Echoes Of 1812 US-Britain War In Trump’s Canada Tariff Tantrum

New Delhi: US President Donald Trump’s tariff war against Canada runs deeper than tariffs.

It has curious historical roots.

Remember, the United States set off on its journey by throwing off the yoke of the British Crown, and with the famous Boston Tea Party war cry of “No taxation without representation”.

Had George III given the colonies seats in the British Parliament, the story could have been different.

So, when the 13 colonies rebelled and formed a confederation and then became the United States, the colonies to the north that make up Canada remained loyal to the British Crown.

Their own armies were not big enough for that kind of an enterprise, and they were only interested in controlling their own territory.

Post-independence, the only time the US and Britain went to war, and Canadian status was at stake, was in 1812.

It was a military conflict fought between the United States and Britain from 1812 to 1815 because Britain restricted American trade with Europe and forcibly drafted American sailors into the Royal Navy.

In 1812, sentiment was strong among some American politicians that Canada should be acquired because it was seen as a British outpost.

Then US Secretary of War, William Eustis, declared in the most belligerent tone, “We can take the Canadas without soldiers, we have only to send officers into the province and the people …will rally round our standard.”

Henry Clay, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, asserted, “…the militia of Kentucky are alone competent to place Montreal and Upper Canada at your feet.”

And Thomas Jefferson, the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence, wrote, “The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighbourhood of Quebec, will be a matter of marching, and will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next, and the final expulsion of England from the American continent.”

The war had its bitter moments. American armies burned down Toronto (then York), and the British burned down Washington, including the White House.

The war ended after the Treaty of Ghent was signed in 1814 and ratified in 1815.

Trump shares much of the sentiments expressed by these early 19th-century American politicians, but he comes 200 years late in the day.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew put Trump’s tantrum in contemporary idiom: “You know when a rock band is really over the hill, and you see them in a casino playing some song from like 50 years ago? I think that’s the part of Donald Trump’s presidency we’re at now.”

In 1812, both Britain and the United States were rivals.

The United States was an emerging country, and Britain was the undisputed superpower of the day.

Today, Britain is not a power in any sense of the term, and as many believe, the US is a declining power.

It is also the case that the War of 1812 was between the United States and Britain, though it was fought over Canada.

The tariff war unleashed by Trump, and countered by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, has some faint echoes of the clash of commercial interests of 1812.

The two countries are currently in a trade war with the US imposing 50 per cent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods following the collapse of trade negotiations.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, in retaliation, has imposed tariffs of 15, 25 and 50 per cent on $20 billion worth of US products.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex Canada and make it the 51st US state, though the interpretation is that this is part of pressure tactics to get more trade concessions from Canada.

Still, the present-day US-Canada trade tells a different story.

For example, US-Canada trade in goods in 2025 was $715.5 billion, with American exports to Canada at $333.6 billion and American imports from Canada at $381.9 billion. The trade deficit in favour of Canada was $48.3 billion.

Similarly, US-Canada trade in services in 2025 was $156.8 billion, with US exports in services to Canada at $92.3 billion and US imports in services from Canada at $64.5 billion.

The trade surplus in services for the US was $27.7 billion.

The total trade deficit in goods and services in 2025 is a mere $20.6 billion, which is not such a large figure for a $30 trillion strong economy.

It appears that Trump’s tariff offensive is not an attempt to defend America’s businesses and consumers.

At the back of his mind is the desire to get Canada, an idea entertained by Jefferson and Clay.

But Canada now has a national identity of its own. It values its own British-transmitted values of gentle conservatism and its respect for the First Nations, the many native tribes of pre-colonial Canada and the Inuit to the north.

Its natural frontiers are the lakes and the Lawrence River system to the south, demarcating Canada from the United States.

When Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, Carney reminded him that Lake Ontario was the name that existed before the United States and Canada were born.

The name Ontario is traced back to the Iroquois Indians, and it is supposed to mean “shining lake”.

Another etymological derivation is from the Huron tribe language Wyandot, meaning “great lake”.

Trump’s zeal to rename it Lake America could be seen as an attempt to wipe off traces of the pre-European people on the American continent.

Canada is sure living in the shadow of the more vibrant US culturally speaking.

Most Canadians are forever soaked in the cultural winds across the lakes, but they have created their own political traditions and social norms.

Trump cannot hope to invade Canada because it is a nation in its own right. A lesson Americans refuse to learn even after the setbacks in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s and in the stalemate with Iran in the ongoing war.