Relations between Canada and the
United States span more than two centuries, sharing
British colonial
heritage, conflict during the early years of the United States
, and the eventual development of one of the most
successful international relationships in the modern world.
Each is the other's chief economic partner, and indeed the two
economies have increasingly merged since the
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) of 1994. In addition, there has always been
large scale immigration between the two nations, and since 1900
large-scale tourism as well.
The most serious breach in the relationship was the
War of 1812, which saw an American invasion of
then
British North America and
counter invasions from British-Canadian forces. The border was
demilitarized after the war and, apart from minor raids, has
remained peaceful.
Military collaboration began during the
World Wars and continued throughout the
Cold War, though with Canadian
doubts about
certain American policies. A high volume of trade and
migration between the United States and Canada has generated closer
ties, despite continued Canadian fears of being overwhelmed by its
neighbor, which is ten times larger in terms of population and
economy. James Tagg reports that Canadian university students have
a profound fear that "
Canadian
culture, and likely Canadian sovereignty, will be
overwhelmed."
Canada and the United States are currently the world's largest
trading partners,, share
the world's longest
unmilitarized border, and have significant interoperability
within the defense sphere. Recent difficulties have included
repeated trade disputes (despite
a continental trade
agreement), environmental concerns, Canadian concern for the
future of
oil exports, and issues of illegal
immigration and the threat of
terrorism.
The foreign policies of the neighbors have been closely aligned for
the
Cold War and after, though Canada has
disagreed with American policies regarding the
Vietnam War, the
status of Cuba, the
Iraq War, and the
War
on Terrorism. A minor
diplomatic
debate is whether the
Northwest
Passage is in
international
waters or under Canadian jurisdiction.
Canada remains Americans' favorite foreign nation and the U.S. is
high on the Canadian international agenda. An undercurrent of
anti-American sentiment is fueled by Canadian fears of American
cultural hegemony and the weakening of a distinctive Canadian
culture.
Country comparison
|
Canada |
United States |
Population |
33,813,000 |
307,721,000 |
Area |
9,984,670 km2 (3,854,085 sq mi) |
9,629,091 km2 (3,717,813sq mi) |
Population Density |
3.2/km2 (8.3/sq mi) |
31/km2 (80/sq mi) |
Capital |
Ottawa, Ontario |
Washington, D.C. |
Largest City |
Toronto – 2,503,281
(5,555,912 Metro) |
New York City – 8,363,710 (19,006,798 Metro) |
Government |
Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy |
Federal presidential constitutional republic |
Official languages |
English and French |
English (de facto) |
Main religions |
77% Christianity, 16.5% non-Religious or unstated, 2% Islam, 1.1% Judaism, 1%
Buddhism, 1% Hinduism |
75% Christianity, 20% non-Religious, 2% Judaism, 1% Buddhism, 1% Islam |
Ethnic groups |
75.3% White/European, 5.5% Aboriginal, 4.6% South Asian, 4.3% Chinese,3.3% Other Asian, 3.2% Black/African,
2.5% Middle Eastern, 0.3% Latin American |
74% White American, 14.8%
Hispanic and Latino
Americans (of any race), 13.4% African American, 6.5% Some other race,
4.4% Asian American, 2.0% Two or more races, 0.68% American Indian or Alaska
Native, 0.14% Native
Hawaiian or Pacific Islander |
GDP (nominal) |
2008 IMF estimates: US$1.499
trillion
($45,085 per capita) |
2008 IMF estimates: US$14.441 trillion ($47,440 per
capita) |
Military expenditures |
$18.28 billion (FY 2009-10) |
$663.7 billion (FY 2010) |
History
Mingling of peoples
From the 1750s to the 21st century, there has been extensive
mingling of the Canadian and American populations, with large
movements in both directions.
New
England Yankees settled large parts of Nova Scotia
before 1775, and were neutral during the American Revolution. At the end
of the Revolution, about 75,000 Loyalists moved out of the new
United States to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the lands of
Quebec west and south of Montreal. From 1790 to 1812 many farmers
moved from New York and New England into Ontario. In the early 20th
century, the opening of the Prairie Provinces attracted many
farmers from the American Midwest. Two distinctive groups were
"Pennsylvania Dutch" Mennonites, and Mormons who went from Utah to
form communities in Alberta after the Mormon Church rejected plural
marriage in the 1890s.. The 1960s saw the arrival of about 50,000
draft-dodgers who opposed the
Vietnam
War.
In the late 19th and early 20th century about 900,000 French
Canadians moved to the U.S., with 395,000 residents there in 1900.
Two-thirds went to mill towns in New England, where they formed
distinctive ethnic communities. By the late 20th century they had
dispersed more widely, and abandoned the French language, but most
kept the Catholic religion. About twice as many English Canadians
came to the U.S., but they did not form distinctive ethnic
settlements.
Canada was a way-station through which immigrants from other lands
stopped for a while while ultimately heading to the U.S. In
1851-1951, 7.1 million people arrived in Canada (mostly from
Europe), and 6.6 million left Canada, mostly to the U.S.
American Revolution

An editorial cartoon on Canada –
United States relations, 1886
At the
outset of the American
Revolution, the American revolutionaries hoped
the French Canadians in Quebec and
the Colonists in Nova
Scotia
would join their rebellion and they were
pre-approved for joining the United States in the Articles of Confederation.
When
Canada was invaded
during the
American
Revolutionary War, thousands joined the American cause and
formed regiments that fought during the war; however most remained
neutral and some joined the British effort. The British advised the
French Canadians that the British Empire already enshrined their
rights in the
Quebec Act, which the
American colonies had viewed as one of the
Intolerable Acts. The American invasion was
a fiasco and Britain tightened its grip on its northern
possessions; in 1777 a major British invasion into New York led to
the surrender of the entire British army at Saratoga, and led
France to enter the war as an ally of the U.S. The French Canadians
largely ignored France's appeals for solidarity. After the war
Canada became a refuge for about 75,000
Loyalists who wanted to leave the
U.S. Among the original Loyalists, who were of many ethnic
backgrounds, there were 3500 free blacks.
Most went to Nova
Scotia and in 1792, 1200 migrated to Sierra Leone
. About 2000 black slaves were brought in by
Loyalist owners; they remained slaves in Canada until the Empire
abolished slavery in 1833. Before 1860, about 30,000-40,000 escaped
slaves used the
Underground
Railroad to escape to British North America.
War of 1812
The Treaty of Paris , which ended the
war, called for the British to vacate all their forts south of the
Great
Lakes
border. The British refused to do so, citing
failure of the United States to provide financial restitution for
Loyalists who had lost property in the war. The
Jay Treaty in 1795 with Great Britain resolved
that lingering issue and the British departed the forts.
Thomas Jefferson saw the nearby British
imperial presence as a threat to
republicanism in the United
States, and so he opposed the
Jay
Treaty, and it became one of the major political issues in the
United States at the time.
Tensions mounted again after 1805, erupting into the
War of 1812, when the Americans declared war on
Britain. The Americans were angered by British harassment of U.S.
ships on the high seas and seizure ("
Impressment") of 6,000 sailors from American
ships, severe restrictions against neutral American trade with
France, and British support for hostile Indian tribes in Ohio and
territories the U.S. had gained in 1783. American "honor" was an
implicit issue. The Americans were outgunned by more than 10 to 1
by the
Royal Navy, and so a land invasion
of Canada was proposed as the only feasible means of attacking the
British Empire. Americans on the western frontier also hoped an
invasion would bring an end to British support of
Native American
resistance to the
westward expansion of
the United States, typified by
Tecumseh's coalition of tribes. The U.S. strategy
in 1812 was to temporarily seize Canada as a means of forcing
concessions from the British. There was some hope that settlers in
western Canada—most of them recent immigrants from the U.S. --would
welcome the chance to overthrow their British rulers. However, the
American invasions were incompetent and were defeated primarily by
British regulars with support from Indians and
Upper Canada (Ontario) militia. Major British
invasions of New York in 1814 and Louisiana in 1814-15 were poorly
handled and the British retreated, leaving both sides about where
they were in 1812. With the collapse of Napoleon, the British ended
naval policies that angered Americans; with the defeat of the
Indian tribes that threat to American expansion was ended. The
upshot was neither side had anything to fight over, and the war
ended by a treaty that took effect in February 1815.
In later years, Canadians, who remain loyal to the Empire well into
the 20th century, viewed the War of 1812 as a successful resistance
against invasion and as a victory that defined them as a people. A
common theme in Canadian political rhetoric ever since has been the
protection of Canadian culture from American influence and possible
integration into the American political, cultural and economic
realm.
Dominion of Canada
Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867 in internal affairs
while Britain controlled diplomacy and defense policy. Prior to
Confederation, there was an
Oregon boundary dispute in which the
Americans claimed the 54th degree latitude. That issue was resolved
by splitting the disputed territory; the northern half became
British Columbia, and the southern half the states of Washington
and Oregon. Strained relations with America continued, however, due
to a series of small-scale armed incursions named the
Fenian raids by
Irish-American Civil War veterans across the border from
1866 to 1871 in an attempt to trade Canada for Irish independence.
The American government, angry at Canadian tolerance of Confederate
raiders during the American Civil War, moved very slowly to disarm
the Fenians. The British government, in charge of diplomatic
relations, protested cautiously, as Anglo-American relations were
tense. Much of the tension was relieved as the Fenians faded away
and in 1872 by the settlement of the
Alabama Claims, when Britain paid the U.S.
$15.5 million for war losses caused by warships built in Britain
and sold to the Confederacy.
Disputes
over ocean boundaries on Georges Bank
and over fishing, whaling, and sealing rights in
the Pacific were settled by international arbitration, setting an
important precedent.
Much more controversial was the
Alaska boundary dispute, settled in
favor of the United States in 1903.
At issue was the exact boundary between
Alaska and Canada, specifically whether Canada would have a port
near the present American town of Haines
that would
give access to the new Yukon goldfields. The dispute was
settled by arbitration, and the British delegate voted with the
Americans—to the astonishment and anti-British disgust of Canadians
who suddenly realized that Britain considered its relations with
the United States paramount to those with Canada.
1907 saw a minor controversy over
USS Nashville sailing into the
Great Lakes via Canada without Canadian permission. Partly in
response, in 1909 the two sides signed the
International Boundary
Waters Treaty and the
International Joint
Commission was established to manage the Great Lakes.
Economic ties and migration had deepened by this era, but were not
equal. In 1901 there were 128,000 American-born residents in Canada
(3.5% of the Canadian population) and 1.18 million Canadian-born
residents in the United States (1.6% of the U.S. population).
Canadian autonomy
Canada demanded and received permission to send its own delegation
to the
Versailles Peace Talks
in 1919, with the proviso that it sign the treaty under the British
Empire. Canada subsequently took responsibility for its own foreign
and military affairs in the 1920s. Its first ambassador to the
United States,
Vincent Massey, was
named in 1927. Relations with the United States were cordial,
except in the matter of tariffs in the 1930-32 period of the Great
Depression.
In the 1930s, the United States Army War College developed
hypothetical war plans for a possible war with Canada; they
featured an invasion in
War Plan Red;
it was merely an academic exercise. Similarly, Canada developed
Defence Scheme No. 1 to counteract an American invasion.
Canadian defence was organized against an American invasion until
the onset of
World War II.
Following co-operation in the two World Wars, Canada and the United
States lost much of their previous animosity. As Britain's
influence as a global imperial power declined, Canada and the
United States became extremely close partners. Canada was a close
ally of the United States during the
Cold
War.
In
World War II, the United States
built large military bases in the
Dominion of Newfoundland (which did
not join Canada until 1949 and was under direct British rule at the
time), and the business community there sought closer ties with the
United States as expressed by the
Economic Union Party. Ottawa took
notice and wanted Newfoundland to join Canada, which it did after
hotly contested referenda. There was little demand in the United
States for the acquisition of Newfoundland, so the United States
did not protest the British decision not to allow an American
option on the
Newfoundland
referendum.
Nixon Shock 1971
The United States had become Canada's largest market, and after the
war the Canadian economy became dependent on smooth trade flows
with the United States so much that in 1971 when the United States
enacted the "
Nixon Shock" economic
policies (including a 10% tariff on all imports) it put the
Canadian government into a panic. This led in a large part to the
articulation of Prime Minister
Trudeau's "
Third
Option" policy of diversifying Canada's trade and downgrading
the importance of Canada – American relations. In a 1972 speech in
Ottawa, Nixon declared the "special relationship" between Canada
and the United States dead.
