[2] His signature moment as ambassador occurred during the negotiation of the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement, where he "played a vital role in persuading the US to adopt a position that Canada could accept.

Sondra attracted publicity on March 19, 1986, when she slapped her social secretary at an official dinner she and her husband were hosting in honour of the Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney and US Vice-President George H. W.

[9] Gotlieb was a proponent of combining North American economic, defence, and security arrangements within a common perimeter and, in 2002, he advocated for a "grand bargain" with the US to create new trade rules and institutions.

[10] He argued "Wouldn't this 'legal integration' be superior to ad hoc responses and largely ineffective lobbying to prevent harm from Congressional protectionist sorties?

[citation needed] On the art of diplomacy in Washington, he said in 2009, "You have to get the power shakers, including the media, into your dining room.

[1] Gottlieb was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1987 and received his insignia from Governor-General Jeanne Sauvé in Ottawa on May 6, 1988.

[14] Gotlieb received the Government of Canada's Outstanding Achievement Award in 1983,[15] "the highest recognition for executives at the deputy minister level in the Public Service.

[17] His book "The Washington Diaries: 1981-1989" was nominated for the Writer's Trust of Canada's 2007 Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing.