In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the United States and Canada were at odds with each other over their relations with the other. In part 1 of a two-part series on Canada, we take a look at the events that took place between 1839 and 1860, and how they played out in relation to each other and the rest of the Americas.
00:03:27.940Now, the reason I find this episode particularly interesting, and I think you'll note some of these as well as we go through it, is there is an immense amount of similarities between what plays out between 1840 and 1860 in Canada, and what is playing out today within our own government in the context of relations with the United States and the country as a whole.
00:03:53.720So if you pay attention, you'll notice a lot of similar kind of sentiments going around and things that are worth maybe paying attention to because a lot of the things that we're experiencing now in terms of the arguments for American annexation or a more American-style system and stuff like that, none of these things are new.
00:04:47.600The vendorgy are also known for economic CAMs on the other than 2060 to the end of the episode, but you'll start noticing some of those kind of cliche attitudes both, you know, internally towards themselves and externally to America.
00:04:59.240So, you know, without, you know, much more ado, let's get into it.
00:05:03.320the first you know the fifth episode of creation of Canada in the new equation
00:05:08.120annexation and reciprocity I'll see you guys in about an hour
00:05:33.320sign and don't forget to sing us in about a Hello
00:06:03.320how long did the struggle for a border actually go on looking back you might think that it was
00:06:24.400over by 1846 that was the year that britain and the united states settled their dispute
00:06:30.280over the oregon territory and now the boundary line was fixed across the middle of the continent
00:06:36.460almost exactly as we know it today but the struggle was hardly over in the century and a
00:06:44.380half that had gone before canadians french or english had been involved in no fewer than six
00:06:50.500full-scale wars with their neighbors to the south most of these had been inspired by fear of canada
00:06:57.020as a potential attacker but now this fear had almost vanished however many americans still had
00:07:05.460a strong desire to expand their territory and the wide open spaces of british north america
00:07:11.340might become a tempting target efforts to seize canadian territory in the american revolution
00:07:17.980and in the war of 1812 had failed after 1812 american imperialism had turned south to easier
00:07:26.900targets in the spanish-speaking world florida texas california but mightn't it soon be canada's turn
00:07:34.960again also certain americans presented an ideological threat for canada with their republican anti-monarchy
00:07:43.720propaganda to survive canada had to show determination but from the 1830s on there were plenty of signs that
01:05:47.840We'll be able to draw some comparisons to the annexationists of 1840 and 50 to the maple MAGA of today and why it's not delusional but misguided.
01:06:35.020A lot of this obviously happened in English cities is where it originates.
01:06:39.860So, you know, the impacts of that, obviously, they were brought up to a certain extent in that episode, but we'll talk about it a little bit more in some of these clips here.
01:06:52.940But I think it's funny that, you know, the more things change, the more they stay the same, don't they?
01:06:59.880It starts off with a battle between the landholding upper class and the managerial economic class, you know, to the advantage of none of the people.
01:07:11.040You know, it's nothing new under the sun.
01:07:14.720The factories were creating a powerful new class, the managerial middle class, whose interests clashed with those of the agricultural landlords.
01:07:23.960The stock exchanges symbolized the growing power of this new class, which sought political solutions for its problems, problems that involved the poverty of the workers in the slums.
01:07:35.700Industrialization had brought unprecedented misery, with streams of laborers leaving the farms for the overcrowded cities.
01:07:54.860Here, there were long hours of back-breaking work for pathetic wages.
01:07:59.980Employers wanted food made cheaper, so the workers could be kept alive on the lowest possible wage.
01:08:06.260One way to bring food prices down would be through free trade, with the abolition of the whole system of imperial tariff preferences on which Canada had built her economic hopes.
01:08:20.920Yeah, so there's a bunch of things in that clip, obviously, that we could, you know, dig into from a bunch of different angles.
01:08:27.040But the main one, obviously, there is this growing battle between, you know, the managerial class and the traditional aristocracy, which basically is where you get the formulation of the modern, in the English sense anyways, or in the British sense, labor versus Tories, or labor versus conservative.
01:08:48.680That's where it originates from, in this time period.
01:08:52.760So, yeah, something to consider there.
01:08:56.760But again, obviously, neither of these are really interested in what's best for the common person there, as you can see.
01:09:02.780You know, they both try to, in the episode, they get into it in a little bit more detail, but they both try to frame it as, you know, what's best for the people.
01:09:08.760But both of them are just looking out for their own interests.
01:09:11.620So, you know, in the case of the landholding Tories, they want to protect agriculture prices, you know, of English produce for obvious reasons.
01:09:22.200So they want to favor English produce and produce, you know, produced within the empire.
01:09:28.860So free trade, you know, economic, you know, arrangements that didn't prioritize their goods, obviously, they weren't interested in.
01:09:39.740And on the flip side, you had these, this rising industrial class that just wanted cheap food through free trade because it could keep wages down.
01:09:48.540So, yeah, the other element of this, too, regarding, you know, what it was like, you can go read accounts of this in a bunch of various sources.
01:10:01.180Victorian England, there's a romance to it, but there's also like just an absolute disgust about it.
01:10:10.080You can read this both in primary sources, just, you know, historical accounts of the time.
01:10:14.700But you can also get this, you get this in, you know, books like, you know, Charles Dickens books get on this topic a lot, even Sherlock Holmes.
