Why commemorate the War of 1812?

Why not!

If the original American plan to invade and capture Britain’s North American colonies while the English were busy with Napoleon had worked, Y’all know there would be no country of Canada.

Because they failed miserably, the Americans have re-written history to portray the war as a British attempt to reverse the outcome of the American Revolutionary War.

But that is not the case. The Americans were the antagonists. Thomas Jefferson, by then a former U.S. President, predicted the Americans would “only have to march” to occupy the British Colonies and make them part of the U.S.

Didn’t happen that way.

But what did happen is worth commemorating. The survival of the colonies to become Canada —- and also the two hundred years of peace, co-operation and friendship  that has ensued between the adversaries of two centuries ago.

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It is always hazardous to dig up a faintly-remembered past, particularly when the digging is being driven by a government keen to “read” North American history in a way that seems primarily intended to serve political/electoral purposes.  But in the case of the commemoration of the bicentenary of the War of 1812, the pros outweigh the cons, particularly since academic historians are likely to ensure that the government’s misreadings of history – purposeful or unwitting – will be corrected in the retelling.  Commemorating the war will increase knowledge about a germinal event that many Canadians readily admit that they do not know much about.  Commemoration will also provide Canadians (and others besides) with an opportunity to reflect on the foundations – and conditions – of the long peace that all too often we take for granted.  And it will encourage us to ponder the might-have-beens of this war: had those native peoples who had fought on the British side been rewarded, as they had been promised, with the creation of a semi-autonomous Aboriginal polity situated between the United States and the settler communities to the north, the future shape of North America would have been radically altered.

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As a continuing element of highlighting Canadian history, be it of people (eg. the Famous Five), legislative events (the Diefenbaker Bill of Rights or the Trudeau Charter), or military matters (such as the War of 1812), this celebratory noting of the War is fine. None of these commemorations should glorify any one theme (the military, gender equality, etc); it should be balanced and not given over to myths as in the US, England, Nazi Germany…South Africa, for example, has done a wonderful job in how it treats the Mandela legacy….his strenths, weaknesses, victories, and failures….a very good example of history as it should be told and celebrated.

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