The Insurgency

• Author: Craig Forcese
• Pages: 9-14

9

Chapter 2

The Insurgency

“‘What,” asked Canada, “is meant by Neutrality?”

“Excite fresh men t’invade that monarch’s shore,

And f‌ill a loyal country with alarms,

And give them men, with warlike ores and arms

Encourage brigands and all aid supply;

I guess that’s ri, downright Neutral-i-ty!”

— roBina lizars & kathleen MaCfarlane lizars (1897)1

I  1837, the American republic was just over a

half-century old and today’s Canada did not exist. The United

States was not yet a continental state and British North Amer-

ica comprised a vast northern hinterland extending from a series of

small settler colonies, clustered mostly along the northeastern fron-

tier of the United States. Two of these possessions comprised “the

Canadas”: Upper Canada and Lower Canada (the southern cores of

today’s Ontario and Quebec).

This was bound to be a complicated relationship. The bound-

aries between British North America and the expanding United

States remained unsettled in both the east and far west, creating pol-

itical tensions. And within living memory, Britain and America had

fought two wars — one of American independence (1775–1783), and

the another from 1812 to 1815 as a North American afterthought to

the Napoleonic Wars.

Against all odds, Britain retained control of its northern posses-

sions after both conf‌licts, but the example of the brash democratic

republic to the south posed perpetual challenges to British admin-

istration. And while the phrase would not be used for several more