01:10:24.520So obviously, Arthur Conan Doyle, the, I think the Sherlock Holmes series spans from the 1860s to, or the late 1860s to the 1920s in terms of like when it's set.
01:10:40.060But the bulk of it is set in, you know, late Victorian England.
01:10:45.020And you get a lot of the, like, the description of what it was like for the working class in that time period.
01:10:54.120The only reason I bring this up, you know, relative to our own history is that you get this impression today, you know, when people review history,
01:11:03.980that England was just robbing everyone blind and the only reason that England has what it has is because, you know,
01:11:12.000they robbed the third world and they took the gold from India or something and they took the diamonds from South Africa.
01:11:18.400And yeah, obviously, some of that made the ruling class extremely rich.
01:11:24.460And, you know, it made Britain rich to an extent, but most people were extremely poor.
01:11:30.640You can go read accounts of what it was like in these workhouses.
01:11:35.020And there are some insane stories like, you know, you could buy, there was, there was, in Victorian England,
01:11:43.960there was places where you could pay to sit down and rest.
01:12:36.020So, yeah, uh, you know, your ancestors were probably not very privileged.
01:12:42.080And this idea that, um, you know, they, uh, they, they were all just looting and pillaging the third world is nonsense.
01:12:50.220So, yeah, but, uh, regardless, we'll keep going with the, uh, you know, the, the growing battle between the Tories and labor Tories and industrialists.
01:13:00.920Um, you know, the factory owners of the new middle class in England were growing in wealth and political power.
01:13:08.720It was these men who formed the anti-corn law league to fight the high cost of food.
01:13:14.960They were determined to end the nation's dependence on expensive British grain and protected imperial imports.
01:13:21.780And Richard Cobden, their chief philosopher, attacked a system which, he said, was less concerned with the welfare of humans than the welfare of pigs.
01:13:38.820And so the long-protected land-owning Tories joined battle with the new industrialists.
01:13:44.400The political race of the century was on, with banners unfurled.
01:13:56.080Yeah, and obviously this in the context of Canadian is part of the reason that, uh, a lot of people were loyal to the British Empire, at least from the merchant class, is because they got those protections.
01:14:07.680So, um, you know, this is where you get this, well, well, it'll come up in a second, but, yeah, you get this growing resentment of, you know, what was the point of British loyalty if you're just going to hand the same arrangements to anybody?
01:18:08.940You have a sense of loyalty and patriotism and a desire for this country to do good.
01:18:15.860And ruling over you, you have two elements of an elite.
01:18:19.640You know, one, the traditional, you know, ruling class.
01:18:23.720The other, a managerial, you know, economic class.
01:18:27.380Or a political class versus an economic class would be another way of saying this.
01:18:32.100Neither of which is interested in actually addressing the issues that are affecting the people.
01:18:37.080And so you have a segment of society, you know, decide that, well, if this is how it's going to be, then we might as well just leave and, you know, throw off this ruling system.
01:19:48.640But somebody like Josh Bigger, a lot of you probably know him as best damn roofer.
01:19:53.940You know, he was at all the protests and, you know, making videos and really supportive of, you know, everything patriotic Canadian.
01:20:03.040And, you know, after all of the shit that he endured trying to be, like, a good patriotic Canadian, eventually says, you know what, this isn't worth it.
01:20:10.180And he just says, fuck it, we might as well, you know, become American if this is how it's going to be.
01:20:15.500So you can see how people will, you know, with that, you know, it's like that, like, almost like a relationship, right?
01:20:26.080Where if your love and affection is going to be spurned at every opportunity, right?
01:20:31.800You're going to be treated like garbage.
01:20:33.480And there's somebody standing there with their arms open, you know, ready to embrace you.
01:20:38.280Like, well, I might as well, you know, embrace this person.
01:20:42.220At least they're not going to spurn my affection.
01:20:44.040So, I mean, you can kind of see how some people would drift in that direction, I suppose.
01:20:52.920But obviously, the reality is that support for annexationism then, as it is now, is really not that high.
01:21:01.200And so while there was a spike in it, you know, it ultimately goes nowhere, as we saw later in this episode.
01:21:07.800But it'll come up again in a couple of clips.
01:21:10.600The Canadian group anxious to embrace Uncle Sam was mainly English, but there were Irishmen in it, too.
01:21:19.040They had their own motives, stemming from the tragic history of misery in their home country,
01:21:25.020where the failure of the potato crop had brought famine in the 1840s.
01:21:28.940For many Irishmen, emigration to North America was the only escape from slow death in their overpopulated country.
01:21:44.380Half starved and fever-ridden, many families headed for Lower Canada,
01:21:48.980and with them they brought a strong resentment against British oppression.
01:21:52.680British authority had brought them starvation, and now some were ready to support any move against England.
01:22:00.260Yeah, so, obviously, there was an Irish contingent.
01:22:13.220There was a growing number of Irish people in Canada at this time.
01:22:16.140But as we, again, they did highlight this later in the episode, but there was no real love, necessarily, of America.
01:22:30.280It was anti-British sentiment that does it, and, you know, such is similar today.
