility toward a very distinguished visitor” and that the constant sniping toward King was “getting tiresome and nauseating.” The Windsor Star felt Hepburn’s letter demonstrated that he paid “more attention to directness of speech than to diplomatic utterance.”
When King sent a letter proposing technical studies for the seaway, Hepburn still wasn’t interested. Ontario Hydro chairman Thomas Hogg later told American officials that Roosevelt’s speech only hardened Hepburn’s opposition and that the province would eventually need the power the seaway could produce. He also suggested King should proceed unilaterally, but the prime minister decided not to further roil the federal-provincial waters. Seaway proposals re-emerged during the Second World War, by which time Hepburn was ready to support it. But opposition on the American side led to delays, and by the time construction began in the 1950s, Ontario was dealing with recurring power shortages.
Reflecting on the visit, Ottawa Citizen reporter R.A. Jeffery observed that Roosevelt “came to find his Canadian friends and admirers legion; he saw Ontario for the first time officially, and he conquered everyone by his infectious smile and his friendly manner.”
Sources: King by Allan Levine (Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 2011); Mitch Hepburn by Neil McKenty (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1967); “Just Call Me Mitch”: The Life of Mitchell F. Hepburn by John T. Saywell (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991); Canada and the Age of Conflict Volume 2: 1921-1948 The Mackenzie King Era by C.P. Stacey (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981); the August 19, 1938, edition of the Daily Herald; the August 19, 1938, edition of the Daily Telegraph; the August 18, 1938, and August 20, 1938, editions of the Globe and Mail; the August 17, 1938, August 18, 1938, and August 19, 1938, editions of the Kingston Whig-Standard; the Fall 2004 edition of New York History; the August 20, 1938, edition of the New York Times; the August 17, 1938, August 18, 1938, and August 19, 1938, editions of the Ottawa Citizen; and the August 20, 1938, edition of the Windsor Star
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