Defence and international conflict
The Canadian military, like forces of other NATO countries, fought
along side the United States in most major conflicts since
World War II, including the
Korean War, the
Gulf War,
the
Kosovo War, and most recently the
war in
Afghanistan. The main exceptions to this were the Canadian
government's opposition to the
Vietnam
War and the
Iraq War, which caused some
brief diplomatic tensions. Despite these issues, military relations
have remained close.
American defense arrangements with Canada are more extensive than
with any other country. The
Permanent Joint Board of
Defense, established in 1940, provides policy-level
consultation on bilateral defense matters.
The United States and
Canada share North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
(NATO) mutual security commitments.
In
addition, American and Canadian military forces have cooperated
since 1958 on continental air defense within the framework of the
North American Aerospace Defense
Command
(NORAD). There is also an active military
exchange program between the two countries under which
Canadian Forces personnel have been involved
in Iraq. Moreover, interoperability with the American armed forces
has been a guiding principle of Canadian military force structuring
and doctrine since the end of the Cold War. Canadian navy frigates,
for instance, integrate seamlessly into American carrier battle
groups.
War in Afghanistan
Canada's elite
JTF2 unit joined American
special forces in Afghanistan shortly after the
al-Qaida attacks on September 11,
2001. Canadian forces joined the multinational coalition in
Operation Anaconda in January
2002. On April 18, 2002, an American pilot
accidentally bombed Canadian forces
involved in a training exercise, killing four and wounding
eight Canadians. A joint American-Canadian inquiry determined the
cause of the incident to be pilot error, in which the pilot
interpreted ground fire as an attack; the pilot ignored orders that
he felt were "second-guessing" his field tactical decision.
Canadian
forces assumed a six-month command rotation of the International Security
Assistance Force in 2003; in 2005, Canadians assumed
operational command of the multi-national Brigade in Kandahar
, with 2,300 troops, and supervises the Provincial Reconstruction
Team in Kandahar, where al-Qaida forces are most active.
Canada has also deployed naval forces in the Persian Gulf since
1991 in support of the UN Gulf Multinational Interdiction
Force.
The
Canadian
Embassy in Washington, DC
maintains a public
relations web site named CanadianAlly.com,
which is intended "to give American citizens a better sense of the
scope of Canada's role in North American and Global Security and
the War on Terror".
The
New Democratic Party and
some recent Liberal leadership candidates have expressed opposition
to Canada's expanded role in the Afghan conflict on the ground that
it is inconsistent with Canada's historic role (since the
Second World War) of peacekeeping
operations.
2003 Invasion of Iraq
According to contemporary polls, the majority of Canadians were
opposed to the
2003 invasion of
Iraq. The Canadian government, under current Prime Minister
Stephen Harper, maintains a position
with emphasis on
UN authority. Many
Canadians, and the former Liberal government of
Paul Martin (as well as many Americans such as
Bill Clinton), made a policy
distinction between conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, unlike the
Bush Doctrine, which linked these
together in a "Global war on terror".
Trade
Canada and the United States have the world's largest trading
relationship, with huge quantities of goods and people flowing
across the border each year. Since the 1987
Canadian–American
Free Trade Agreement, there have been no
tariffs on most goods passed between the two
countries.
With such a massive trading relationship, trade disputes between
the two countries are frequent and inevitable. In the course of the
softwood
lumber dispute, the U.S. has placed tariffs on Canadian
softwood lumber because of what it
argues is an unfair Canadian government subsidy, a claim which
Canada disputes. The dispute has cycled through several agreements
and arbitration cases. Other notable disputes include the
Canadian Wheat Board, and Canadian
cultural "restrictions" on magazines and television (See
CRTC,
CBC, and
National Film Board of
Canada). Canadians have been criticized about such things as
the ban on
beef since a case of
Mad Cow disease was
discovered in 2003 in cows from the United States (and a few
subsequent cases) and the high American agricultural subsidies.
Concerns in Canada also run high over aspects of the
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) such as Chapter 11.
