By Robert Englebert

The tariff war has begun.

Since coming into office only weeks ago, Donald Trump’s on-and-off again threat of taking a sledgehammer to free trade has kept Canadians on edge.  

Canadians are angry and frustrated, especially at Trump’s continued assertion that our country is not viable and that we should become the 51^st state.

I am not all that convinced that Trump’s end goal is to annex Canada, but if for some reason that is the objective, he need only look to Canada’s long history to understand how unlikely he is to succeed.

Our countries seem alike, but are not the same. We have had many opportunities to join our neighbours to the south and have repeatedly decided to chart a different path, each step shaping distinctive Canadian political structures and traditions.

On the eve of the American Revolution, Britain’s 13 colonies looked to Quebec to join their cause. The Continental Congress’s newly appointed army marched north on a “Canada Campaign” to “liberate” colonists from the British.

Only a year earlier, however, the Quebec Act of 1774 had guaranteed French civil law and the right to Catholic worship. Most French-Canadians decided that their immediate interests were better served by remaining neutral and staying within the British empire. Facing an unsympathetic, and even hostile colonial population, the Americans left Canada in 1776, a mere two months before the Declaration of Independence. It was a first rebuke, and it would not be the last.

By the early 1800s, the United States, frustrated with British trade practices, sought once again to annex its neighbour to the north. Blustery rhetoric worthy of Trumpian bravado ensued. Thomas Jefferson contended that taking Canada would be “a mere matter of marching.” The Governor of Kentucky opined that his militia alone could capture the north.

The Americans were to be disappointed yet again. There was little appetite among settlers in the colonies to join the Americans. Some fought to defend their right to stay under British rule. Others remained neutral, happy to let American and British forces duke it out. In the end, the war ended in a stalemate.

Canadians rightly view the War of 1812 as a repudiation of America. America started the war and sought to annex Canada, and they failed.

Political reformers in Canada did look briefly to American-style republicanism in the leadup to the rebellions of 1837-38, but there was little actual support for joining the US.  Instead, moderate reformers used coalitions and complaints over political stalemates to push for change.

When Britain granted its North American colonies responsible government (parliamentary democracy) in 1848, it was in the tradition of the British parliamentary system. There was no revolution or serious consideration of joining the US. Canada was on its own political path.

The threat of American annexation did not go away, however, and it played an important role in the eventual creation of Canada.

Politicians worried that British support for the southern states during the Civil War had fostered American enmity towards Canada, and that the Union Army might head north at war’s end.  

While this never materialized, border issues persisted. Irish nationalists (Fenians) conducted cross-border raids into Canada from the US in 1866, exacerbating concerns over colonial defense.

At the same time, Canadian colonies were being economically squeezed. In a move eerily similar to today, the United States withdrew from the Reciprocity Treaty in 1866. It ended over a decade of unprecedented cross-border free trade.

Just like today, Canadian politicians came together to shore up economic markets and help each other with defense from outside threats. The result was the British North America Act of 1867, the birth of a nation. It was a definitive and final decision in the colonial era by those in the northern colonies (Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick) to chart a different path from our southern neighbours.

Americans should take note of this colonial history. Afterall, they know as well as anyone that harsh tax policies can spark the embers of national fervor. British imperial taxation of the 13 colonies led American colonists to protest with non-consumption (boycotts), which ultimately grew into the American Revolution.

When Americans see Canadians taking Bourbon off shelves and looking to buy Canadian products, it should be like looking in a mirror.

The current predicament, of course, is different, and yes, context matters. And yet the parallels are worth noting.

Trump’s tariffs technically tax Americans, but the potentially disastrous effect on the Canadian economy makes how the taxes are implemented moot. Canadians see a global superpower implementing taxation in a way that will harm them. The result is a boycott movement meant to hit back at the US and demonstrate Canadian national solidarity.

Will this ultimately lead to an schism between Canada and the US? Maybe. Or it may simply end up as another anti-American national moment, like a more intense “I am Canadian” beer commercial.

It is worth noting, however, that few suspected a permanent break with Britain when non-consumption started in the 13 colonies. The cat is out of the bag here in Canada. Where it leads is anyone’s guess. But history shows us that Canada will not choose to be the 51^st state.

Robert Englebert is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Saskatchewan.

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