Reconcilable Differences: A History of Canada-US Relations by Stephen Azzi (review)

Twelve narrative chapters take us from the American Revolution to the end of Paul Martin’s government in 2006, with a short conclusion. Each chapter contains several discrete themed sections (thus, “Brian Mulroney and the Americans,” “Dismantling the Nationalist Legacy,” “Free Trade,” “Acid Rain”) followed by a brief “Summary,” questions for further (class?) discussion, and a useful “Further Reading” section. The book combines coverage of political and inter-state issues with that of Canadian social and economic trends. It is written from the perspective that anglophone Canadians are, and always have been, very much like Americans outside the South, that Canadian leaders have best advanced their country’s interests by pursuing good relations in Washington, and that more “often than not… a cooperative… negotiated settlement [best] serves the interests of both sides” (p. 265).

There is much that one can endorse and approve. For instance Azzi stresses the relationships successive Canadian Prime Ministers since Mackenzie King have had with US Presidents and he doubts whether, without Mulroney’s connections to the White House, “Canada would have entered into a comprehensive free trade agreement” with the US (p. 266). In a book of this size, it may be harsh to regret the absence of other things. But some of Azzi’s themes require a more quantitative treatment: how did Canadian trade with and investment from the US compare, over time, with that with Britain, and with estimated Canadian gdp? Also though Azzi cites John Turner’s 1988 claim that “We built a country east and west and north” with “an infrastructure that deliberately resisted the continental pressure of the United States” (p. 218), he does not mention such major elements in this process as the Crowsnest Freight Rate, the monopsony of the Canadian Wheat Board, federal establishment and support of Trans-Canada Airlines/Air Canada, or the Trans-Canada Highway. Though he stresses that Mulroney’s Free Trade election victory “fundamentally altered Canadian politics” (p. 220), Azzi does not investigate the extent to which the effects of the North American Free Trade Area have replaced east-west by north-south ties.

Another cavil stems from the title, Reconcilable Differences. Dr. Azzi is a recent historian, and the book’s balance, 116 pages to 1938, 144 since, understandably reflects this; but it also means that most of the coverage is of relatively minor issues between two friendly states. It would be surprising if they were not broadly “reconcilable.” Earlier there had been more existential challenges: US attempts in both Anglo-American wars to conquer Canada; high tension in 1837–41 following the Canadian rebellions and the dispute over the Maine-New Brunswick border, and then again in 1845–46 over Oregon; and the general expectation of the Grant administration that Britain should and would atone for its behaviour during the American Civil War by handing over some or all of British North America, or at least by booting this out into an immediate independence where it could be bullied into adhesion or submission. That these differences were reconciled is a more notable achievement, due, in part, to British North America’s ability to solve its internal political problems in a way that provided no triggers for major US intervention, in part to its backing by Britain in an “Atlantic Triangle” whose importance, before World War II, Azzi tends to underplay.

Lastly the United States has a southern as well as a northern border. Mexico does not feature in Azzi’s index. But the contrast, over time and even today, between Mexican-US and Canadian-US relationships goes far to place in context, and to support, his generally benign view of the latter.