01:22:34.600Again, there's a segment of people who, you know, because their hatred of the ruling government of the day in Canada is so strong,
01:22:44.060you know, there's this desire to, for some reason, join a government that is equally as hostile to your existence,
01:22:51.000or at least not much less hostile to your existence.
01:22:55.300And, you know, you see this again, like, there's, it's not a real motivation of, a good example might be something like Alberta separatism.
01:23:06.940A lot of these people are not real separatists.
01:23:09.240They don't actually believe, you know, that, it's not like they hate being Canadian.
01:23:15.540I have gotten into this before when it comes to Alberta.
01:23:17.780You know, if you pull, I don't know what the answer would be today, but in 2021, they did a poll of Canadians and asked them, you know,
01:23:27.000And the people who are most likely to respond yes to that question were Albertans and Saskatchewans.
01:23:32.420So, you know, do they really reject Canada or do they reject, you know, the rule of the current government?
01:23:40.760And the answer is they reject the rule of the current government.
01:23:43.360And so that hatred for that, that ruling government is what drives them to either want to favor, you know, annexationism to America or separation.
01:23:54.560So, you know, again, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
01:23:57.620These are just the same concepts and sentiments that are repeating.
01:24:01.700Because, like in this time period, you had a government that was not really interested in the, you know, daily lives and problems that, and issues that, you know, Canadians were facing.
01:24:17.720And so there's that neglect leads to, you know, a desire for an alternative.
01:24:23.960It's the same, same thing as well with the French.
01:24:26.080In the movement to join the United States, the Montreal English and Irish elements were joined by a small but lively French-Canadian faction.
01:24:38.220Ideas from Paris had influenced these Quebecers.
01:24:41.540Ideas which in France and all over Europe had brought violent disturbances in 1848 to challenge both civil and religious authority.
01:24:49.920These radical European ideas held great appeal for Louis-Joseph Papineau.
01:24:59.960British rule was once again the target for this Quebec rebel of 1837, now back from exile and calling for liberty, democracy, and union with the United States.
01:25:17.060Yeah, and the same thing is true for the French.
01:25:19.000So, again, small contingent of French who favor union with the United States.
01:25:25.120Obviously, this is Louis-Joseph Papineau, who's the leader of, you know, the rebellion in Quebec, or at least the spiritual leader.
01:25:35.960But there's no real positive support for it.
01:25:38.480And this comes up, again, you know, like it's mentioned in that episode.
01:25:43.460But, you know, the Quebecois are looking at this situation.
01:25:47.100Yeah, some of them are dissatisfied with English rule or British rule.
01:25:52.360And they want, you know, more representation or a different system.
01:25:58.440But they're not actually interested in joining the United States.
01:26:01.100That's just the easy option on the table.
01:26:03.200And, you know, when, you know, emotions settle and spirits aren't so high and you look at it from a practical, you know, what would the effect of Quebec joining the United States be, you know, for them?
01:26:16.960And the answer is they would lose their culture faster than if they were, you know, in a small Canadian state, which is what gets brought up.
01:26:24.320But, you know, you can see this in the reaction of the Englishmen, even they, you know, don't really want to be, even at this time, it's not hostile towards Britain.
01:26:40.840And you can see this in the reaction that they give to how, in the way that the English annexationists in Canada react to the Crown's response to their manifesto, their annexation manifesto.
01:26:57.100Meanwhile, the annexationists were being closely watched in Britain, where the Prime Minister, Lord Russell, was surrounded by a swarm of problems arising out of troubles at home and a restless empire.
01:27:10.840Lord Russell's policy for Canada had shown indecision on earlier occasions, and this had caused him trouble.
01:27:28.820But now his reaction to the annexation manifesto was resolute, reflecting the contempt reserved by John Bull for scurvy Republican knaves.
01:27:44.760The majestic lion of constitutional monarchy might well scold the Democratic donkey for his schoolboy errors.
01:27:54.780Thus, in the reply sent by Her Majesty's government to the annexationists in Canada,
01:27:59.740they were bluntly advised that their movement was scarcely short of treasonable.
01:28:04.920Yeah, so we play that clip to see, you know, how the British react to this, to this growing discontent in Canadian society.
01:28:16.400And, yeah, I think, you know, their reaction to that is hilarious in this next clip.
01:28:25.260Back in Canada, the word treason was upsetting to many respectable people who had naively hoped that Britain might approve union with the United States.
01:28:36.240It was a confusing time of conflicting loyalties and desires, and some people played it safe by sporting both flags on the same pole.
01:28:44.760But the Union Jack in Torrey, Toronto, was still the flag that exerted the strongest emotional pull.
01:28:58.700Great value was placed on the English heritage here, and although businessmen were irritated by Britain,
01:29:05.240they were starting to look at the supposed commercial advantages of union with an increasingly skeptical eye.
01:29:11.300So, I love that clip for a few reasons.
01:29:17.840There are so many similarities between what is said in that clip and today.
01:29:23.520So, first of all, I think it's hilarious, as I said, that, you know, when they're accused of being treasonous or traitors, right, to Britain,
01:32:28.380So, yeah, I just, that clip in particular, I saw all kinds of similarities that we can, you know, make parallels with to modernity.
01:32:37.020But it's really, it's really well summarized.
01:32:41.860I'm going to play this clip, you know, by the narrator in this series, because this is just really summarizes it well.
