Behind Closed Doors: The Personal Relationship Between Mackenzie King and Franklin Roosevelt

Abstract

Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King and American President Franklin Roosevelt shared a collegial and personal relationship that spanned ten years. Both King and Roosevelt were determined to establish harmonious and fruitful relations with their neighbor. From their first meeting in 1935, the two men discovered that they worked well together and enjoyed discussing world affairs. Roosevelt and King were able to cut through the bureaucracy of their own governments and produce two trade agreements, the Ogdensburg agreement that established joint defense measures, and the Hyde Park Agreement, which helped sustain Canada’s wartime economy. Though the relationship between Prime Minister and President was often dismissed by earlier historians, King’s detailed diary and digitized records from the Franklin Roosevelt Library and Archives reveal a relationship that was based on trust and mutual admiration. While the connection between the two men did not translate into influence for Canada in the wartime Grand Alliance led by Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, King and Roosevelt, maintained their friendship until Roosevelt’s death in 1945.