During his stay, Richard Nixon rambled about the County, signing autographs, and being steadfastly befriended by the gregarious Mayor at the time, Harvey J. McFarland. That friendship would last until McFarland’s death in 1974, the year then President Nixon was impeached and eventually resigned.

Thomas Harrison has written a book on that lost weekend, Searching for Richard Nixon: Finding Refuge and Making a Home in Prince Edward County. 

I know what you are thinking. The visit is interesting — but are there 200 pages in it?

Mr. Harrison’s book tells many stories in addition to that of Nixon. It is a charming personal history of the pursuit of every detail. It is also an anecdotal history of the County and its various locations and traditions. It includes discussions of Cold War politics, Nixon’s presidency, and the appearance of Mayor McFarland on the very same Oval Office tapes that resulted in Nixon’s impeachment. 

It is also the story of the author’s coming to live in the County. Ultimately this book is a meditation upon the patterns that bring people to places and into each other’s lives. Desires, decisions, and circumstances, both local and global. An engaging first-person voice comes to life on its pages, illustrated with documents, photographs and the author’s lavish paintings. We are pleased to present an exerpt from the book so you can read for yourself.

From Chapter Seven: Nixon’s Friendship with Mayor McFarland

Nixon and Trump share with other populists what many consider a common playbook. They’re not afraid to distort the truth if it serves their own ends. They trade in resentment. Sometimes they point an accusing finger at those who control the levers of power, to ally themselves and make friends with the people. Canada has had its own share of these populists, in the past and today.

Right and left-wing populists in Canada have often found support from farmers’ movements like the right-wing Social Credit Party in Alberta, or the socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the precursor to today’s federal New Democratic Party. In contemporary times, “populism” has been used to describe the election of Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford in 2018. Former Conservative cabinet minister Maxime Bernier referred to his founding of the federal People’s Party of Canada as “smart populism.”

Richard Nixon honed his craft in populism in early campaigns.
Historian Garry Wills called Nixon’s approach to politics the “Denigrative Method,” which meant to put-down opponents by attacking them, sometimes without factual basis.
Another method is to portray oneself as an outsider who rails against privileged elites, including the media.

Thomas Harrison, Searching for Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon honed his craft in populism in early campaigns. Historian Garry Wills called Nixon’s approach to politics the “Denigrative Method,” which meant to put-down opponents by attacking them, sometimes without factual basis. Denigrating opponents is a trick the 45th President also relied on throughout his tenure in office. Another method is to portray oneself as an outsider who rails against privileged elites, including the media.

While Nixon publicly expressed opposition to elites, he frequently appeared more than willing to cozy up to them, even if he felt more comfortable amongst those of lesser social and economic status. The son of a modest grocer from Whittier, California, he nursed his resentment against all those who denied access to the corridors of power, and used it to fuel his ascendancy to the Presidency. He portrayed himself as a scrappy man of the people. He embraced colloquial nicknames, initially “Nick” while in the Navy, which became “Dick” when he entered politics. Once he did, he fought his way from the sidelines to beat what he derided as “the establishment” at their own game.

But Nixon’s journey on the long-ago July weekend…brought him into the orbit of a very different sort of Canadian. Not someone who could obviously serve his immediate political ends, but a person who, like him, had very much fought his way to success.

Harvey James McFarland of Ontario’s Prince Edward County left school as a young boy at age 12. He spent time as a woodsman, cheesemaker, private pilot, and working quarries. Literally a “scrapper,” the man spent time boxing in prize fights in his youth. A self-made millionaire who established his own company and made his fortune paving roads and runways during and after World War II. Meeting and becoming personal friends with an American Vice-President would be unusual for most. By the time Nixon showed up in the County seat of Picton back in 1957, it probably didn’t surprise McFarland much.

Connections are often as, or more important than, partisanship in politics. Nixon knew the value of personal relations. So did the County’s Harvey J. McFarland. Once, during the war, McFarland rushed down a corridor at the Treasury Office in Ottawa and literally almost bowled over Mackenzie King. Harvey grabbed the Prime Minister, apologized, and explained his hurry to collect a cheque for the construction of the MountainView airbase in Prince Edward. King sympathized, and offered to help expedite the payment, making a call to ensure that McFarland got his cheque as quickly as possible.

Truth is, McFarland long had a reputation as everyone’s friend, and he leveraged that into political success. He ultimately served over two decades as Mayor of his hometown. Harvey’s popularity made him seem “more like a king than a mayor.” He used his position to become acquainted with Prime Ministers, Premiers, and even her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, whose coronation he attended in 1952. Well known, yes, but also down-to-earth, and “everybody called him Harvey.”

On that day in 1957 Mayor McFarland….got a call from local news photographer, Pat Hodgson, that the Vice-President was visiting….He put on his suit, tie and hat, collected his gifts, and made his way down the town hill to the Yacht Club, where the Widgeon rested, tied up at the dock. One can only imagine Harvey’s anticipation at meeting yet another high profile, if not particularly powerful, public figure. Vice-President John Nance Garner once described the position as not “worth a bucket of warm spit” because it lacks any formal authority. Still, Nixon was close to the most important politician in the world. With all of Ike’s ailments, his VP was literally just one irregular heartbeat from real power.

Did Harvey drive or walk down to the Yacht Club? I don’t know. But I picture the stout and slightly overweight Mayor, with a thin-lipped smile, creasing a cherubic face, red and perspiring with effort as he trudged the 100-foot elevation down to the harbour. All the while lugging a gallon can of syrup, Black River cheddar cheese,and maybe a bottle of Crown Royal.

By all accounts, the two men first met in front of the boat. It was an early and sunny Saturday morning when Harvey found Dick Nixon indulging some local children with stories and autographs, having just returned from a tour in the town. Nixon had earlier gone looking for a drink but when he asked the children, they had been well-versed by their parents about the restrictive liquor laws in Ontario, noting service was not permitted until later in the day.

There’s little record of what the two men talked about. But it seems easy to surmise, given their backgrounds, that part of the conversation focused on the politics of the day, and the relations between both countries. Like politicians everywhere then and now, both men also posed for a picture to memorialize the event. You can see Nixon’s easy and toothy politician’s smile, dressed in his weekend sports clothes. Dick’s casual attire is at odds with Harvey’s suit, hat and closed mouth grin, as the Mayor awkwardly raises the can of syrup into the image of them shaking hands. In retrospect, it’s no wonder the kids present that morning thought the men hit it off. The two men both fancied themselves as cut from the same common cloth. Though their status differed, they were also deeply invested in politics. Nixon would have wanted to know about recent political developments in Canada, and Ontario. Harvey McFarland not only knew the lay of the land, but was both connected and plain-spoken in a way that likely appealed to the ambitious Vice-President. 

Well-respected and apolitical, Harvey once got tabbed as the prospective candidate for election by Conservative and Liberal parties, but declined both nominations. A national election in early June that year had vaulted John Diefenbaker’s federal Conservatives into power for the first time in a generation. 

The unexpected change had international implications, delaying approval of the North American Air Defence (NORAD) agreement. The Russian launch of a first space satellite, Sputnik, a few months later that same year, would prove a turning point in the Cold War too. 

Nixon, likely aware of the importance of the agreement for American security, would have wanted to hear any gossip or information he could about the new Prime Minister and the state of Canadian politics. Harvey was exactly the right person to give him the inside scoop. Dick never forgot Harvey’s welcome, or his generosity that day.