History and proximity are hard to ignore. We've fought a war against the U.S. and more than one with them. We've struggled through the Dirty Thirties together and all the other dirty years that followed. But we've celebrated their greatness as well. Martin Luther King, Neil Armstrong, JFK. Many of us have family living in the U.S. It's estimated that there are a million Americans living in Canada and an equal number of Canadians in the U.S. As far back as 1850, there were 148,000 of us there, even though they would not be technically Canadians until 1867.
So, yes, we care. We watch from the sidelines, wondering if the choices they make will be the right ones, both for themselves and, somewhat selfishly, for us.
"Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder. What unites us is far greater than what divides us."
John F. Kennedy
"Living next to you is like sleeping with an elephant; no matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt."
Pierre Elliott Trudeau
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