Mackenzie King assiduously cultivated the friendship of the American president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, during the later 1930s. Roosevelt was familiar with Canada and frequently visited this country, as on the occasion shown here, a visit to Quebec City in the summer of 1936. King initially hoped to bring the United States into the international balance as a factor for peace, but as the international situation deteriorated in 1938 and 1939, he increasingly pinned his hopes on a "friendly" American neutrality in the event of a European war. Roosevelt, in return, went as far as he dared in proclaiming his support and sympathy for Canada and Great Britain. In a famous address in Kingston, Ontario, in August 1938, Roosevelt promised American help to Canada in the event that this country was attacked by a foreign power.