One ongoing and complex trade issue involves the importation of
cheaper
prescription drugs from
Canada to the United States. Due to the Canadian government's
price controls as part of their
state-run medical system, prices for prescription drugs can be a
fraction of the price paid by consumers in the unregulated American
market. While laws in the United States have been passed at the
national level against such sales, specific state and local
governments have passed their own legislation to allow the trade to
continue. American drug companies—often supporters of political
campaigns—have come out against the practice.
According to a 2003 study commissioned by the Canadian Embassy in
the United States, based on 2001 data, Canadian–American
trade supported 5.2 million American jobs.
U.S. State |
U.S. Jobs Supported |
Rank |
|
72,000 |
24 |
|
13,000 |
48 |
|
89,000 |
22 |
|
45,000 |
32 |
|
626,000 |
1 |
|
93,000 |
21 |
|
67,000 |
27 |
|
16,000 |
46 |
|
29,000 |
38 |
|
289,000 |
4 |
|
152,000 |
10 |
|
26,000 |
39 |
|
23,000 |
43 |
|
237,000 |
5 |
|
112,000 |
14 |
|
55,000 |
30 |
|
51,000 |
31 |
|
69,000 |
26 |
|
73,000 |
23 |
|
24,000 |
41 |
|
101,000 |
20 |
|
134,000 |
13 |
|
174,000 |
8 |
|
103,000 |
19 |
|
43,000 |
34 |
|
108,000 |
16 |
|
16,000 |
45 |
|
36,000 |
36 |
|
43,000 |
35 |
|
24,000 |
42 |
|
153,000 |
9 |
|
30,000 |
37 |
|
348,000 |
3 |
|
151,000 |
11 |
|
13,000 |
49 |
|
212,000 |
7 |
|
58,000 |
29 |
|
63,000 |
28 |
|
219,000 |
6 |
|
19,000 |
44 |
|
69,000 |
25 |
|
15,000 |
47 |
|
108,000 |
15 |
|
369,000 |
2 |
|
44,000 |
33 |
|
12,000 |
50 |
|
141,000 |
12 |
|
108,000 |
17 |
|
25,000 |
40 |
|
103,000 |
18 |
|
9,000 |
51 |
Total |
5,210,000 |
|
Environmental issues

Flags of Canada and the U.S.
The two countries work closely to resolve trans-border
environmental issues, an area of increasing importance in the
bilateral relationship. A principal instrument of this cooperation
is the
International
Joint Commission (IJC), established as part of the
Boundary Waters Treaty of
1909 to resolve differences and promote international
cooperation on boundary waters. The
Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement of 1972 is another historic example of joint
cooperation in controlling trans-border water pollution. However,
there have been some disputes.
Most recently, the Devil's
Lake
Outlet, a project instituted by North Dakota, has
angered Manitobans who fear that their water may soon become
polluted as a result of this project.The two governments
also consult semi-annually on trans-border air pollution. Under the
Air Quality Agreement of
1991, both countries have made substantial progress in
coordinating and implementing their acid rain control programs and
signed an annex on ground level ozone in 2000. Despite this
trans-border air pollution remains an issue, particularly in the
Great Lakes-St. Lawrence watershed during the summer. The main
source of this trans-border pollution results from coal fired power
stations, most of them located in the
Midwestern United States.
Currently neither of the countries' governments support the
Kyoto Protocol, which set out time
scheduled curbing of greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike the United
States, Canada has ratified the agreement. Yet after ratification,
due to internal political conflict within Canada, the Canadian
government does not enforce the
Kyoto
Protocol, and has received criticism from environmental groups
and from other governments for its climate change positions.
Illicit drugs
In 2003 the American government became concerned when members of
the Canadian government announced plans to
decriminalize marijuana. David Murray, an assistant to
U.S.
Drug
Czar John P. Walters, said in a
CBC interview that, "We
would have to respond. We would be forced to respond." However the
election of the
Conservative Party in
early 2006 halted the liberalization of marijuana laws for the
foreseeable future. The Canadian government currently grows
marijuana for medicinal purposes
only in former copper mines.
Arar affair
On September 26, 2002, U.S. officials, acting upon a tip from
Canadian law enforcement, detained
Maher
Arar on suspicion of terrorist links.
Arar is a dual
citizen of Canada and Syria and was traveling through New York as
part of a trip from Tunisia
to Canada.
