For a humble quarterly like ours, a prime ministerial visit to this distant outpost of Canada – days before we go to press! – was a chance too good to pass up. But what could we write about a visit with no public events that lasted under 24 hours from March 6 to 7? And what could we do that the Ottawa press corps didn’t get?

Then it clicked: the cake!

We’d heard that Saturday was Prime Minister Takaichi’s 65th birthday. And one Canadian media story mentioned in passing that Mark Carney presented her with a birthday cake featuring maple syrup. That set us on the hunt to track down this worldwide exclusive in The Canadian…

The significance of this gift shines through once you consider it.

Head-of-state visit gift-giving typically results in the choice of self-
aggrandizing ‘boastful bling’ – presents that say, “How great are we” instead of “How much we appreciate you.”

What was in Prime Minister Takaichi’s Canadian cake, and who baked it? This is what was written on the menu card:

“In honour of the birthday of her Excellency Takaichi Sanae, Prime Minister of Japan, this cake features Canadian maple mascarpone cream, Japanese cherry blossom (sakura) sponge cake and Canadian cranberry syrup. Created by Chef Noguchi Yukie, a grand prize laureate of the Canada-Japan Maple Sweets Contest.”

By contrast, with the gift of this cake Canada insightfully acknowledged that Mark Carney was meeting Sanae Takaichi in the evening before a very significant day in her life: her 65th birthday. It was about her not us. The photos show the mixture of surprise and delight in her reaction.

The choice was wonderfully subtle on another level. Yes, the taste was an authentically Canadian mix of maple and cranberry. But the cake itself is an artful example of what a supremely talented Japanese creator can do with the finest things that can be sourced from Canada. It was about what Canada and Japan can create together – and to me that is a beautifully resonant statement.

Kudos to Ambassador Ian Mckay and his team. In a small but meaningful way this was Canadian diplomacy at its finest.