The Border: Canada, the US and Dispatches from the 49th Parallel

by James Laxer

Insightful, prescient and often funny, The Border explores what it means to be Canadian and what Canada means to the giant to our south.

If good fences make good neighbours, do we have the sort of fence that will allow us to maintain neighbourly relations with the world’s only superpower?

In The Border, well-known political scientist and journalist James Laxer explores this question by taking the reader on a compelling 5000-mile journey into culture, politics, history, and the future of Canadian sovereignty.

Long ignored (or celebrated) as “the world’s longest undefended border,” the line between us and the US is now a stress point. The attacks on the World Trade Center announced to the world that North America is no longer a quiet neighbourhood and made our relationship with the US one of the most pressing questions facing Canadians.

The porousness of the border is sure to be more problematic as the world becomes more troubled. Canadian officials complain of American pornography, drugs, untaxed cigarettes and, especially, guns moving northwards. For their part, the FBI and US Customs Service blame Canada for the infiltration of Chinese gangs smuggling immigrants and, more urgently, third-world terrorist cells based north of the border.

Drawing deeply from history and anecdote, Laxer shows that for all our neighbourly good will, the Canada-US border has been contentious since the American War of Independence. In the mid-1800s the Americans tried to seize the west coast up to the 54th parallel. On the other hand, until 1931 the Canadian Army’s “Defence Scheme Number One” was to launch a surprise attack on the US with Mexico and Japan as allies.

But beyond the fraught politics of the border, Laxer discovers another legacy as well. Travelling the country from Campobello island in the east to Richmond BC in the west all the way up to the Alaska panhandle in the north, Laxer meets people who live within a stone’s throw of the foreigners on the other side, and who share with him tales of friendship and rivalry, smuggling and trade that have shaped the character of their communities.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Canada, Politics

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

James Laxer was a Canadian political economist and professor at York University.

Reviews

[Primrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part history, part travelogue, and part political essay, this book is an account of the author's travels to some of the towns and cities along the US/Canada border. I found it entertaining and informative, and even better, it made me think, something I always love in a book. The author gives the reader a look inside post-9/11 North America, as well as some of the historical events that have changed life for small towns, big cities, and entire nations. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how these two countries work together, the ways they don't work together, as well as the damage being done to both countries as a result of increased harmonization of national policies and associations (i.e. NAFTA, drug testing, customs).

[Lea Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can't finish this one. I don't have time to waste on books that I'm not enjoying. The book is overly anecdotal and repetitive. It is interesting in the sense that it is written from a Canadian perspective (and a Canadian who doesn't pull any punches in criticizing America), but the writing meandered and didn't seem to have a purpose.