[8] Ender's job was to corral the allies into a common approach to the energy crisis and prevent bilateralism from gaining the upper hand.

[11] Canada was a key piece of the energy supply puzzle, lying in between the lower 48 states and the Alaskan North Slope.

The US Government had chosen the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System (TAPS) over the more efficient Trans-Canadian route, to avoid relying on Canada for such a vital resource.

In the interest of preserving the lands of the Haida, Enders imposed a 100-mile tanker exclusion zone from Cape St John, at least for a period of time.

This preference for North-South trade where manifestly more efficient became a common theme of his approach on coal and electricity, dovetailing with the economic interests of provincial premiers.

Introducing himself in an interview with Bruce Philips on CTV on 11 April 1976, Enders said: "We think that the Canadian American relationship is one that has a lot of opportunities as well as clearly some differences that have to be solved.

This was a dramatic change from the historical tradition of US envoys engaging in fatuous talk about best friends, closest neighbors and undefended border".

Early on in his posting, Enders addressed in a speech at the Conference Board of Canada in November 1976, the "continentalism that haunts every discussion of improving Canadian-US relations".

[16] This periodic Canadian paranoia of being absorbed by the US de facto, he thought, was a natural consequence of the US being Canada's top trading partner.

[17] Then Under Secretary of External Affairs Allan Gotlieb, subsequently Ambassador to the US in the 1980s, said about Enders: "Over many years, Canada and the US typically emphasized the importance of resolving issues, or trying to, behind closed doors.

As a part of his practice of public diplomacy, he and Gaetana made the Ambassadorial residence a place of great excitement and for continuing debate and dialogue.

"[18]Strengthening management of shared environments, as had been achieved since 1972 by the International Joint Commission for the Great Lakes, was a recurring aspiration for Enders.

[19] At the time, the irritants were the Garrison Diversion project on the US side and the Saskatchewan Government's plan to build a thermal generating plant on the Poplar River near the border with Montana.

He was closely involved in the Kennedy Round of trade negotiations in 1966 and 1967 as Special Assistant to Under Secretary for Political Affairs Walt Rostow.

In a key speech to the Conference Board of Canada, Enders said: "You're going to ask right off what two job-short economies can do for each other in the field of trade without making their problems worse.

Finance Minister Jean Chrétien's Economic and Fiscal Statement to the House of Commons indicated: "We need lower – not higher – trade barriers here and around the world if we are to build efficient manufacturing industries and increase our productivity."

[23] Enders thought an ambitious bilateral tariff cutting agreement with Canada might galvanise Japan and the European Economic Community to do the same.

[27] Enders stated that there had been a battle between guerrillas and the army but that "no evidence could be found to confirm that government forces systematically massacred civilians."

Enders also repeated the claim that only 300 people had lived in Mozote, and it was impossible for the death toll to have reached that reported in the Times and Post stories.

[29] Shultz described Enders as a "loyal, keenly analytic officer with a style that could irritate even those who supported him; he might be difficult, but he was a definite asset.

Enders quickly established excellent working relations with Socialist Party (PSOE) Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez and King Juan Carlos, both of whom supported continued membership in NATO and the EU initiative.

In late 1985 the NSC staff contacted the embassy to report that Mrs. Reagan's office had request that McFarland agree to see the Countess of Romanones and inquired as to her background.

[33] These events triggered an inquiry which revealed that for the past several years the countess had been paying a columnist at ABC, the leading Madrid right-wing newspaper, to write articles highlighting Enders' good relations with the Gonzalez government and implying that he did not support the administration's foreign policy.

[citation needed] The Enders Endowment funds a graduate fellowship program as well as hosts a lecture series annually in Washington, D.C., for US–Canadian relations.