On this day in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono met with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau

After a busy year that included  his marriage to Yoko Ono, staging the two bed-ins in Amsterdam and Montreal, appearing at the Toronto Rock’N’Roll Revival festival with a new band and unveiling the War Is Over! poster campaign earlier in the month, Lennon headed to Ottawa for the meeting. He was joined by Ritchie Yorke, then working for the Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto.

In a meeting that was scheduled for 15 minutes but stretched to 50, Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau, John Lennon and Yoko Ono primarily discussed the Cold War and beginning peaceful diplomatic relations. Afterwards they met with Health Minister John Munro to discuss the location and planning of a proposed music festival to be held in Canada. Lennon told media at a press conference afterwards that the experience had been a positive one and that “if all politicians were like Mr Trudeau, there would be peace”.

Lennon’s peace campaign continued for the next two years, largely with a musical direction, using several songs to spread his ideas about achieving peace, culminating with “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” in December of 1971.