It’s tough to keep up with the international crisis/hoopla ‘de jour.’ I’ll talk more about sorting these challenges in a few weeks, but before it gets lost behind Ukraine, Gaza, China, tariffs, USAID, NATO budgets, immigration and, of course, bombing Iran, I wanted to touch on a 'borderline' issue.
Repeated recent ruminations by HWSNBN have put the independence of Canada on the table. Of course, the Canadians are having none of it (nor their current formal sovereign, Charles III). On top of the bluster about annexation, they also have to deal with the impact of the current tariff upheaval (we are far-and-away their largest trading partner (~75%)).
At the same time, as a stalwart member of NATO, Canadian forces recently engaged in the regular Arctic wargaming with US forces; foreshadowing the potential mischief from a more hostile and aggressive Russia. Canada is also home to critical radar detection systems that would be as essential in the lately-bruited “Golden Dome” missile defense system (adapted, no doubt, from Notre Dame’s fearsome football defense).
So, we actually have a symbiotic relationship with Canada in economic and geopolitical terms; making the threats to their independence (likely unsuccessful) all the more problematic.
Since I (like most people in Metropolitan Detroit) grew up north of Canada and enjoyed watching hockey and curling on Canadian TV, I have a special connection with our slightly boring and slightly kooky cousins.
As a historian, I have also spent a fair amount of time understanding the ups and downs of Canadian/British-US relations over the past 250 years. The current brouhaha would seem only typically ridiculous for our present foreign policy direction but for a pretty extensive history of the US looking longingly northward and trying to grab Canada into our embrace. However, that history makes them take the threat even more seriously.
Inter-imperial fights between France and Britain in the 18C left the latter in charge in North America, but ensured that relations between the various provinces and the metropole were quite different north and south. In the aftermath of our successful ouster of the Brits, many loyalists moved north to stay under their imperial flag. Nonetheless, in an early example of American expansionism, the post-Revolutionary peace talks in Paris did feature our efforts to get the Brits to give us Canada as part of the overall settlement.
After we got our noses slapped in the War of 1812, we quieted down for a bit. However, during the US Civil War, the British didn’t play fair in terms of their relationship with the (ultimately unsuccessful) Confederacy; so, after the War, the US again sought control of Canada in recompense for British misdeeds. We were again rebuffed.
By this time, the British had come to realize that their heavy-handed management of their former colonies in the 18C should not be replicated in their continued Canadian holdings, so the 1860s saw the adoption of a new model of empire which allowed Canada an increasing autonomy in handling its affairs. Over the past 150 years, this has become more solidified so that by the time of WWII, Canada was de facto independent of Britain, even if formally within the “Commonwealth” and acknowledging the British Monarch (George VI, Elizabeth II, Charles III) as the Canadian Monarch as well.
Indeed, it was not until the 20C that Canadian international relations was actually directed from Ottawa rather than London. During the later 19C, Canadians were only a part (and not necessarily the determinative part) of international negotiations which directly affected Canadian territory and interests. Since a fair amount of those international concerns arose vis-à-vis the US, this repeatedly led to awkward referrals to London or the British Ambassador to the US to handle what would normal have been bilateral affairs.
The late 19C/early 20C saw a large number of border disputes , as well as controversies about pollution and fisheries between Canada and the US. On more than one occasion, the prospect of absorbing Canada was raised by the US, then in full flush of its imperialistic/ “manifest destiny” phase. (The first) President Roosevelt was particularly aggressive in this regard.
The formal annexation front has been pretty quiet since then, only to be replaced by an informal economic and cultural imperialism that continues to this day. A stalwart NATO member and (junior) partner in Northa American defense arrangements, Canadians cherish their formal independence and cultural distinctiveness, even as they consume US brands and watch US media. The vast majority live reasonably close to the US border, speak (pretty much) the same language (Quebec is a whole other story!), and have many of the same cultural and political values.
So, we’ve long been the ‘big brother,’ who (unsurprisingly) has often been a bit of a bully to the kid sibling. The latest bullying has, however, had a more hostile than familial tone. It’s unlikely that it will go anywhere, rather it will join the increasingly long list of erstwhile allies who we are forcing to rethink their relationship with us and their posture in a more dangerous and dynamic world.
RSS Feed