Despite traveling on a Canadian passport, Arar was deported to
Syria, his country of birth. He was imprisoned there for over a
year and tortured repeatedly. The decision by U.S. officials to
deport him to Syria, his imprisonment and torture there, and the
extent of collaboration between U.S. and Canadian officials became
a political issue in Canada at the time.
Canadian officials have since said that Arar was not linked in any
way to terrorism, and the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper,
has issued a formal apology and a $10.5 million (CAD) settlement to
Arar, who nonetheless remains on an American terrorist
watchlist.
Diplomacy
Territorial disputes
These include maritime boundary disputes:
Territorial land disputes:
and disputes over the international status of the:
Arctic disputes
A long-simmering dispute between Canada and the U.S. involves the
issue of Canadian sovereignty over the
Northwest Passage (the sea passages in the
Arctic). Canada’s assertion that the Northwest Passage represents
internal (territorial) waters has been challenged by other
countries, especially the U.S., which argue that these waters
constitute an international strait (international waters).
Canadians were incensed when Americans drove the reinforced oil
tanker through the Northwest Passage in 1969, followed by the
icebreaker
Polar Sea in 1985, both without
asking for Canadian permission. In 1970, the Canadian government
enacted the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, which asserts
Canadian regulatory control over pollution within a 100-mile zone.
In response, the United States in 1970 stated, "We cannot accept
the assertion of a Canadian claim that the Arctic waters are
internal waters of Canada…. Such acceptance would jeopardize the
freedom of navigation essential for United States naval activities
worldwide." A compromise of sorts was reached in 1988, by an
agreement on "Arctic Cooperation," which pledges that voyages of
American icebreakers "will be undertaken with the consent of the
Government of Canada." However the agreement did not alter either
country's basic legal position. In January 2006 David Wilkins, the
American ambassador to Canada, said his government opposes Stephen
Harper's proposed plan to deploy military icebreakers in the Arctic
to detect interlopers and assert Canadian sovereignty over those
waters. In August 2007, former US ambassador to Canada,
Paul Cellucci, stated that in 2005 he informed
his government that it should re-evaluate its assertion that the
Northwest Passage is an international sea body, and that it should
belong to Canada. His advice was rejected and in 2007 Bush and
Harper took opposite positions.
Common memberships
Canada and the United States both hold membership in a number of
multinational organizations such as:
The current state of relations

Harper during a joint press conference
in February 2009
Shortly after being congratulated by U.S. President
George W. Bush
for his victory in February 2006, Prime Minister of Canada,
Stephen Harper rebuked U.S.
Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins for criticizing the Conservatives' plans to assert
Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean
waters with armed forces. Harper's first
meeting with the U.S. President occurred at the end of March 2006;
and while little was achieved in the way of solid agreements, the
trip was described in the media as signaling a trend of closer
relations between the two nations.
Prime Minister Harper called and congratulated the then
President-elect,
Barack Obama, on his
victory over John McCain, and he assured the President-elect that
the two countries will become the greatest of allies. After he was
inaugurated, on January 20, 2009, as President of the United
States, it was announced that Mr. Obama's first international trip
would be to Canada, which took place on February 19, 2009.
Quotations
- President
John F. Kennedy: "Geography has made
us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us
partners. And necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath
so joined together, let no man put asunder."
- Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once remarked that Canada
being America's neighbor "is like sleeping with an elephant. No
matter how friendly and even-tempered the beast, if one can call it
that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt."
- Prime Minister John Sparrow
Thompson: "These Yankee politicians are the lowest race of
thieves in existence." - made during sensitive trade talks with US
in 1893.
- Prime Minister John A.
Macdonald, speaking at the
beginning of the 1891
election (fought mostly over Canadian free trade with the
United States), Macdonald said: "As for myself, my course is
clear. A British subject I was
born—a British subject I will die. With my utmost effort, with my
latest breath, will I oppose the ‘veiled treason’ which attempts by
sordid means and mercenary proffers to lure our people from their
allegiance." - , Feb 3, 1891.
- President Harry S. Truman: "Canada and the United States have
reached the point where we can no longer think of each other as
foreign countries."
- Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau,
speaking in the Soviet Union in 1971, said that the overwhelming
American presence posed "a danger to our national identity from a cultural,
economic and perhaps even military point of view."
- President Richard Nixon, during
his visit to Ottawa in 1972, declared that the "special
relationship" between Canada and the United States was dead. "It is
time for us to recognize," he stated, "that we have very separate
identities; that we have significant differences; and that nobody's
interests are furthered when these realities are obscured."
- The Prime
Minister Harper's office in a released statement congratulating
Barack Obama on his inauguration said: "The United States remains
Canada’s most important ally, closest friend and largest trading
partner and I look forward to working with President Obama and his
administration as we build on this special relationship."
- "We of the United States consider ourselves blessed. We have
much to give thanks for. But the gift of providence we cherish most
is that we were given as our neighbors on this wonderful continent
the people and the nation of Canada." President Johnson. Remarks at Expo '67, Montréal
, May 25, 1967.
- President Barack Obama speaking in Ottawa
, Canada at
his first official international visit February 19, 2009: "I love
this country. We could not have a better friend and
ally"
Diplomatic missions
Canadian missions in the United States
Canada's
chief diplomatic mission to the United States is the Canadian
Embassy in Washington,
D.C.
. It is further supported by many Consulates
located through America.
The Canadian Government supports Consulates
in several major U.S. cities including: Anchorage
, Atlanta
‡, Boston
‡, Buffalo
‡, Chicago
‡, Dallas
‡, Denver
‡, Detroit
‡, Houston
, Los Angeles
‡, Miami
‡, Minneapolis
‡, New York City
‡, Philadelphia
, Phoenix
, Raleigh
, San Diego
, San Francisco
/Silicon Valley
‡ and Seattle
‡**‡ denotes mission is Consulate
General
There are
also trade offices located in Princeton
and Palo Alto
American missions in Canada
The
United States's chief diplomatic mission to Canada is the United
States Embassy in Ottawa
. It
is further supported by many consulates located through Canada.The
American government supports consulates in several major Canadian
cities including:
Calgary
, Halifax
, Northwest Territories
‡, Nunavut
‡, Montreal
, Quebec
City
, Southwestern
Ontario‡, Toronto
, Vancouver
, Winnipeg
, and Yukon
‡.
- ‡ denotes mission is a Virtual Presence Post
(VPP)
Notes
See also
Further reading
- Doran, Charles F., and James Patrick Sewell, "Anti-Americanism
in Canada," Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, Vol. 497, Anti-Americanism: Origins and
Context (May, 1988), pp. 105–119 in
JSTOR
- Stephen Clarkson, Uncle Sam and Us: Globalization,
Neoconservatism and the Canadian State (University of Toronto
Press, 2002),
- J. L. Granatstein. Yankee Go Home: Canadians and
Anti-Americanism (1997)
- J. L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer, For Better or for
Worse: Canada and the United States to the 1990s (1991)
- John W. Holmes. "Impact of Domestic Political Factors on
Canadian-American Relations: Canada," International
Organization, Vol. 28, No. 4, Canada and the United States:
Transnational and Transgovernmental Relations (Autumn, 1974),
pp. 611–635 in JSTOR
- Graeme S. Mount and Edelgard Mahant, An Introduction to
Canadian-American Relations (1984, updated 1989)
- Graeme S. Mount and Edelgard Mahant, Invisible and
Inaudible in Washington: American Policies toward Canada during the
Cold War (1999)
- Bruce Muirhead, "From Special Relationship to Third Option:
Canada, the U.S., and the Nixon Shock," American Review of
Canadian Studies, Vol. 34, 2004 online edition
- Reginald C. Stuart. Dispersed Relations: Americans and
Canadians in Upper North America (2007) excerpt and text search
- James Tagg. "'And, We Burned down the White House, Too':
American History, Canadian Undergraduates, and Nationalism,"
The History Teacher, Vol. 37, No. 3 (May, 2004),
pp. 309–334 in JSTOR
- C. C. Tansill, Canadian-American Relations, 1875-1911
(1943)
- John Herd Thompson and Stephen J. Randall, Canada and the
United States: Ambivalent Allies (McGill-Queen's University
Press, 1994), 387pp
- Faces of War at Library and Archives Canada
- Engler, Yves
External links