01:32:49.840It became obvious to the English speaking annexationists in Montreal that they had no real support.
01:32:57.040They had earned a stern reprimand from Britain, and the United States was not exactly reaching out to them.
01:33:05.580As for the French Canadians, they were coming to realize that the survival of their culture was more likely in a small Canada than in a huge United States.
01:33:16.120Moreover, they were finding that politics in Canada tended to divide along class lines rather than racial lines,
01:33:25.300and it had become possible to cooperate with the English reformers of Upper Canada.
01:33:31.080And so the annexationist mood subsided.
01:33:34.980But there was obviously something wrong with the Canadian economic system.
01:33:39.520Unless it was corrected, there might be another movement to join the United States.
01:33:44.240And the Americans might be more responsive.
01:33:50.300Yeah, so obviously that's very well summarized.
01:33:53.260And the reason that I wanted to include that clip is because the same thing is going to happen now.
01:34:00.120This desire for annexation or even Alberta separation,
01:34:04.880what these people are going to find as they continue this is that there's no real support for it.
01:34:11.000There will be no real support for American annexation.
01:34:13.240There will be no real support for separation from Canada and Alberta.
01:34:19.100When they do their referendum, I believe it's 2026, Alberta is supposed to have a referendum on independence or separation.
01:34:27.440I guarantee you that they will discover that there's not actually the support that they thought there was for that.
01:34:32.480Maybe 30% of the province will agree to it.
01:34:36.700And that's not a mandate in this kind of context.
01:34:39.820So they're going to be in for a rude awakening, I think.
01:34:43.200You know, the French as well, obviously, that, you know, they would if imagine if Canada had been absorbed.
01:34:52.500Think about how much Canadian culture in general is driven by the gravity of American influence.
01:34:59.200And imagine if Canada had been absorbed in, you know, the 1860s or, you know, any any period, you know, well in the past, do you think that the Quebec law would still exist in their modern form?
01:35:13.720I highly doubt it. I think that their language would have would be essentially dead or all close to dead.
01:35:20.620I think that, you know, their heritage would have been essentially wiped out and they would have ceased to exist.
01:35:24.840So I think that they were correct in understanding that, you know, being absorbed into the American system would have destroyed them.
01:35:32.580The last thing as well there that is interesting to bring up is just the Irish influence as well.
01:35:39.880While, you know, it's small at this time period, again, the demand for it is limited.
01:35:44.900It's basically a resentment of Britain, which is not, you know, pro-American.
01:35:49.100Obviously, a lot of Irish went to America to get away from the British rule or the British system.
01:35:56.940But in the context of, you know, Canadian of building a movement around Irish discontent, you know, building a Canadian annexationist movement around Irish discontent with, you know, British rule in Ireland, like good luck, like that never was going to happen.
01:36:12.940And you can actually see this. I was just going to bring this up, you know, because I thought about it at the time period.
01:36:18.160But one of the arguable first terrorist incidents in Canadian history happened in 1840.
01:36:26.600And not a lot of people know about this, but the monument of Isaac Brock at Queenston Heights was built shortly after the War of 1812.
01:36:35.940And it was actually blown up by an Irishman.
01:36:46.140Benjamin Lett, an Irish Canadian rebel blamed for the act.
01:36:49.800The monument of War of 1812 hero Sir Isaac Brock was damaged by a bomb on April 17th, 1840, planted by an anti-Irish agitator, Benjamin Lett, a participant in the 1837 rebellions who sought revenge but failed to bring it down.
01:37:10.160The bomb caused serious damage, leading to its eventual disassembly and replacement by the taller, grander monument still standing today in the 1850s.
01:37:26.720Was it really, you know, a belief in the American system or was it just discontent with British rule?
01:37:33.820And I think the answer is fairly obvious.
01:37:35.560The last thing from that last clip that I wanted to bring up as well, just as a side note, because I find this very interesting, is there's an acknowledgement from the French that British rule was done more along class lines than racial lines.
01:37:56.680Now, the reason I bring that up is because this is 1967 commentary, and he's using racial in the same sense that today we would use national or ethnic.
01:38:10.300So when he refers to the British ruling along racial lines in the context of Canada, what he's talking about is the French race and the English race.
01:38:21.840He's not talking about blacks and, you know, minorities, he's talking about different races of, you know, the Aryan, you know, race.
01:38:31.680So I just thought that that was interesting that he chose to use that word in 1967.
01:38:37.540And this is just to show that it wasn't very long ago that all of these terms could be used interchangeably.
01:38:46.020Ethnicity, race, nation, they were all kind of synonyms for one another, and they could be used in different contexts to mean a broader or more defined version of that thing.
01:38:57.460But, yeah, I find that really interesting that they use the word racial in this context, especially, you know, this is 1965 to 67 that this was made.
01:39:09.980So this is in the height of, you know, race laws in the United States and the civil rights movement.
01:39:18.900And obviously, this has a spillover effect in Canada.
01:39:27.940So we get into, again, there's more comparisons to be drawn here, but we'll move on from the annexationist, you know, topic towards reciprocity.
01:39:38.580As a diplomat, Lord Elgin was fully aware of the American role in these developments.
01:39:47.220And in 1851, he journeyed south to Boston to lend his presence to the celebrations marking the arrival of the first train from Montreal.
