Canadians and our ties to Americans

Some history of Canadian/American friendship and conflict

War of 1812 by Grok

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By

James Pew

Canada has never fought a direct war against the United States. However, before confederation (1867) when Canada became a self-governing dominion, the territories that would later form that dominion, which had been under the control of the British, engaged in a small number of military conflicts with the United States (or as they were known previously, the Thirteen American Colonies). The total is four, if we only count significant engagements which involved organized forces. Economic wars, or trade disputes, are another story. We’ll get there.

The Aroostook War (1838–1839) drew no blood. The conflict concerned the Maine-New Brunswick border and was resolved amicably by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. A quarter of a century later the Fenian Raids (1866–1871) saw the Irish-American Fenian Brotherhood make multiple non-state sanctioned attacks in British North America in an effort to sway Britain to withdraw forces from Ireland.

The other far more consequential military struggles between the two North American friends and neighbours occurred first in the late eighteenth century, and second in the early nineteenth century. During the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), which saw limited involvement of areas north of the 49th parallel, British North America thwarted a particularly serious invasion by the Americans in 1775 known as The Battle of Quebec.

It was fought during a snowstorm on December 31, 1775 (one of few battles fought in such miserable conditions during the revolutionary war). The American’s intention was to conscript the British colony, which today forms the province of Quebec (and also included parts of Ontario) into their struggle against the British. The Patriots of the Thirteen Colonies had earlier that year begun rebelling against British taxation and governance. They surmised that the French-speaking Quebec settlers, disaffected with the imposition of British rule as it was laid out in the 1763 Treaty of Paris (which ended the Seven Years War), would join the American cause. A significant miscalculation, to say the least.

The battle was fought on two fronts against a British garrison of 1800 soldiers led by British commander, Governor Guy Carleton. The combined total of American troops was only 1200. The first front was commanded by Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, who led his troops in an attack of the Lower Town from the south. The second assault occurred from the north and was led by Colonel Benedict Arnold (who would later become an infamous American traitor).

Montgomery and several officers were killed instantly on their initial advance. This sparked a retreat amongst his remaining soldiers. Arnold had slightly more luck. His army penetrated northern defences but were stymied in the narrow streets of Quebec. During fighting Arnold was wounded, after which he handed the command to Daniel Morgan. After hours of fighting, Morgan and his men were forced to surrender. The Americans lost the battle decisively ensuring Quebec would remain a loyalist stronghold.

The second of the two significant conflicts involving British North America and the Thirteen American Colonies was the infamous War of 1812 – a more well-known period of antagonism between proto-Canada and her American neighbours.

Here is a topline summary with some extra history concerning the U.S.-Canada border (the world’s longest undefended border), from Terry Glavin:

“The War of 1812 - which the Americans still pretend they won - was officially concluded with the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. Then came the Rush-Bagot Pact of 1817 and the Convention of 1818, which set the border at the 49th parallel.”¹

The War of 1812 took place during Britain's struggle against Napoleonic France. The two most famous Canadian battles from this tragic conflict were the Battle of Queenston Heights and the burning of York (now Toronto) – British troops would even the score of the latter by burning Washington D.C.

The war was unpopular. Like today, there were too many bonds between the Americans and proto-Canadians. But also like today, with Canada and the United States once again bickering over trade and various political interests, the disagreements were accompanied by a reluctance to engage in hostilities.

From Pierre Burton’s War of 1812:

“At the outset, it was a gentleman’s war. Officers on opposing sides met for parlays under flags of truce, offered hospitality, exchanged cordialities, murmured the hopes that hostilities would quickly end.”²

No matter what time period we are examining, we can never forget that Britons, Canadians and Americans are all first cousins. Yes we disagree from time to time, sometimes we even fight. But always over some unfortunate political dispute, and never for each other's annihilation.

In 1812, for a variety of reasons, the Americans, especially a minority of hawkish elites in Washington, felt they had no other choice but to invade the north. Some of them felt it would be easy. An aggravating factor concerned Britain’s support of Indian tribes in the north west, at a time when the Americans were aggressively expanding into that region. But also, during their imperial contest with France, the British were impressing sailors in the American navy (forcing them to join British forces), becuase they considered them traitors of the British crown. Further, they blocked key trade ports under Napoleon's control, disrupting trade between America and France.

