A SURVEY OF BORDER WATCHERS — After weeks of NORAD sitting on high alert, U.S. President Joe Biden has just wrapped another trip abroad, this time to Poland. Including a surprise stop in Ukraine on Monday, the magic number of countries Biden has visited since taking office is now 18. As we're all well aware, Canada is not on the list. Canada, otherwise known as America’s largest trading partner, is usually the first or second international visit a U.S. president makes, notwithstanding President DONALD TRUMP. BARACK OBAMA, BILL CLINTON and GEORGE H.W. BUSH made their first foreign trips to the Neighbors Up North. Since 1906, Canada has been visited by U.S. presidents 41 times — officially, unofficially or while vacationing, according to the Office of the U.S. Historian. Yet Canada is still waiting on Biden. Biden minders will note the president did visit Canada (a virtual confab) and does so (technically) when flying over its airspace on the way to Europe. Perhaps he even looked out his window at Canada en route to Kyiv for his recent surprise visit. Biden is down to visit Canada in March, the Biden administration has confirmed. But the overdue visit has relationship watchers wondering. What does all of it mean for Biden’s legacy as it relates to Canada? The answer — at least so far — from experts on both sides of the border: Meh. “How to rank the invisible?” Carleton University historian NORMAN HILLMER said in an email. “Biden did (most) Canadians the signal service of ridding us of Donald Trump. Then Biden disappeared, unlike every U.S. president since JOHN KENNEDY. Canadians knew those presidents, or thought they did. They mattered to Canadians, for better or for worse. It’s a mystery why Joe Biden does not.” STEPHEN AZZI, professor and the author of Reconcilable Differences: A History of Canada–U.S. Relations, says Biden’s most important contribution to Canadians has been to bring stability to the U.S. government after the Trump years. “Canada is heavily influenced by American money and culture, but also by American politics,” Azzi tells Playbook via email. “When the American government is dismissive of its allies and its treaties, that has an enormous impact on Canada. When democracy is under attack in Washington, we worry — and rightly so — that it might soon be under attack in Ottawa.” Hillmer, Azzi and other experts polled by Playbook on both sides of the border rank Biden in the middle to lower end of the pack of modern U.S. presidents when it comes to Canada. Biden may be contending with global issues and domestic divisions, but the consensus is that he is expending just enough energy to make sure the bilateral relationship is operating smoothly. Presidents and prime ministers operate as a kind of “fire department,” explains CHRISTOPHER SANDS of the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute. That is, they only get involved “when an issue or dispute is burning and at risk of getting out of control.” One “fire” could be Biden canceling the presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, Sands said. LAURA DAWSON of the Future Borders Coalition notes that Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU and Biden share similar values on social policy, Ukraine and the environment. “You can’t imagine these two in a room together and not getting along,” she tells Playbook. “This has definitely not been the case with previous pairs of prime ministers and presidents.” Still, she says, even though Obama and former prime minister STEPHEN HARPER weren’t particularly compatible, they found a way to put their stamp on cooperative efforts, like restructuring Chrysler during the auto industry crash. Which president has been the best to Canada, you ask? Sands says it’s a tough call. “GERALD FORD, RONALD REAGAN, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were the most willing to spend political capital on bilateral relations.” What do you think? Let us know here. | 
