As the twists and turns of the American presidential election make headlines in all our newspapers, let’s take the time to try to understand why, in Canada, we are so interested in American politics.
Let’s start with something so obvious that we rarely see it, a bit like the nose in our own face: the United States of America is an empire, albeit an informal one, and we are part of it. And what distinguishes Canada within the American empire is that Washington lets us determine our domestic policy with exceptional freedom.
What I am saying may be shocking, but let us remember that my perspective is that of an observer whose origins are as much Quebecois as Haitian. When we are interested in Haiti, the Caribbean and Latin America more broadly, there is a form of political sovereignty that we cannot take for granted, as long as we exist within the bosom of the American empire.
When we look at the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, for example, with an eye on Latin America, it is frankly fascinating to note that we were able to nationalize hydroelectricity — and therefore, to a certain extent, annoy American companies — and that the United States let us do itMany countries in the Americas have suffered, for much less, coups d’état, military invasions, dictatorships imposed for decades and other political destabilizations.
So I insist. If Canadian democracy is so solid, it is not because we are intrinsically “superior” to all these unstable countries of the South, but (in particular) because the United States leave us alonex. The history of the Quebec sovereignty movement, for example, would have been quite different if a man like René Lévesque had been the constant target of assassination attempts supported by the CIA. Many leaders of the Global South who were fighting for their political autonomy at the same time were not as lucky.
Why, then, this particular historical respect of Americans for Canadian sovereignty? Let us name two main factors.
First, Canada was created in 1867 by the British North America Act. The name says it all. Americans let Canada develop because we were born as a British dominion—and there is a relationship of respect and rivalry between Americans and British that dates back to American independence. To put it simply: it’s like when a man refuses to leave a woman alone unless she tells him she has a boyfriend. The man is not respecting the woman’s “no,” but the other guy’s “territory.”
Gradually, Ottawa has gained its autonomy from London. We have been officially free to determine our own foreign policies since 1931, with the Statute of Westminster — which does not mean that our political reflexes have changed overnight. We saw this during the Second World War, when the entire country, except Quebec, voted overwhelmingly in favour of conscription in the referendum organized by William Lyon Mackenzie King. There were other reasons for wanting to join the war in this way, but still: the reflexes of loyalty to the Empire have certainly played a role.
It took decades before Canada began to behave psychologically as an adult truly autonomous from the mother country on the international stage.
This autonomy has taken the form of increasing economic integration, over time, with the United States. Thirty-five years after the first free trade agreement between Canada and the United States, our industries have become virtually inseparable. Which brings me to the second fundamental reason why the United States leaves us our democratic self-determination: no matter which parties are in power in Ottawa and in the provinces, no one would really dare adopt public policies that would go head-on against American interests. Canadians are free to decide their political horizon because none of our options seriously annoy our neighbours to the south.
The more intertwined our economies are, the more obvious our political codependency becomes. For the war in Ukraine, for the trade competition with China: we wait for Washington to set the tone, we follow a few days later. For Israel and Palestine, we keep an eye on the White House before moving forward with the greatest timidity in the world. For the “just transition”, the electrification of transport, the development of green energy: the Biden government decides, then we adjust accordingly.
As part of the American election campaign, Ottawa is deploying a “Team Canada” to reach out to candidates from both major American parties to educate them about the Canadian perspective, almost as if we were a “regional interest group” trying to get the ear of a distant central government. Would we see Canadian ministers deploying such lobbying efforts in another foreign election?
Canada’s “no” to the war in Iraq dates back more than 20 years. Since then, what major political decision has Ottawa made that deeply displeases Washington? Could it be that by praising multilateralism, alignment with “our allies,” which certainly has its advantages, we are hiding another reality? That Canada, an independent country in the G7, is less and less of a “psychologically autonomous adult” from Washington on the international stage? As if our political maturity was already fading, one or two generations after it was acquired.
So why is there so much interest in American politics in Canada? Because I am interested in Canadian politics, and I am not the only one who feels that part of our future is increasingly being decided in Washington.