Opinion | The imagination of attaching Canada has a long and mortifying history

Franklin, who is said to be “pitiful sick”, returned home, accompanied by a couple of Montreal who took “these freedoms in provocations in our conduct in Canada”, reported, “that it has come almost to a dispute”.

The congress has appointed a committee to investigate the Canadian flask, producing a long list of causes but omitting the obvious: the Canadians had no interest in the revolt. As Father Carroll noticed, they did not believe themselves oppressed. Not only have their interests refused to align themselves, but also the Canadians have entertained very different ideas on the government. It was almost as if Canada was a foreign country.

Despite all the calculation errors, neither Franklin nor Washington could give up the idea of ​​annexing Canada. Nor the Marquis de Lafayette, to whom a command of 2,500 men had been promised and could invade the instructions. Somehow the expedition was to be released in February, not an ideal moment for a Canadian “raid”. Nobody had taken the trouble to provide troops winter clothes. The congress canceled the mission, which Lafayette had described as an “hell of errors, madness and deception”. His second in the command was left to wonder if those who had cooked the ridiculous plan had been traitors or idiots.

At the end of the war of independence, before the peace negotiations of 1783, Franklin tried a passage of hail of Mary: did the British not offered Canada as repairs for the many cities they had burned? Certainly a gesture of good will was in order. The British did not find the compelling idea.

Despite the irritated story, It seems that – at least one of us seems to be here again.

It is not easy to beat in modern Canada, who has not offended anyone from the 1995 Great Turbot War (Spain, fishing rights). For all the first false American steps, at least in the 18th century, the reasons were clear: the colonists of the North felt vulnerable to the British and Indian attack. As if Washington did, Canada “would have been an important acquisition and it was worth incurring the costs for research”. Today, there is no healthy reason, unless a sovereign nation was mate that seems to be both your dearest friend and your most trusted commercial partner constitutes a reasonable foreign policy. Even George Washington would be difficult to write an appeal to the modern Canada: the land of universal health care, universal maternity leave and affordable prices; A country with a sense of decency, control of weapons and higher life expectancy; A country that still teaches the Corsiva calligraphy, which could convince him to join with his southern neighbor. We do not seem to run together with the same goal. Pepé Le Pew will never have that cat.