Queen not coming for Seaway's 50th

MASSENA — Queen Elizabeth II will not be coming to party with Northern New Yorkers this summer. But there is still hope that President Barack Obama will.

Both heads of state were invited to come to Massena this summer to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway. A winter letter-writing campaign involving local schools and organizations requested their presence.

The Massena Senior Citizens Center received word from both Buckingham Palace and the White House.

"The queen's diary secretary sent us a letter saying, 'She is unable to attend, she has no plans to travel to the U.S. this summer,'" said Sheila L. Benn, the center's executive director. "The president's secretary did not say yes, she did not say no."

Though the letters were sent during the winter, the one to the White House was sent to the wrong office at first. It took a long time to get switched over to the right department, Ms. Benn said.

President Obama's secretary simply called to tell the seniors that the letter was now in the right hands and being considered.

"I was quite surprised on a Friday afternoon to pick up the phone and hear, 'This is the White House,'" Ms. Benn said. "It was a first. I know he's very busy, but who knows. We've had a lot of VIPs come to Massena."

When the Seaway opened in June 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight D. Eisenhower sailed through a couple of the locks. The queen and Vice President Richard M. Nixon then dedicated the Seaway a few days later.

Despite the disappointing news from Buckingham Palace, planning for this summer's commemorative festivities continues apace.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police will demonstrate their Musical Ride choreographed performances on horseback. There will be a lecture series on the history of the Seaway and old videos of its construction will be sold as souvenirs, according to Sarah E. More, vice president of the Waddington Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Seaway50 group, which is planning the events. The Iroquois Dam will be designated a Canadian historic site, which is a more rare — and therefore more prestigious — award than in the United States, Ms. More said. Beacons also will be lit in honor of the lost villages, Canadian villages that were flooded to create the 15-lock shipping route.

The queen is not coming because she is planning a trip to Toronto sometime later in the summer, Ms. More said.

There was hope that someone else from the royal family would be able to make the trip, but she said it is unlikely at this point.

Fingers are still crossed that President Obama will be able to make the trip, however.

"Not getting a direct 'no' kind of perked me up a bit because we might get the president up to the north country," Ms. Benn said. "Wouldn't it be wonderful to have the nation's first black president in the north country."