U.S. President Joe Biden arrives in Ottawa today for a two-day working visit

US President Joe Biden will touch down in Ottawa Thursday for his first official visit to Canada since winning the presidency more than two years ago – and the trip could be an opportunity for the two countries to cut some deals.

Biden’s two-day visit begins tonight with a meeting with the King’s representative in Canada, Governor General Mary Simon.

Other planned events include Biden’s speech to Parliament on Friday, several meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other high-level Canadian officials, and what the White House called an “intimate meeting” at Trudeau’s home. There was also a “pulling aside” at some point with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

First Lady Jill Biden will also come for the visit. It was a chance to “build a friendship” with the prime minister’s wife Sophie, White House spokesman John Kirby said. There are several “couple programs” planned for the two.

Canada will then host the Bidens for a state dinner at the Air and Space Museum. Hundreds of officials have been invited.

While Trudeau said before the trip that he wanted to expel Biden from Ottawa (in January, he floated the idea of ​​taking Biden to a factory to meet with workers “to build Canada, the future of North America”), the president and his wife are not expected to leave the nation’s capital .

• Watch and listen to US President Joe Biden’s first state visit to Canada on CBC News. Special live coverage begins Friday at 1pm ET on CBC News Network, CBC Gem, CBC News App and YouTube, and at 1:30pm ET on CBC Radio and the CBC Listen app.

The last US president to spend a non-summit visit to Canada was George W. Bush in 2004.

Biden’s plans for the visit differ significantly from Bush’s trip, which took place just months after the US invaded Iraq.

The two leaders will discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine, the deteriorating situation in Haiti, Canada’s military state as global threats mount, the Safe Third Nations Agreement and the influx of refugees at the Roxham Quebec crossing.

There will be regular discussions about trade and the economy – high stakes as inflation continues to weigh on people on both sides of the border.

“This visit is about taking stock of where we are, what we’ve done and what we need to prioritize,” Kirby said in a Wednesday briefing with reporters before the trip.

“We will talk about our two democracies moving forward to meet the challenges of our time. This includes taking concrete steps to increase defense spending, drive the global race to the top of clean energy and build a prosperous and inclusive economy.”

A rocky start to a relationship

Unlike some previous presidents, Biden did not make Canada his first foreign stop after taking the top job. In fact, Biden’s early days were marked by some tension with Canada.

One of his first official acts was to revoke the president’s permit to build the multibillion-dollar Keystone XL pipeline — killing a major economic driver for Alberta’s oilpatch.

Biden also campaigned on an infrastructure plan with strict Buy American protectionist provisions and vowed to award big government contracts to US companies – a policy that threatens to put Canadian businesses out of business.

The threat remains. Biden outlined the policy during his February State of the Union address — but Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kristen Hillman, sounded a more positive note about the policy in a recent CBC interview.

At the height of the COVID vaccine supply crisis, the Biden White House did not send some supplies to partners like Canada. Then they sent me some AstraZeneca shots, which are not commonly used south of the border.

Continued US challenges to Canada’s source-managed dairy sector continue to strain Canada-US relations, and the softwood file remains an irritant.

EV tax credit, NEXUS offer reported in the new month

But there has been some significant progress on issues of mutual interest in recent months.

The US has agreed to amend the lucrative electric vehicle tax credit to include vehicles assembled in Canada – a reversal that has sparked relief in Ottawa.

After months of negotiations, Canada and the US also recently reached an agreement to maintain the popular NEXUS trusted travel program.

The US wants legal protections for its border officials who the Liberal government says threaten Canadian sovereignty. The workaround will make the application process a bit more complicated, but at least the program is live.

Canada and the US have also signed a series of commitments on the production of semiconductors and critical minerals – part of a coordinated effort to challenge China’s hegemony in the region.

This recent victory may explain why Canada is ready to roll out the red carpet for Biden.

The visit could be a chance to sign some more win-win deals, said Maryscott Greenwood, CEO of the Canadian American Business Council and an expert in cross-border relations.

They say more action is needed on critical minerals — the US is desperate for these valuable manufacturing inputs and there are only so many places in the world that can supply them.

WATCH: The economy tops the agenda as Biden makes his first visit to Canada as president

Greenwood said the president’s visit was “quite significant” for bilateral relations.

When the two have met on the sidelines of some peaks, there is something like face-to-face on Canadian soil, he said.

“It caused the entire US bureaucracy to stop whatever it was doing and focus on Canada. That’s positive,” he said.