Isn’t it curious how trade so often appears as the rift in Canadian-American relations? Further examples include: the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 which allowed for free trade of natural resources between the American and British colonies. However, the Americans abrogated that treaty in 1866 partly out of frustration at perceived British support of the confederacy after the Civil War. A post-confederation trade war with the Americans ensued after Canada’s first Prime Minister John A. MacDonald adopted the National Policy in 1879, which imposed high tariffs to protect Canadian industry. Triggering the Americans to respond with tariffs of their own.

The United States passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930 which raised tariffs on Canadian goods. This greatly deepened the suffering of depression era Canadians who had already been hanging by a thread. When Canada predictably imposed retaliatory tariffs nothing was achieved save for the shrinking of bi-lateral trade and damage to both economies. Economically stifling restrictions were finally lifted in 1935 under the Reciprocal Trade Agreement.

After WWII both nations joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which opened up trade even more, for a while at least. Although throughout the 1950s and 1960s trade disputes over essential resources were common. The 1980s are best remembered as a decade of softwood lumber trade disputes. 1986 saw a softwood lumber agreement, but it fell apart in 1991.

The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA, 1989) and the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA, 1994), were designed to maximize free trade. However, the softwood lumber industry and other key industries like agriculture and the auto sector, were generally unable to resolve their long-standing disputes. Regardless, trade increased and exceeded $600 billion annually by 2020.

During President Trump’s first election campaign he commonly criticized NAFTA as “the worst trade deal ever.” Once in office, the Trump administration initiated trade renegotiations. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) replaced NAFTA on July 1, 2020. Trump took office for his second term in 2025 and immediately initiated a new trade war with Canada.

It’s a dismal shame that these matters, from pre-confederation to the current day, cause so much acrimony among such close and long-standing friends. When friends are this close, they are more like family, like cherished cousins. When the War of 1812 was initially declared the officers at the British post at Fort George “were entertaining their American opposite numbers at dinner.” However, “they insisted that the meal continue as if hostilities had not commenced, then, with much handshaking and expressions of regret, accompanied their guests to their boats.” (Berton pg 18).

It is infinitely regrettable what happened next. The war was a bloody mess and a calamitous waste. “Within a few weeks, the former dinner companions were ripping through one another’s homes and fortifications with red-hot cannonballs.” Like most wars, once fighting commenced, bitterness transformed understanding and mutual respect into barbarity. This war was no different. “There was savagery on both sides by white frontiersmen as well as Indians, who scalped the fallen sometimes when they were still alive. Men were roasted in flaming buildings, chopped to pieces by tomahawks, sliced open by bayonets, drowned, frozen, or felled by sickness…” (Berton pg 18).

Adding to the chaos, the armies involved were hastily assembled undisciplined citizen militias. “On both sides men thought nothing of leaving the scene of battle to thresh their grain at harvest time.” Others altogether refused to fight. In spite of everything, economic relations continued unabated, the war brought “disaster to thousands and prosperity to thousands more.” American merchants on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain “fed the British Troops fighting on the western side,” while businessmen from Montreal became wealthy selling their wares to New England. “Before the invasion came to an end, two out of every three soldiers fighting for the safety and honour of Canada were subsisting on beef brought in by enemy contractors.”(Berton pg 20).

But the ties ran so much deeper than economic. In one very old, and unverified legend, that speaks to the tragedy of warring friends, it was told that the man who shot the first cannonball from the Canadian side during the battle of Detroit killed his best friend on the American side. “Almost everyone had a friend or a relative on the other side of the border.” (Berton pg 21)

Today, after more than 200 additional years of friendship, which from time-to-time has relapsed into contretemps, and far more rarely, into full-blown hostilities, the nature of our squabbles have updated somewhat to reflect the times, but have not really changed all that much. Our manner is far more rash and belligerent, unexpectedly so from the Canadian side. Not by all Canadians, but by a lot of them. From booing the Americans to boycotting them, it as all too much for me. The history of Canadians and Americans creating cultural and prosperity side-by-side is far too deep and far too important to be cast away so cavalierly.

Deep down Americans and Canadians still love each other and cannot imagine life without one another. At least that is how this writer feels, admittedly I have no idea how much this sentiment is shared by my fellow Canadians, and since so many of us have taken to acting like damn fools, I’m reluctant to estimate what kind of sentiment towards Canadians is held by most Americans. Either way, I sincerely hope for a resolution to all disputes and contentions with our American cousins as soon as possible. In the meantime, it might be worthwhile if more of us contemplated our long history with them..

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Thanks for reading. For more from this author read, Trade War Madness

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1. Because of the day that's in it. - by Terry Glavin

2. Pierre Berton’s War of 1812