01:39:55.720For Boston, the new railway would provide a bridge through Canada to the Great West, the Ohio-Mississippi area, whose growing cities mirrored the relentless expansion of America.
01:40:15.160What a difference there was between the rustic Chicago of 1820 and the busy commercial Chicago of 1850.
01:40:22.000Also phenomenal was the growth of Detroit.
01:40:28.840As for Pittsburgh, it was already becoming an industrial giant.
01:40:36.560America's growth needed building materials.
01:40:39.400And new railways, like the ones linking Boston and Ogdensburg and Bytown and Prescott, were built to bring lumber down from Canada.
01:40:46.920The New York Central already linked New York and Niagara.
01:40:51.820And now, the Great Western was built through Canada to join it with the Michigan Central, which went to Chicago.
01:40:58.880And at Niagara, where a deep gorge separated the two countries, new economic ties were symbolized by a great new bridge.
01:41:08.340So, obviously, you know, that clip is relevant for a few reasons.
01:41:18.360First of all, you can see the change in attitudes between Canadians and Americans in this time period, where it's less hostile.
01:41:24.980They're actively, you know, engaged in infrastructure projects to aid economic trade.
01:41:30.080And, you know, it's a more friendly time period, obviously, than it was from 1763 until, you know, the current period.
01:41:41.320But also, I thought that, you know, that clip is interesting because, again, you know, it's fun to just point out again in this series, you know, who built Chicago?
01:42:05.580You know, this is the time period when a lot of the infrastructure that, you know, lays the groundwork for an advanced civilization is being built.
01:42:14.200The railways, the bridges, the large industrial, you know, centers that are mass producing goods.
01:42:20.600Like, this is, you know, this is when your cities were built.
01:42:26.060This is when the groundwork was laid for modernity.
01:42:29.500And you have, today, people lecturing you about, oh, immigrants built this country.
01:42:36.700You showed up whenever everything was built, basically, you know, and claimed that you're no different than any, you know, your average American or whatever.
01:42:45.820So, yeah, just, I'm going to keep pointing that out through this series because it's just, it's a lie that, you know, they've repeated so often and so aggressively that a lot of Americans, Canadians, Australians,
01:42:59.160they believe this nonsense that their country was built by foreigners, it was not.
01:43:06.300And it's a lie that, you know, you should use historical argument to fight back on.
01:43:13.020But, yeah, we'll get into reciprocity now.
01:43:16.220Obviously, it's just cross-border trade.
01:43:17.940The British government had advanced reciprocity proposals that seemed agreeable to the American administration, but there was doubt whether Congress would consent.
01:43:29.040So, the persuasive Lord Elgin was sent to Washington.
01:43:36.960In Washington's high society, Elgin was suave and confident.
01:43:41.660But could diplomacy succeed in a country where North and South seldom agreed on anything?
01:43:50.280The South was deeply suspicious about Northern motives in supporting reciprocity.
01:43:55.840The North professed to see a bright economic future in free trade.
01:44:00.420But the South wondered whether there wasn't more to it than that.
01:44:03.440Could the North be dreaming of a day when trade with Canada might blossom into annexation?
01:44:26.180And Lord Elgin set about presenting a more accurate picture, using fine champagne to bolster good arguments about the North American economy.
01:44:40.100Entertaining the Southern senators lavishly, Elgin pointed out that a starving Canada would always want to join the rich United States.
01:44:48.960But a Canada fattened by reciprocity would want to remain independent.
01:44:56.180Elgin's skillful persuasion worked, and enough of the skeptics were converted to give reciprocity a solid majority.
01:45:11.340So again, interesting parallels to today, right?
01:45:17.940It's like, there's, there's, it's a really weird way of, of explaining this because it's not the same, but there's, it's like same, same, but different.
01:45:26.620So today, it is not in the interest of the American right to have Canada join it for obvious reasons.
01:45:36.680Canada is a more liberal, like the idea that Canada joins America and then Trump gets elected is crazy, right?
01:45:44.460So like, you know, that's, it's that similar line to today, like the, you know, the American South, uh, hostile towards, uh, you know, the, the idea of inclusion, because what would they do?
01:45:56.920It would basically turn, uh, you know, it was just increase the size of democratic, um, you know, blue state America.
01:46:05.800The reason though, it's funny is because unlike in that time period, it's actually Trump that is causing Canada to undergo economic conditions that are driving Canadians, you know, right-wing Canadians towards him.
01:46:21.300So like, there's this weird kind of thing where, you know, a lot of the issues that we're facing is, uh, like the, the tariffs and stuff are being imposed by the people.
01:46:31.420You know what I'm saying is it's like this weird kind of, um, onion that you have to like unwrap to understand.
01:46:39.760So you've got Trump enforcing tariffs that are making economic situations worse in Canada, and that is driving Canadians towards them.
01:46:49.680But also that's not in the interest of Trump's base to have Canadians, you know, want to support.
01:47:04.180Before the reciprocity treaty, the main pattern of trade in North America had been from east to west.
01:47:10.740Canada's share had always been insufficient.
01:47:14.440But now there was the possibility of greatly increased north-south trade, which became the goal of both countries.
01:47:25.960In Canada, the lumber industry got a great boost from the reciprocity treaty.
