Obama, Trudeau joke, compliment each other during state dinner

It was a night full of praise and gentle ribbing as President Obama welcomed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the White House for a state dinner Thursday night.

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Obama said Trudeau's visit — the first official state visit by a Canadian leader in almost two decades — has been "a celebration of the values that we share," and he touted "the great alliance between the United States and Canada." It was a big night for Justin Bieber, with both Obama and Trudeau making cracks about the singer — first, Obama said in the U.S., Trudeau "may be the most popular Canadian named Justin," with Trudeau later saying, "Leave it to a Canadian to reach international fame with a song called 'Sorry.'"

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Obama also got laughs when he brought up the current political climate. "Where else could a boy born in Calgary grow up to run for the president of the United States?" he said, referring to Canadian-born Ted Cruz. "Where else would we see a community like Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, welcoming Americans if the election does not go their way? And to the great credit of their people, Canadians from British Columbia to New Brunswick have, so far, rejected the idea of building a wall to keep out your southern neighbors. We appreciate that."

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Trudeau, whose father Pierre Trudeau was prime minister from 1968 to 1979 and 1980 to 1984, thanked the Obamas for their hospitality, and noted that their daughters, Malia and Sasha, were at their first state dinner. "The memories for me of being a kid and not being old enough to attend these kinds of events with my father almost makes me wish I had gone through my teenage years as a child of a world leader — but not quite," he quipped. Trudeau also said the U.S. and Canada are "more like siblings. We have shared parentage, but we took different paths in our later years. We became the stay-at-home type, and you grew up to be a little more rebellious." He ended his toast to Obama with a wish: "May the special connection between our two countries continue to flourish in the years to come, and may my gray hair come in at a much slower rate than yours has."