Arrhythmic Nation 1812

Great, 2012 is almost over and I still haven't said anything about the War Of 1812 Bicentenary.  Yes, I know, the war lasted into 1815, so I still have plenty of time to talk about it.  But I'm sure the anniversary hype won't last that long, so here goes...

It reminds me of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage to the Americas.  Remember how awkward that was?  This anniversary isn't nearly as bad - we don't have to dance around any genocides this time.  But there's still plenty of pretence nonetheless.

First of all, there's the strange way both Americans and Canadians think they won, because each think they were provoked by the other, and thus won because they successfully defended themselves.  In a lot of the world, that sort of disagreement would lead to hurt feelings at best, another war at worst.  But not here, because of the next weirdness: we're each trying to draw esteem from a war we fought against a country that's now our close friend.  I mean, if we looked back on the war with regret or as an event we'd outgrown, that would be understandable.  Lots of countries have eras they've come to regret.  But we still look back on 1812 as a meaningful achievement, not the unnecessarily triggered and incompetently fought incident it was. 

The Canadian government has been running TV commercials publicising the anniversary, and glorifying it as a defining moment of Canadian history.  If the Americans saw these ads, I'm sure they'd be so angry they'd quit arguing with each other and find something Canadian to boycott.  Say, Blackberrys.  Well, something they aren't already boycotting.  The point is, they might actually have justification for being angry.  As we seem to be doing more often, Canadians  are taking a self-important attitude we'd find infuriating coming from Americans.  And I'm sure Native Canadians loved that friendly nod between Sir Isaac Brock and Tecumseh implying such a wonderful sense of togetherness.

One ad carried the implication that the war was "to keep us free."  Let's think about this: at the time, Canada was a colony in an empire that was still (at least partly) ruled by an unelected monarch.  And that's before you even get to the fact that the elected officials in Canada in the early 1800's were horribly corrupt.  But the country we got invaded by was democratic.  We were hardly fighting to keep free.

And this is a big problem with Canada's attempts to build a national story: our antagonism with the Americans wasn't due to any desire to be free, or anything associated with today's Canadian values.  It was blind loyalty to an archaic institution that was already outdated.  It may be true that most Canadians are in favour of the monarchy today, but that's the symbolic museum-monarchy we currently have.  The idea of siding with an unelected leader against a democratic government is a decision hardly any modern Canadians would choose.  Yes, in retrospect most of us (myself included) are glad we're independent.  But that was really just a lucky accident; eventually we're going to have to come to terms with the fact that our predecessors didn't defend the country so they could achieve universal health care and tolerance to immigrants.