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What is the fundamental nature of the relationship between Canada and the United States? Imagine having to describe the divided destiny of North America to somebody who lived under the Roman Empire or the Tudors. How would you go about it? We’d explain that the countries are economically interlocked neighbours with different forms of government and divergent histories; after a few minutes, you would surely be asked, “I see that you have not been at war for two centuries, but are you enemies? What stops the greater country from walking up to the lesser one and taking it by force or subterfuge?”

“Patriotic feeling, I suppose. We Canadians would fight for our independence. We do not want to be Americans.”

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“But what is the basis of this feeling? Is it a matter of labels? It cannot be ethnic survival; these countries, as you describe them, are each a hodgepodge of many races. The differences in policy sound modest, and could be preserved under an overall political union — indeed, Canada seems to have done this itself with what I think I heard you call ‘Quebec.’ So it must be attachment to political form. You Canadians love your royal family, and would lay down your lives to preserve your historic monarchy.”