For one Eastern Ontario politician, a summer’s day 55 years ago was a turning point in his career. That politician was none other than Picton, Ontario’s Harvey J. McFarland, whose twenty-year political career also included a remarkable friendship with President Richard Nixon that started in 1957, with the then Vice-President’s visit to the Quinte region and his stop in Picton harbour. 

The Mayor and Nixon became close enough that McFarland later attended the US presidential inauguration as the personal guest of the incoming Chief Executive. As Nixon swore his oath of office on that cold winter’s day in Washington in January of 1969, amongst the many thousands cheering him was the pride of Prince Edward County.

The pair first met on the dock outside Picton’s Yacht club on the morning of Saturday July 6, 1957. By all accounts it was a bright sunny day, good weather, following the remnants of a hurricane that swept through the region earlier in the week. Local residents were surprised to see a large, masted sailing ship resting at anchor in Picton’s harbour. The rumours quickly flew about town:  some Americans were visiting, amongst them Richard Nixon, then serving as Eisenhower’s VP. In the early summer days following American Independence Day, the man who was literally a ‘heartbeat away from the Presidency’, especially given Ike’s ongoing health problems, decided to take a secret holiday sailing across Lake Ontario from Rochester.

It didn’t remain a secret for very long, but the fact is, the trip was not that unusual. Nixon himself had visited Canada before many times, including a wartime visit to the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City with his wife Pat. And it was not unheard of for Presidents to occasionally slip across the border for short visits.  FDR did so on numerous occasions, often without telling anyone. Still, the casualness of Nixon’s trip in 1957 reminds us that it was a much simpler time.

For example, eyewitnesses report that Nixon had no Secret Service agents on hand. While Pat Hodgson, a local photographer for the Gazette showed up to take pictures, there were no journalists covering the event and certainly, unlike today, no press conferences or official meetings planned. It was just a weekend of sailing and golf for the American and his small group of friends. 

Enter Harvey J. McFarland.

Nixon’s party first landed at Picton Harbour where they disembarked to tour the town. When he heard the American politician was in town, even though he was ill, McFarland rushed down to the Yacht Club. When he arrived at the marina, he found the Vice-President had gone on a walking tour of the town led by two small boys, locals Herb Stone and Ken Richmond, who were quite pleased to act as his hosts. When they got back to the boat, MacFarland met Nixon at the Yacht Club where the Mayor greeted the future president with gifts of cheese and maple syrup. The two hit it off immediately and stayed in touch. 

Over the years that followed, records show McFarland sent his powerful acquaintance many gifts – cheese, whiskey, and other presents. Nixon’s showed his gratitude in return with the 1969 inaugural invitation. 

Nixon enjoyed his time in Picton so much that he used it to make a point, in a story he later told at a 1972 state dinner at Rideau Hall in Ottawa: 

“It was a Saturday night. We had played golf earlier in the day. We were still in sports clothes in sports jackets–and we decided to go to one of the local pubs, just as we were. We went in and sat down … and the waiter looked us all over, and some way he seemed to think he recognized me, but he wasn’t sure. We noted … that the waiter was talking to the bartender after serving us. The bartender was looking over and saying, ‘No, it can’t be, it can’t be.’ 

After we had finished … and were ready to leave, the waiter came up and said, ‘Sir, if you don’t mind, I have a bet with the bartender, and you can help me win it or I might lose it,’ I said, ‘What is the bet?’ 

He said, ‘I bet him $5 that you are Vice President Nixon.’ 

I said, ‘Well, call him over and we will confirm it.’ So the bartender came over and said, ‘Is it true?” I said, ‘Yes.’  

He said, ‘I would never have believed it.’ 

He gave him the $5, and as we started to move on, I heard him mumble to the waiter, ‘You know, he doesn’t look near as bad in person as he does in his pictures.’” 

In 1972 Nixon was relatively unpopular in Canada but was probably looking to gain advantage for the upcoming US election. So he made a more serious point in closing for his high-powered audience at the Governor-General’s residence. He went on: 

“Now, that little story tells us something about why this trip is important and why it is quite necessary,” Nixon said. “Maybe none of us look quite as bad in person as we may in our pictures,” Nixon concludes.

Four months after his 1972 Canadian trip, Nixon received McFarland privately in Washington. Today, the scratchy recording of their meeting is amongst the infamous Nixon tapes, which later also revealed the president’s complicity in the Watergate scandal.

In the recording of the White House visit, the President’s assistant tells him about Mayor McFarland’s health challenges, which included the heart condition that very shortly likely claimed his life. On the tape, Nixon asks his assistant what token gifts he should give his Canadian friend, ultimately deciding McFarland would get all of them, cufflinks, ashtray, and a money clip, since “he’s sent enough cheese” and “Crown Royal” over the years!

When McFarland later arrives in the Oval Office for his short visit with the President, they discuss the earlier state visit, reminisce about the 1957 trip, and briefly touch on weightier policy issues. The meeting lasts about 5 minutes.

The easy banter between the two old friends belied the fact there were some dark clouds on the horizon for both of them. Less than two years after meeting Nixon at the White House, McFarland passed away suddenly in January 1974. Even as the growing Watergate crisis was starting to consume the Presidency, Nixon still took the time to write Mayor McFarland’s widow, to offer his personal condolences at her loss. For Nixon, a few months later, the political scandal ultimately led to his resignation in disgrace.

What’s left is an unusual story about a small-town politician. Time and chance, and McFarland’s own gregariousness led to a friendship with an American President that started here in Prince Edward County, and for a time, connected this small rural locale to one of the most powerful men in the world.