What has been largely overlooked, though, is the long, colorful history of anti-American fervor in Canada. Trump did not “betray” his closest ally to the north, as Carney previously suggested; he simply reignited long-standing sentiments buried within both the American and Canadian psyches, but never far from the surface.
Trump’s threats are nothing new. Beginning in 1774 and into 1775, on the eve of the Revolutionary War, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and other framers of the American republic plotted to colonize and occupy Canada, then fully under British control, as part of America’s emergence on the world stage, including through a failed siege of Quebec in October of 1775. As Washington wrote to “the inhabitants of Canada” in September of that year, “Come then, my Brethren, unite with us in an indissoluble Union, let us run together to the same Goal.” The British were not interested, and the nascent Canadians were generally still extremely loyal to the Crown.
Canadian anti-Americanism in the 19th century, then, arose from a legitimate fear of invasion. This resurfaced in the War of 1812, as America — now the United States — clashed with the British and their allies in British North America, or what would become Canada. At that point, whether the Americans truly intended to annex Canada or were simply using the threat as a tactic to pressure the British, they again carried out invasions of the territory. (Fun fact: One piece of territory, Machias Seal Island between the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy, remains disputed between Canada and the U.S. today.)