MONTPELIER--Lt. Governor Brian Dubie traveled to the coast of Nova Scotia for a July 27 annual networking event for Canadian business and government leaders. Dubie was invited by former Canadian Ambassador to the US and former New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna. McKenna, who hosts the annual one-day event, is now deputy chair of TD Bank Financial Group.

Dubie joined an exclusive club of US attendees this year; the only other Americans present were current US Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins, and former US President Bill Clinton. Clinton also delivered the keynote address.

Lt. Governor Dubie said the former president spoke about the AIDS crisis in Africa, world poverty, water security, and other topics of global importance. “Later,” Dubie said, “I met with President Clinton one-on-one, and asked him about his plan in the mid-90s to normalize relations with the nation of Cuba.” Those plans were cut short, Dubie says, on February 24, 1996, when Cuban Air Force MiG fighter jets shot down two small, unarmed US civilian aircraft flown by Brothers to the Rescue -- a Miami-based organization formed by Cuban exiles to assist and rescue raft refugees emigrating from Cuba.

Dubie was an F-16 pilot with the Vermont Air National Guard at that time.

He recalls how, minutes after the planes were shot down, “I received orders to get into my F-16, loaded with live missiles, and be ready at a moment’s notice to take off from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. I sat awake in that jet for most of that long night, but I was never given orders to launch. I vowed then and there,” he said, “that if I ever did have a chance to go to Cuba, I would.”

Dubie, who has twice traveled to Cuba as Vermont’s Lt. Governor to promote sales of Vermont agricultural products to the island nation, said “I was able to share with President Clinton the work I’ve done to establish a relationship, built around agriculture, between the people of Vermont and the people of Cuba.” In particular, since Dubie first went to Cuba in April of 2004, that relationship has generated millions of dollars in sales of powdered milk and Vermont short-bred dairy heifers, as authorized under the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (TSRA) of 2000.

Dubie said, “President Clinton was able to provide valuable insight into what was happening behind the scenes, in the days and hours leading up to and following the shoot-down.” He continued, “Our conversation encouraged me to press forward with my goal to normalize relations with Cuba, while also meeting with pro-democracy dissident leaders like Vladimir Roca, in support of human rights and free speech for the Cuban people.”

Dubie says he looks forward to attending the annual networking event again next year. “I made many new friends for Vermont in the Canadian business and government community, and I’m eager to explore new and productive relationships with our neighbors to the north.”