OTTAWA - Irish rock star Bono once said the world needs more Canada. In Barack Obama's case, he's had a decent dose for years.
Unlike his predecessor George W. Bush, a Texan who had deeper ties with Mexico than with his northern neighbour, Obama has had important personal and professional ties to Canada.
Foremost among them is his brother-in-law, Konrad Ng, a native of Burlington, Ont. Ng is married to Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and is a close friend to the president.
Obama, his wife Michelle and their kids tooled around Burlington, Niagara Falls and Mississauga, Ont., in a rental car in 2004 while celebrating Maya and Konrad's nuptials. The newlyweds brought the Obamas to Burlington's waterfront Spencer Smith park for some outdoor time between scheduled festivities.
Joan Ng, Konrad's mother and a Burlington-area artist, says the family doesn't generally talk about subjects like Canada-U.S. relations, but she knows Obama feels positively about Canada.
"I'm very happy. I have no doubt he wants to get along with all the neighbour countries," Ng said in an interview.
"I'm sure he wants to be a good neighbour - we're Canadian so I'm sure that helps."
The Ngs and Obamas get together frequently, for Christmas, Thanksgiving and summer holidays. Joan and husband Howard have witnessed some of the high points of Obama's career.
"We're very excited about it all. We just go along for the ride."
Obama has also had key Canadians among the Red Bull-fuelled, BlackBerry-toting members of his entourage.
Marvin Nicholson, originally from Victoria, was Obama's main logistics man during the long election campaign and remains the president's trip director. He's running the show for the Ottawa visit.
Nicholson's rise to the White House sounds like the stuff of screenplays.
As a university student, he spent summers working at different Vancouver Island golf courses. He followed a love interest to Massachusetts, and met Senator John Kerry while caddying at a Nantucket golf course. Kerry tried to woo him away, but Nicholson had another job offer at Augusta National caddying for the rich and famous.
When that was over, Nicholson signed up with Kerry and stayed with him as his personal assistant through Kerry's presidential bid and beyond until 2006. That's when the Obama team snapped him up.
"If it hadn't been for (Marvin), we would not be where we are," Obama told the Victoria Times-Colonist days before the election.
Working with Nicholson on the Ottawa trip is Jean-Michel Picher of Toronto, a University of Western Ontario graduate.
Picher was also a fixture on the Obama tour over the last two years, travelling alongside the candidate to events across the United States.
In between jobs with Kerry and Obama, Picher slipped in stints as a special assistant to Prime Minister Paul Martin and Liberal leadership candidate Ken Dryden's campaign.
"It was a phenomenal feeling and such a magical event," Picher said of being at Chicago's Grant Park on the night Obama was elected.
David Axelrod, a top adviser to Obama at the White House, has some significant history with Canada although he's not a Canadian.
Axelrod and his Chicago-based strategy firm were hired by Dalton McGuinty's Ontario Liberals between 2000 and 2002.
McGuinty's slogan in the 2003 election was "Choose Change," devised internally by the Liberals and a phrase the premier suggested was borrowed by Axelrod's boss.
"He owes me big time for that," McGuinty said of Obama last year.
