During his first official mission to Canada in July 2005, Gov. Perdue, along with First Lady Mary Perdue, addresses guests at a reception at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. photo courtesy of the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

Georgia played a critical role in initiating the SEUS-Canada Alliance, a new business coalition between Canada and the Southeast that was about two years in the making, according to Chris Young, chief of protocol for the state of Georgia.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue will join state governors from across the Southeast and officials from provincial and national levels of the Canadian government in Montreal Nov. 15-16 to sign the organization’s founding charter.

The alliance, undertaken to affirm the already strong trade relationship between the Southeast and the U.S.’ northern neighbor, is modeled after the SEUS-Japan Alliance, a program that has enjoyed more than 30 years of trans-Pacific success and was initiated by another Georgia governor, the late George Busbee. 

Canada is perennially Georgia’s top trading partner, and although the state has shown a certain openness to courting emerging markets like China, Mr. Perdue has helped forge the new alliance at least in part to show dedication to a longstanding economic ally.

When Mr. Perdue made his first visit to Canada in July 2005, he “said very publicly that Georgia is about making friends all around the world, but the truest and dearest and closest friends that you have, those are the relationships you continue to nurture,” Mr. Young told GlobalAtlanta.

During that same visit, as Mr. Perdue traveled to Montreal and Toronto, there was a “general sense” that a more concrete recognition of the relationship between the Southeast and Canada was in order, Mr. Young added.

In June 2006, a Georgia delegation traveled to Canada to “keep the ball rolling” on business relations after an unexpected shift in Canadian political power in that year’s elections.

The idea for a business alliance came in a meeting Georgia officials held with David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, who hails from South Carolina.  As then-commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Craig Lesser, and other government officials discussed their regional business focus, the first flickers of the alliance were born.

“It was one of those light-bulb moments,” Mr. Young said. “The sense was, wouldn’t it be great if we had some sort of business alliance among the states of the Southeast and the provinces of Canada?”

Mr. Young stressed that as the alliance moved from brainstorming to formative stages, the province of Quebec played an important role. 

The first planning meeting was held with provincial officials in Quebec City, and the province became a “wholehearted supporter” of the initiative. With Quebec’s support, Georgia rallied the Southeastern states together and a working meeting was held in Ottawa, Ontario, in November 2006. 

Officials at the commissioner level from Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee showed up, and the states decided they needed a “mechanism” to form the alliance, Mr. Young said. 

This week, exactly one year from that meeting, officials from these states will sign a charter linking the Southeast with seven Canadian provinces: Labrador, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Quebec.

“The inaugural Southeastern United States-Canada Alliance meeting will make history for Georgia, Canada, and all the states and provinces that are participating,” Mr. Perdue said in a press release.  “Canada and Georgia have a long track record of cooperation and I know SEUS-Canada will allow these relationships to flourish.”

Mr. Perdue will chair the first official SEUS-Canada conference, which is expected to be held in Georgia in 2008.

Mr. Young said that such conferences are one of the main goals of the alliance in linking businesspeople in the two regions.  Yearly conventions are an important part of maintaining relationships and providing networking opportunities that will show “tangible results” from the partnership.

In 2005, Georgia’s exports to Canada totaled more than $4.8 billion, a 13 percent increase from 2004, according to statistics released by the Georgia department. 

Georgia has had a trade office in Canada since 1981, and a Canadian consulate has existed in Atlanta since 1973.