The Foreign Service Journal, October 2007

the richest share. The very large mines and stupendous reserves of petroleum in the oil sands are con- centrated in the far west. Further- more, the Canadian economy is drawn in two directions: not only east and west, but north and south toward the United States. Two further characterizations of the Canadian polity shed light on the border mentality of its people. Since its founding by Cartier and other early French explorers, and notwithstanding the important participation of its native peoples, Canada is primarily the product of two found- ing groups: those who speak predominantly French and live in Quebec (and a few other places such as along the Ottawa River in Ontario and in Acadia), and those who live in the remainder of Canada and who mainly speak English. Of course, immigration has added millions of new Canadians who often do not speak either of the two official languages. Indeed, Canada prides itself on the idea that individual immigrants do not need to give up their former cultural identity when they become Canadian, thus distinguishing it from the presumed “melting pot” below its southern border. Canada is bilingual but also multicultural. These new Canadians add important talent and diversity to the population mix, not only in Quebec but in every other province, especially Ontario and British Columbia. The Impact of Regionalism In part because of the nature of Canada’s population distribution and its huge expanse, very identifiable regions have emerged that tend to further truncate con- tiguity within the narrow population band. Parts of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec have more in com- mon with Maine than with the rest of Canada. Regardless of state or provincial designation, for example, the Calgary Stampede is the best rodeo in the entire western circuit, bar none. Similarly, the idiosyncrasies of the people living in Vancouver have more in common with those in Seattle and Portland than with “the people living on the other side of the mountains” in Canada, to invert a quotation from the late Prime Minister Pierre Eliott Trudeau. And the Winnipeg Royal Ballet is as acclaimed in Minneapolis as it is in Toronto. Nevertheless, Canadians are Canadians and Americans are Americans. Despite some protestations to the contrary regarding Ottawa from among those who value sovereignty (separatism, to most Americans) above all else, in social and cultural terms Canada is quite a decentral- ized place. And that decentraliza- tion aggravates an already present sense of vulnerability. This sense of political and cultur- al vulnerability is not a concern about losing citizens to the United States. Immigration has always been a very open process on both sides of the border, with, it is true, more Canadians moving south than Americans moving north. The sense of vulnerability is much deeper and goes to the very heart of bilateral relations. This sense of vulnerability is about identity and culture, and whether Canada can be a real country, given both its geographic configuration as a people and its proximity and subordi- nation to things American. Conversely, this sense of vulnerability only accentu- ates the awareness for Canadians of being a “border peo- ple.” If Canadians were more contiguous within the pri- mary population band, or if the awareness of regional and cultural differences were less prominent, they would be less conscious of their border status. Likewise, if the zone were wider or shorter, Canada would feel more like a “normal” country to its inhabitants. Instead, while Canadians are a very cosmopolitan people, often sending their children abroad to obtain at least some of their edu- cation and traveling a great deal, the citizens of Victoria normally have not visited Halifax, and vice versa. But they are accustomed to crossing the U.S. border whenever a gallon of gas is cheaper on the other side, or to visit relatives or neighbors. They do so to catch a plane, or to transport the wheat harvest when the dis- tance is shorter than not crossing the border. Americans living along the border do the very same thing. For a pro- fessor teaching at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., taking a plane out of Durval Airport in Montreal is a whole lot easier than taking that plane out of JFK in New York City. In the aggregate, these border crossings amount to millions of travelers a year, even though only a relatively small subset of residents on either side of the F O C U S O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 45 Canada’s urban centers are isolated beads on a string, not homogeneous distributions of people and economic enterprise within a unified zone.