"The partnership between Canada and the United States is among the most robust, most complex and most important in the world," Biden told premiers and Indigenous leaders as his host, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, sat by his side.
At a dinner party during that same December visit four years ago, Biden said his sons wanted to be Mounties when they grew up.
So, would a Biden win be good for Canada.
"There are a number of policy areas in which a Biden administration would be much closer to Canada," said former Trudeau foreign policy advisor Roland Paris, now a professor at the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.
"It's also true that Joe Biden has run on a nationalist economic agenda and that has to be a concern in Ottawa," Paris said.
And despite his 36 years in the Senate, including two stints as chair of the powerful foreign affairs committee, Biden has never shown any inclination to solve the softwood lumber problem — the biggest, longest-running bilateral trade dispute between the two countries.
Paris said the Trudeau government will have to be nimble in protecting Canada's interests — especially if the Democrats also gain control of the Senate on Tuesday.
"I think there is likely to be strong support if that happens for a new Buy America approach by a Biden administration," he said.
One Canadian official, speaking on background, said the Biden and Harris connections to Canada have been "overblown" by the media.
Susan Rice, former national security adviser to Barack Obama, is married to a Canadian and also has close ties to both Biden and the Trudeau team.
"Joe Biden is a known commodity," said Peter Boehm, a long-serving Canadian diplomat before his appointment to the Senate.
And even if Biden wins, his personal connections to Trudeau and Canada guarantee nothing as far as the bilateral relationship is concerned.
WATCH: How a Biden presidency might affect Canada.
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