Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend the funeral of former US President Jimmy Carter in Washington, D.C., on January 9, his office said.
Carter died on December 29 at the age of 100. He was the thirty-ninth president of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981.
A public funeral will be held on Thursday at the National Cathedral in Washington.
The Prime Minister’s Office says Trudeau will attend the funeral to offer condolences on behalf of Canadians and reaffirm the close ties between the two countries.
In a post on X, the Prime Minister said on Friday that Carter had worked to make the world a better place.
Carter is scheduled to lie in state at the US Capitol in Washington on Tuesday evening and again on Wednesday. US President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver a eulogy at his funeral on Thursday.
Carter’s remains, which had been lying in state at the Carter Presidential Center since Saturday, left the Atlanta campus Tuesday morning, accompanied by his children and extended family. The 39th Special Air Force mission departed Dobbins Air Reserve Base north of Atlanta and arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
A procession carried the casket to Washington for a final trip to the Capitol, where members of Congress will pay their respects.
In Georgia, eight military pallbearers carried Carter’s coffin while cannons fired into the nearby coliseum. They loaded her into a vehicle that lifted her into the passenger cabin of the plane, a blue-and-white Boeing 747 known as Air Force One when the president is on board. Carter never traveled as president on the plane, which first flew on Air Force One in 1990 with President George H.W.
The scene was repeated outside Washington. The former president’s coffin was removed from the plane, cannons were fired and a military band played. A hearse emblazoned with the president’s seal joined the motorcade heading toward Washington.
The Joint Services Military Honor Guard stands around the casket of former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in state at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Paul).
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The casket containing the remains of former President Jimmy Carter moves down Constitution Avenue toward the U.S. Capitol on a horse-drawn caisson in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died on Dec. 29, 2024, at the age of 100. AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Paul).
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A bipartisan delegation of members of Congress was led into the Capitol rotunda by Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, Democrats who represent Carter’s home state.
Three of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices were also present. Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan stood next to Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser in the rotunda.
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The US Army Brass Quintet played as people waited for the casket to arrive.
There are the familiar rituals that follow a president’s death — the return of the Air Force to the Beltway, the military honor guard carrying a flag-draped coffin up the steps of the Capitol, and Lincoln’s casket in the rotunda.
There will also be unique symbolism for Carter. As he was taken from his presidential post, a military band played hymns – “Amazing Grace” and “Blessed Assurance” – by the outspoken Baptist evangelist who called himself a “born-again Christian” when he sought and won the presidency in 1976. WASHINGTON – His body stopped at the memorial to the US Navy, where his remains were transferred to a horse-drawn submarine for the remainder of its journey to the Capitol. The website notes Carter’s place as the only U.S. Naval Academy graduate to become Commander-in-Chief.
All this pomp has some irony for the Democrat who moved from his family’s peanut warehouse to the governor’s mansion and eventually the White House. Carter won the presidency as a smiling Southern architect and technocrat who promised to change Washington’s ways, and eschewed many of those unwritten rules when he got there.
From 1977 to 1981, Carter was the highest-ranking resident in Washington. But he never mastered it.
“He could be a very prickly and unattractive figure” in a city that thrives on connections, biographer Jonathan Alter said, describing a president who suffered from the adulation of lawmakers and journalists.
Carter often mocked the ceremonial trappings that were on display in Georgia and would continue in Washington.
As president, he wanted to ban the Marine Corps band from playing “Hail to the Chief,” believing it elevated the president too high. His advisors convinced him to accept it as part of the job. The song was played Saturday as he arrived at his presidential post after a parade through his hometown of Plains and his childhood farm. It played again while his remains were transported on their way to Washington.
He also never used his full name, James Earl Carter Jr., until he was sworn in. His full name was printed on memorial cards provided to all mourners who paid their respects in Atlanta.
He once addressed the nation from his White House residence wearing a cardigan that is now on display in his museum and library. His remains now rest in a wooden coffin carried and guarded by military pallbearers wearing their impeccable uniforms.
As Carter’s remains left Georgia, President-elect Donald Trump criticized the late former president during a press conference in Florida for ceding control of the Panama Canal to his native country.
When asked if it was appropriate to criticize Carter during the solemn funeral service, Trump replied: “I liked him as a man. I disagreed with his policies. “He thought giving up the Panama Canal was a good thing.”
He added, “I didn’t want to bring up the Panama Canal issue because of Jimmy Carter’s death,” although he first mentioned it casually.
-With additional files from The Associated Press
& Edition 2025 The Canadian Press