01:47:35.300The production of square timber for the British market had long been profitable.
01:47:39.760And now there was a new demand from the mushrooming American cities for cheap boards and planks.
01:47:46.220Before long, British North America was dotted with busy sawmills.
01:47:54.900Besides lumber, the products of Canadian mines were starting to make their way south.
01:47:59.300Soon, there was a healthy list of exports flowing across the boundary that, for so many years, had frustrated the ambitions of Canadian commerce.
01:48:16.280Obviously, this is the time period where you get this kind of, um, you know, stereotype of the Canadian lumberjack.
01:48:23.740Uh, where you get a lot of the, uh, um, you know, like the Ottawa river logger types and things like that.
01:48:32.200But, uh, yeah, obviously, you know, again, similar to today, it hasn't really changed that much.
01:48:38.080Canada is largely driven by, you know, at least the economy is largely driven by raw material exports, uh, chiefly to the United States.
01:48:46.820Um, you know, that's largely what our economy is.
01:48:50.300So, um, but yeah, obviously this drove development and, um, you know, again, just to bring it up, you know, this is where, this is who was building this country, uh, before it became a country.
01:49:05.200Meanwhile, in England, railways had spread extensively and there were experienced builders and financiers ready to invest in new Canadian railways.
01:49:15.180Their skill and capital made possible the ambitious plan that would fill in the major gap on the Canadian railway map.
01:49:26.880A grand trunk line would traverse the country and would promote east-west trade to a point where it would balance the north-south axis.
01:49:36.600In the process, the St. Lawrence system would be strongly reinforced.
01:49:45.180New bridges, new tracks, new stations.
01:49:50.540An exciting period of expansion as a mainline system a thousand miles long became a fact in the 1850s.
01:50:34.340You know, these infrastructure projects were huge.
01:50:36.760The amount of labor and resources that went into building them to establish, you know, a modern society is incalculable.
01:50:45.280And, you know, the people who tell you otherwise are just, they're disingenuous and they're manipulative.
01:50:50.120They're just, they're not, they're doing it in bad faith.
01:50:52.820They don't actually even believe what they're saying.
01:50:54.660But, you know, one of these, one of the interesting things about this time period is, again, you get this kind of formulation of, you know, the Canadian identity into the opposition, in opposition of the American identity.
01:51:11.040And this next clip, I think, is hilarious.
01:51:14.140You know, it's pretty, it's pretty, there's, there's something about this that holds true today.
01:51:19.100And I'm not even saying it's a good thing, but it is true.
01:51:23.820Prosperity brought bright new facades to places like Toronto with its fine hotels, its ambitious commercial buildings, and the beginnings of its university.
01:51:34.180Structures became ornate and imposing in Toronto and Hamilton, as members of the upper crust tried their best to emulate the elegance of London.
01:51:50.360And there was a British quality, too, in the down-to-earth individualism of the farmers of upper Canada,
01:51:55.700who were hardy enough to master the extremes of climate, who were hardy enough to master the extremes of climate, and even make sport of it.
01:52:01.060With their veneration of fair play, the English Canadians embodied some of the best qualities of John Bull.
01:52:14.780And yet they sometimes had grandiose notions of lordliness, and they considered themselves vastly superior to the uncouth Yankee who dominated the continent.
01:52:26.060In Canadian eyes, the Americans were loud, lawless, violent, and ill-bred.
01:52:33.780Scorn for the Yankee, and scorn for the French-Canadian.
01:52:41.180The Quebecer had a cool dislike for the upper Canadian, and the upper Canadian misread this as the stubborn backwardness of a people inexplicably less progressive than himself.
01:52:52.140The smaller towns of upper Canada, the Cobourgs, the Port Hopes, the Kingstons, reflected a life that was cozy and comfortable.
01:53:06.220European travellers, contrasting it with the United States, found it less vital and dynamic.
01:53:12.540But it was a considerable achievement.
01:53:14.580And it was all the more to be treasured, because of the fact that just outside the door, there often lay a brooding and untouched wilderness.
01:53:30.180Yeah, so, I think that clip actually, you know, even though it's kind of, I don't know, not necessarily entirely favourable to English Canadians,
01:53:40.460I think that actually there's some truth to a lot of what they say there.
01:53:44.580So, first of all, you get that kind of stereotype of the, you know, like the Canadians embracing, like, a harsh climate.
01:53:53.340So, you know, they show the clips of, you know, early English Canadians out there racing sleds, you know, pulled by horses or curling.
01:54:01.800Like, they're literally, like, you know, that still is them curling rocks, right?
01:54:06.320You know, the beginnings of that kind of attitude of, like, you know, we can endure the harsh conditions.
01:54:11.980But then, you know, you counteract that with their attitudes towards Americans.
01:54:33.680Yeah, like, I don't know about the ill-bred anymore.
01:54:38.220They wouldn't necessarily bring that up.
01:54:39.600But they would certainly refer to Americans as, you know, boorish or loud, like, obnoxious, you know, violent, right?
01:54:48.720Like, these are the same stereotypes that you'll see today of Americans.
01:54:51.520So you can see it's formulating in this time period this kind of attitude towards, you know, the American system and what it produces in contrast to the British.
01:55:00.180So whereas you have, you know, the American, you know, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, the Canadian version is peace, order, good governance.
