The US-Canada frontier is unlike any other, because the relationship between the two peoples is unlike any other. Large stretches of the border — out west — are watched over by drones but otherwise left unguarded. It’s a proper border, as anyone discovers if they try to cross without the right papers, but it is unlike those barbed wire zones that divide enemy peoples in so many places of the world.
People speak the same language on both sides, though with different accents. They watch the same TV shows, root for the same sports teams, wear the same Lycra and leisurewear, holiday in each other’s countries. Whole industries, such as automobiles, are completely integrated and billions of dollars of goods cross the border every day. When Canadian forests go up in flames, Americans fly in to help, and when LA catches fire, Canada sends its water planes. The ties are more than neighbourly. They are intimate. Intermarriage and dual citizenships mean that families span the border. As many as 800,000 Canadians live permanently in the US, and thousands of Americans live on the Canadian side, some as refugees from what they regard as the craziness back home.
When most Americans think about Canada, which is rarely, they think of snow, lakes, good hunting and how pleasant it is to have a neighbour who doesn’t make trouble. When Canadians think about Americans, which is all the time, the psychology of the weaker party makes for a mixture of envy coupled with fear and loathing.