Most popular histories of the relations between Canada and the United States sooner or later mention the fact that the two countries have shared the longest undefended border in the world for some 100 years. This is generally taken to evidence some sort of natural state of amity. A more reasonable explanation is that, with the two states differing so dramatically in military power, and Canada relying so heavily on the overwhelming economic and political might of its southern neighbor, the notion of military conflict would be redundant in the one instance and absurd in the other.

In earlier times, when Canada was still a British colony and the power relations between the two countries were more nearly equal, relations were not nearly as gentle.

Less than thirty years after the American Revolution, Canada and the United States fought their first and only war, the War of 1812. This ended in a stalemate and seems to have suggested to both that any similar behavior in the future would be unproductive.

Tensions over land disputes near the border would continue throughout the 1800s, but would never again result in armed engagement (Mahant and Mount 1984). In the early twenty-first century as well as the twentieth century especially following the Second World War when American international dominance became general, formal relations between the two states have been quite close. Nonetheless, occasional disputes flare up.

The Johnson administration disliked Canadian criticisms of US actions in Vietnam, and, since the early 1960s, Canada’s relatively friendly relations with Castro’s Cuba have provoked some US opposition (Mahunt and Mount 1999). But the only true problem that Canada now presents to the American political elite is Quebec separatism and the instability it might bring. Even here, as the separatistes under Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard have developed ever friendlier relations with Washing ton, the issue has become less acute (Lamont 1994; Lemco 1994).

A general fear has existed within English Canada over American cultural influence almost since the beginning of its Confederation in 1867. In the past thirty years, this resulted in protectionist moves against American movies, television, popular music and magazines, which in turn provoked irritation in promoters of the US entertainment industry. Generally though, popular culture manages to move back and forth across the border without much friction. If American culture is a massive influence on Canadian hearts and minds, individual Canadian artists—including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, Pamela Anderson and Mike Myer—insert themselves into American popular culture with relative ease. That there is little to distinguish these Canadians from their American counterparts has only tended to confirm the assumption among many in the US that the two countries now share essentially the same society divided by a formal border and little else. This assumption, however, when articulated— and whatever its veridical status—infuriates Canadians.