01:55:09.200Like, these are two very different attitudes, both rooted in, you know, Anglo-Saxon tradition, but, you know, different manifestations of it.
01:55:17.380So it's an interesting juxtaposition, right?
01:55:21.420And then you also get the English, you know, Canadian attitude towards the French, which, again, in some ways hasn't changed.
01:55:29.560You know, this kind of, like, I see this, it's one of the most common complaints that you'll hear from English-speaking Canadians about French Canadians is that they're,
01:55:37.240you know, they're snobbish, like, they don't, they're standoffish, they're cold, you know, they have this kind of, like, you know, resentment towards, and, yeah, like, I get what they're saying.
01:55:51.820Like, anybody who's been to extremely French parts of Quebec will know what that kind of feeling is.
01:55:58.040But it's, I think it's, it's misguided.
01:56:05.000It's an inherent kind of resentment the same way that you would, as an English-Canadian, have resentment towards, like, imagine, imagine if, you know, Chinese people or whatever, Indians came to Canada, right?
01:56:19.260And they come to your, whatever, small town or they come to, you know, your city, and they're speaking Punjabi at you.
01:56:26.140And they're, like, insisting that you understand that.
01:56:30.280And even if you speak Punjabi, you're, like, we speak English here.
01:56:34.120It's the same kind of shit that you get with Quebecers that I've noticed is that they, like, I don't really resent it that much because I understand where it comes from.
01:56:41.860But a lot, I think it gets mistranslated by a lot of English-Canadians, so, you know.
01:56:50.500Leifner says they talk too fast was the one I heard.
01:56:54.200Like, I can actually understand French when it's spoken slowly.
01:56:57.560Like, if the person, if they're not using, like, very, like, colorful or complicated language, like, if they speak to me like I'm a child, I can actually understand what they're saying.
01:57:10.580But they basically have to talk to me like I'm an idiot.
01:57:13.760So, Raises Jack Loops says I visited Montreal.
01:57:33.120So, yeah, I just think that clip in particular is funny because you get these beginnings of, like, the Canadian stereotypes, both how they see themselves, how they see Americans, how they see French Canadians.
01:57:43.580It's an interesting section of that episode.
01:57:50.720And, yeah, now I'll turn towards expansion.
01:57:54.620I forget why I pulled this clip, but I'll remember when I played it.
01:57:58.380Immigrant ships from British ports did a steady business throughout these years, crossing to ports on the St. Lawrence.
01:58:05.540Their decks were crowded with the adventurous and the underprivileged, eager to escape overcrowding and poverty and make a fresh start in a more promising world.
01:58:14.720The hazards of the bush were overcome, and the country saw the steady growth of a modest chain of settlements that pushed back the wilderness, north and west to Lake Huron and southward to the American border in Quebec.
01:58:34.520By the end of the 1850s, almost all of the good arable land, south of the Canadian Shield, had been filled up.
01:58:42.960But in Britain, the emigrants continued to leave for Canada.
01:58:47.340In Canada, unlike the United States, the rocky Canadian Shield blocked any easy movement to the west.
01:58:59.540And there were also desolate lands that cut Canada off from the maritime colonies.
01:59:04.600As a country, Canada was indeed cribbed, cabined, and confined.
01:59:17.740The reason I put that in there was because this is a time period where Canadians actually start looking towards Western expansion in earnest.
01:59:23.940And it'll come up in the next episode more so.
01:59:26.980But you can see, like, that narrow strip of land is still – like, that's where – what is it?
01:59:31.220What percentage of – is it 60% or 70% of Canadians still live in that strip of land, basically along the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes?
01:59:38.780So, yeah, it's a huge portion of them anyways.
01:59:43.360So, obviously, that's, you know, the heart of Canada.
01:59:49.300And this is why a lot of Westerners in particular, like Albertans and, you know, people from Saskatchewan, Manitoba,
01:59:59.220they have this resentment towards that, you know, what's referred to as the Laurentian elite, you know, the rule from Ontario and Quebec.
02:00:07.120The truth is, though, like, that's where Canada originates from.
02:00:11.060And, you know, the funny thing about it is – and we'll get into this as well in the next episode – but on a huge portion,
02:00:19.900the overwhelming majority of people who settled from Alberta or settled in Alberta and the Prairies and out west,
02:02:45.000For some years now, the shortage of new farmland had led many French Canadians down the winding roads that crossed the border into New England.
02:02:55.760Here, they found jobs in factory towns like Lawrence and Lowell, Manchester and Providence.
02:03:03.760And so, many French Canadians became Franco-Americans.
02:03:11.620At the same time, surplus population from English Canada was moving south and west across the border into the Ohio-Mississippi farmlands, adding a Canadian element to the flow of American pioneers.
02:03:24.880These departures from Canada were frustrating to Canadian patriots, who felt they militated against the growth and development of the country, where it was the lands from Michigan to Minnesota that were being settled, not the still-empty British northwest.
02:03:45.920Yet, this movement across the continent, south and west, spared Canada the pressure that might have been created if the Americans had chosen instead to expand northward.
02:04:04.680So, again, how long has this been a problem, right?
02:04:11.380You know, there's an emphasis on it today of people, you know, draining.
