Canada
Peter Mansbridge, CBC | June 2003
CBC's Peter Mansbridge reflects on the close, though now strained, relationship Canada has with the U.S.
Canada's relationship with the United States is like no other bilateral relationship in the world. We grow up learning that we share the world's longest undefended border. Our economy is cemented to theirs. We are each other's largest trading partner. We are inundated with their culture since we have unfettered access to all their television networks, movies, magazines and books.
Since the short War of 1812, we have been military allies. Our troops fought together in the First World War, the Second World War and Korea. Canadians were in the first Gulf War and the war in Yugoslavia.
The bonds of friendship were never stronger than on Sept. 11, 2001. As American airspace was closed to all traffic, U.S. planes flying home were diverted to Canada. For several days, thousands of American passengers were cared for by Canadians, many of them in very small communities on our East Coast.
When George Bush sent troops to fight terrorism in Afghanistan, Canadian troops went as well. Four Canadians were killed in a "friendly fire" episode, the first Canadian combat deaths in 50 years.
But right now, relations between our two governments are strained, to say the least.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau |
When George Bush went to war with Saddam Hussein this year, Canada stayed out of the fighting. The Canadian government said it wanted United Nations approval for any war, and it was opposed to war if the only goal was regime change. The prime minister's press secretary was overheard calling President Bush a "moron." A member of Parliament said she hated Americans and called them "bastards." Bush cancelled a planned visit to Ottawa, the Canadian capital.
Most Canadians recognize that we derive enormous benefit from living in peace beside the United States. Still, part of the Canadian character is to be hypersensitive about what our proximity means for our sovereignty. As former prime minister Pierre Trudeau once said to Americans:
"Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt."
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