A history of our free trade
After two years of trade uncertainty with the U.S., it seems even the recently arrived-at resolution is in doubt. With this month’s elections shifting the political-power landscape down south, the U.S.Canada-Mexico trade agreement might not be approved.
However you feel about the agreement, Canadians negotiated it. That freedom and responsibility result from independence hard-won by Canada 92 years ago.
On Nov. 18, 1926, at a conference attended by leaders from Britain and the seven self-governing British dominions, delegates adopted a report by former British prime minister Arthur Balfour that defined a new relationship between Britain and the dominions. That relationship was as “autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs.”
Balfour’s report paved the way for constitutional independence for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Irish Free State, India and Newfoundland. Five years later, the 1931 Statute of Westminster made that independence law.
Acts of the British parliament would no longer extend to Canada without Canada’s specific request and consent. Britain could no longer unilaterally negotiate and sign treaties on Canada’s behalf. When Britain declared war, Canada wasn’t automatically also at war.
Canada could engage in its own foreign relations.
We acted quickly. By 1927, our first embassy opened in Washington, D.C. Since then, we’ve dealt directly with our southern neighbours and others.
But the journey to 1926 included many lessons highlighting how Canada needed to look after its own interests.
Boundary disputes, in particular, stoked motivation.
The 1846 Oregon Treaty between Britain and the U.S. predated Canada but caused headaches later for the young nation. The treaty established the border between British North America and the U.S. along the 49th parallel to the Strait of Georgia, then south between the mainland and the islands.
It was a compromise. British negotiators chose peace and good relations with the U.S. instead of a boundary that followed the Columbia River; the territories that are now Washington state and parts of Oregon became American. The Americans wanted the boundary to follow today’s Alaskan border.
The redrawn map angered residents in Upper (now central) Canada. Wording about the boundary’s water route off the coast was also unclear. The treaty stated the marine boundary follows “the deepest channel” out to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The British claimed this meant Rosario Strait, to the east of the strategically important San Juan Islands. The Americans claimed Haro Strait on the west side of those islands was the correct route.
It took a series of events triggered in 1859 by a wandering pig to resolve the San Juan Boundary Dispute.
In the Pig War, a pig owned by a British, Hudson’s Bay Company employee on San Juan Island wandered onto an American settler’s farm, where it dug up and dined on the farmer’s potatoes. The settler killed and ate the pig. The pig’s owner was angry.
Tensions rose. The U.S. army was called in. The British navy responded. A U.S. army captain promised to “make a Bunker Hill of it.” The Colony of British Columbia’s governor clamoured to send in the Royal Marines.
Washington and London were not amused. They sent in the brass to negotiate. In the end, the only casualty of the Pig War was the pig.
But it wasn’t until 13 years after pig became pork and five years after Canada became a nation that the boundary was settled. In 1872, an international commission drew the boundary down Haro Strait.
Thirty years later, the Alaska boundary dispute was similarly resolved. In 1903, arbitration of the line separating the Alaska panhandle and B.C. again favoured the U.S., blocking an all-Canadian route from the Yukon gold fields to the sea.
The repeated British concessions infuriated Canadians and caused many to question the country’s position in the British Empire. As opportunity arose in following decades, Canada took steps to increase its independence.
In 1911, Canada refused free trade with the U.S. In 1917, prime minister Robert Borden insisted that Canada would send more troops to fight in the First World War only if they remained within an intact Canadian Corps. Leveraging its war record, Canada became a founding member of the League of Nations. In 1922, we declined to automatically provide military support to Britain in a dispute with Turkey.
Each event staked a bit more independence. The culmination was the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982.
Boundary issues remain and trade disputes still arise, but Canada now negotiates its own path.