mrs. gregoire trudeau.ues about a state dinner. in the united states, the modern state dinner dates back to the 1870s, and symbolizes the relationship, the importance and value of a relationship that the white house places, excuse me, that the white house places on a relationship with a foreign country. such an event is reserved only for the most important of relationships and in the case of president obama's time in office, this is only the 11th time. in short, we consider ourselves fortunate to call the canadians our allies, partners, neighbors, and friends, and we are looking forward to tomorrow's event. now it gives me great pleasure to pleasure to introduce the white house florist. thank you. >> hello, everyone, i'm the chief florist at the white house. and we are very excited that the first lady, mrs. obama chose this motif since jade is one of the favorite colors of the first lady of canada. with spring coming up we incorporated some yellow which it's the first color of spring and color of friendship

mrs. gregoire-trudeau. i will leave the details to my colleagues that would like toll highlight a couple issues about a state dinner. in the united states the modern state dinner dates back to the 1870s and symbolizes the relationship, the importance and value of a relationship that the white house places on the relationship with the foreign country. such an event is reserved for the most important off relationships, and in the case of president obama's time in office this is only the 11th time. in short, we consider ourselves fortunate to call the canadians our allies, partners, neighborsf and friends come and we are looking forward to tomorrow's event. now it is a great pleasure to introduce the white house florist, hedieh ghaffarian. thank you. >> hello, everyone. i'm the chief florist of the white house hedieh ghaffarian. and we are very excited that the first lady mrs. obama chose this, jade as one of the favorite colors of the first lady of canada. as spring coming up we've incorporated some yellow wh

mrs. gregoire trudeau, their beautiful children and the quite good looking canadian delegation. cannot choose your neighbors.te] [laughter] well, by virtue of geography, the united states and canada are blessed to be neighbors. and by choice, we are steadfast allies and the closest of friends. [cheers and applause] the truth is, though, we don't express this enough; in part, because of our national characters. our canadian friends can be more reserved, more easy-going. we americans can be a little louder -- [laughter] more boisterous. and as a result, we haven't r always conveyed how much we treasure our alliance and our ties with our canadian friends. and that's why today we are very proud to welcome the first official visit by a canadian prime minister in nearly 20 years. [cheers and applause] i it's about time, eh? [laughter] [cheers and applause] and what a beautiful day it is, which is a little unfair. as president, my very first foreign trip was to canada, to ottawa in february. [laughter] in the snow. still, our friends from the great white north gave me a very warm welco

the president and first lady will host the state dinner in honor of prime minister trudeau and mrs. sophie gregoire. i believe the details to my colleagues but would like to highlight a couple of issues about the state dinner to end the united states a modern state dinner dates back to the 1870s and symbolizes the relationship, the importance and value of a relationship that the white house places -- excuse me. that the white house places on the relationship with the foreign country. such an event is reserved only for the most important of relationships come and in the case of president obama's time in office of this is only the 11th time. in short, we consider ourselves fortunate to call the canadians our allies, partners, neighbors and friends. we are looking forward to tomorrow's event. malik is a great pleasure to introduce the white house florist, hedieh ghaffarian. thank you. >> hello, everyone. i'm the chief force of the white house, hedieh ghaffarian, and we are very excited that the first lady mrs. obama chose this event. since jade is one of the chemicals of the first place a candidate. c