A few months ago I partook in a BBQ debate about the upcoming bicentenary of the War of 1812-14. A fervent NDP member no less, argued vociferously that the war was a defining moment for Canada and a magnificent defeat of American imperialism that warranted a major celebration here. My position was that it was a was between the USA and Britain that "Canadian" settlers at the time did not support and that most of the glorious victory that has been mythologized here is exactly that, a myth.
It was heartening to read Jeffery Simpson in today's Globe and Mail laying out a few facts about the war and arguing the Harper government's plan to spend $12 on commemorative celebrations is misplaced. Simpson rightly notes that the 1812-14 conflict was between the USA and Great Britain - Canada as such did not exist and certainly the legislatures of Upper and Lower Canada and the Atlantic colonies had no independent foreign policy or military/militia to fight Americans. Canadians did not repel an American invasion; British army soldiers, with minimal assistance from colonials, did that. Britain's Indian/First Nations allies in the fighting took a larger part in the fighting than the farmers in Upper Canada.
The Europeans in Upper Canada in 1812 consisted mostly of a minority United Empire Loyalists (Tories who had left the USA after the American Revolution out of loyalty to King George III) and a majority of "late loyalists", i.e. those who moved here from the USA in exchange for free land offered by the British government. For these Loyalists and late loyalists the conflict, which arose out of Britain's efforts to stop Napoleonic expansionism, was more of a civil war than a struggle for independence. Cousins and families resident on both sides of the border were being called upon to fight each other in a battle that mattered far more to politicians and generals in Washington and London than it did to farmers in Upper Canada or New York State.
As in all civil wars, a lot of nastiness went down. Sadly, we've created a myth about Laura Secord but ignored the tragedy of the burning of an exceptional library in Newark (now Niagara on the Lake). Why do we brag about burning the president's mansion in Washington, in response to which it was repainted as The White House, when we can't find the means to properly honour the true founders of Canada who lived and worked a half a century later? Maybe Harper could consider using some of the $12m to buy Earnscliff from the Brits, now that it is in need of some fire-damage repairs itself, and make it a national monument to our first prime minister.
In the context of the federal budget and deficit, $2m is not a big thing, but I'd far rather commemorate the 19th century conflict with a modest picnic for Canmericans on Queenston Heights, with maybe a bicycle tour of Niagara wineries to follow, and be done with it. I'm all for sharing a glass with American friends than making up stories about when we beat-back the evil empire.
