Reflections on the Unequal Border
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200506000203 |
| Author | Norman Hillmer |
| Date | 01 June 2005 |
| Published date | 01 June 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Values, US and Canadian |
Norman
Hillmer
Reflections
on the
unequal
border
The
American Assembly has an exquisite sense of timing.
Since
1945,
Canada-US
relations have experienced serious spasms of discontent, neatly
spaced
at 20-year intervals, and the assembly has arranged to be there on
each
occasion to report on testing times and
turning
points. Its first
study
appeared in 1964, right after a great argument over nuclear weapons and
just
before an ostentatious nationalist enthusiasm seized segments of
Canadian opinion. Two decades later, the assembly caught another mood of
unease and period of transition, this time poised between a special rela-
tionship which had collapsed and a free
trade
movement that was clearly
gaining momentum. Now, early in the 21st century, Canadians again sneer
at a swaggering cowboy in the White House, and Americans again glance
northwards
at a wayward neighbour. It is time to talk once more.
During the Second World War, President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime
Minister
Mackenzie King inaugurated the modern Canadian-American
relationship in their border meeting at Ogdensburg, NY, in August 1940.
Americans
who noticed such things were apt from then on to think of
Canada as a vital piece of strategic real estate. Canadians could occasional-
ly
seem troublesome, preaching to Washington about how to run its foreign
policy,
but the northern neighbour was a solid, stable, and reliable ally. The
US
rendered the same service, but not without plenty of condescension, as
the assembly's 1964 volume illustrated. Everett C. Hughes, an American
sociologist
who had
taught
on both sides
of
the border, wrote that the people
of
his country were "always a bit astonished that Canadians do not want to
be
United States Americans." It was
hard
to take Canada entirely seriously.
Norman Hillmer is professor
of
history
and
international affairs
at
Carleton
University.
I International
Journal
|
Spring
2005
| 331 |
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