OTTAWA -- Memories of the last time U.S. President Barack Obama visited Ottawa were alive and well Wednesday in the heart of one local business owner who hoped he would get the chance to meet him again.
At the Moulin de Provence bakery in Ottawa's ByWard Market, a steady stream of tourists and curiosity-seekers stopped by to purchase -- or at least take photos of -- a display case stuffed with what have become known as "Obama Cookies."
The sugar cookie shaped like a maple leaf -- "Canada" written in white block letters atop red icing -- has become locally famous since Obama bought three of them for his family during his first visit to Ottawa in 2009.
Owner Claude Bonnet, 59, said the cookie has been a boon for business over the past seven years.
"We are selling these cookies by the thousands," Bonnet said Wednesday.
The bakery, festooned with photographs of the moment Obama bought the cookies, offers a commemorative tin for the cookie, for those customers who want to shell out a little extra, and even uses a television on hand to show news coverage of the visit on a permanent loop.
These days, the display case also offers Maple Leaf cookies with a photo of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which Bonnet, a longtime Liberal party supporter, said he started selling to celebrate the results of the 2015 election.
Bonnet was hopeful that Obama would stop by again Wednesday on his way to the U.S. Embassy, this time perhaps even bringing the Canadian prime minister and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto with him. It's the last event on the itinerary for what is expected to be Obama's last visit to Canada as U.S. president.
Bonnet said he will be disappointed if Obama does not repeat his visit, as he wants to thank him for all the extra business and give him a present.
On Wednesday, the bakery came out with a new, much larger Maple Leaf cookie, with pictures of Obama, Trudeau and Pena Nieto on it to commemorate Wednesday's North American Leaders' Summit, known colloquially as the Three Amigos summit.
Customers inquiring about those cookies were told they were not for sale, but Liberal MP Peter Schiefke, the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, managed to buy one.
He said he is going to bring it to a Liberal caucus party planned for after Obama's speech, where they can all have a piece of a cookie meant to commemorate the first Three Amigos summit in Canada in eight years, and Obama's last visit to the country.
"We'll enjoy a nice piece of history later," Schiefke said.
Cheryl Doner, visiting Ottawa from Kirkland Lake, Ont., decided to include the bakery on her tour of the capital so that she could buy one of the Obama cookies.
She remembered Obama also bought a Beavertail -- a sugary fried pastry popular in the national capital -- the last time he was in town.
"Maybe that will be my next stop," she said.
Inaas Kiryakos bought a few of the cookies, but she is not a tourist.
Kiryakos owns the boutique Milk around the corner from the bakery and said she wanted the cookies for a photo shoot with some Canadian-themed T-shirt collections she is selling.
She applauded the bakery for the success of its own marketing.
"It's smart. They have the video that's on loop. They've got the posters. It's a genius ploy to get people into their store," she said.
The bakery was not Obama's only stop on that day in 2009.
Adnan Ustan was minding his small souvenir shop inside the market building when Obama came to buy a key chain for one of his daughters. Ustan still has the $5 bill from Obama and regrets not asking him to autograph it at the time.
He said he hopes he will still get the chance one day, but does not think Wednesday will provide the opportunity.
He said everyone keeps asking him if Obama is planning to stop by again.
"I say, 'Yeah, I spoke with him and he says, "I'm not coming today to the market,""' Ustun joked.
Ustun, who now also owns a pizzeria in the market, said his wife was the one originally scheduled to work in 2009 but asked him to do it instead.
He said she regrets it.
"She was so jealous."