02:04:15.260They call it brain drain now, or you could just call it population drain, but, you know, in this time, not necessarily brain drain, but, you know, high-quality professionals, tradesmen, etc., you know, finding opportunities in the States.
02:04:33.440And there is a certain, like, look, I'm not going to deny it, there's a certain resentment there, isn't it?
02:04:37.200But we've seen this with, look at how, you know, Clyde do-nothing is being treated there for his, you know, push to get people to move south.
02:04:48.680It's considered, you know, unpatriotic and almost treasonous, right?
02:04:52.700So, yeah, like, I just thought that was funny, too.
02:04:56.520There's just another parallel with today.
02:04:58.280And, you know, the reason that – I'll play the last clip, and then I'll get into why I think it's important to draw all these parallels and, you know, important to consider as we move forward into the next episodes.
02:05:12.200The people of the Maritimes were vigorous, proud, and independent.
02:05:23.680New Brunswickers were convinced that their forests were the best and that their lumbermen had no equal.
02:05:30.560For Nova Scotians, their fisheries led all others.
02:05:34.640And as for shipbuilding, they had no rivals anywhere in the world.
02:05:42.200But when it came to trade with the West Indies, for instance, American competition was getting the lion's share, with more capital to work with and cheaper products to sell.
02:05:55.740Thus, a slow decline set in in the Maritimes, especially as iron steamships replaced wooden sailing vessels.
02:06:06.940Were the Maritimes doomed to stagnation?
02:06:09.720There was a need for new economic orientation, perhaps to Canada.
02:07:11.560In that time, they would have been more dependent on trade with the United Kingdom.
02:07:14.720But, again, this concept of regionalism and issues like that, as well as just to bring up in that point as well, this is where you get, like, these kind of, again, you know, the formulating identities, right?
02:07:29.660In this case, you know, New Brunswick are seeing themselves as, like, the best timbermen in the world.
02:07:34.940And the Nova Scotians seeing themselves as the best shipbuilders or fishermen or whatever, right?
02:07:40.400You get these kind of stirrings of, like, the regional cultures that still exist today in Canada, or at least, you know, the remnants of them still exist.
02:07:48.340But the reason that I wanted to, you know, talk about this episode in the context of, you know, modern Canada and what's going on today is because all of these issues that occurred in the 1840s and 1860s and continued on after were overcome.
02:08:11.240All of these issues were overcome, and it led to the formulation of the Canadian nation and one of the greatest civilizations that's ever existed, one of the wealthiest civilizations that's ever existed in the history of the world, right?
02:08:29.020In terms of standard of living, in terms of, you know, our cities, our infrastructure, all these things, right?
02:08:36.320A hundred years after this time period, Canada is one of the most desirable places in the world to live, and it was achieved by overcoming all of these obstacles.
02:08:45.840And this is, you know, it's not the next episode that we get into this, but it will be coming up soon.
02:08:50.880These are the obstacles that were overcome by the Fathers of Confederation.
02:08:57.440These are the issues that John A. McDonald sought to address.
02:09:00.980These are the issues that George Etienne Cartier sought to address, and Darcy McGee, and et cetera.
02:09:07.040These are the issues that they were trying to overcome, and they were able to.
02:09:10.820And so this idea, like, the reason why so many Canadians are drawn today towards these solutions, these quote-unquote solutions that they think are legitimate,
02:09:21.580are because they don't know their own history.
02:09:23.460And if they did, they would realize that what we need is not annexationism.
02:09:27.500It's not, you know, an American-style system.
02:09:41.340It's getting back to the roots of how we overcame these issues.
02:09:44.740Not by embracing the solutions that failed to begin with.
02:09:51.060We succeeded in getting over this, and then it was sabotaged in the 1960s.
02:09:55.940All of these issues have been exacerbated and been brought back to the forefront because of inept leadership and incompetence in the bureaucracy.
02:10:08.140This isn't a failure of the Canadian identity.
02:11:27.180Part of what we offer through Second Sons is, like, it's not that we're offering it, but we're providing, you know, the opportunity, I suppose, for guys to have a reason to actually get to know various regions of the country.
02:11:43.400I learned more about Canada driving across it and just meeting people in different regions about it than I did from any, you know, books like this.
02:12:05.960I've been to, God knows how many, the nature of the work I was doing in Alberta brought me all over the place.
02:12:11.920And I can tell you that this idea that Alberta is some kind of haven of baseness and traditional values is nonsense.
02:12:19.640Of course, it does exist there, but not in any more of a capacity than it does in any other region in the country, because I've been to other regions of the country and it's the same.
02:12:29.060You know, Calgary, I think it's hilarious.
02:12:32.700A lot of people say, you know, Alberta has more in common with Montana than it does with, you know, Ottawa.
02:13:49.120Like, this is, I don't know why people think this, this idea that, you know, Alberta and Montana are like, they're two peas in a pod compared to, you know.
02:13:57.700So, if you talk to, I guarantee you that you would have actually more in common, if you're a rural Albertan, you'll have more in common with a rural, you know, Quebecer than you do with somebody from Great Falls, for the most part.
02:14:40.980But this idea that, you know, they're just lost because they haven't really, I think Canadians probably need to be a little bit more introspective.
02:14:51.320And they need to reflect on their own past, as opposed to glorifying America's past.