Steven P. McNicoll wrote:

What is the significance of that? Canada was not an independent nation at
those times, it was part of the British empire and the US was at war with
Britain.

Right and wrong: the war was against Britain, not Canada, but Britain and
the U.S. were *not* in a continual state of war from 1776 to 1815. The
Paris Peace Treaty ended the American Revolution in 1783, and Congress
declared war against Britain again 29 years later to start the War of 1812
(I think that's where the terms "hawks" and "doves" originated, describing
the pro- and anti-war factions in Congress leading up to the declaration).
The two wars get quite muddled in U.S. pop history, but they were futher
apart than World War I and World War II: the young lieutenants on both sides
in the American Revolution were the old, grey-haired generals of the War of
1812.

The Treaty of Ghent ended the second war in 1815, so as far as I remember,
there have been only two relatively short periods in history that Britain
and the U.S. were actually at war:

1776-1783
1812-1815

(Apologies if I missed something in-between -- this is all from memory.)

We suffer from just as much propaganda about the War of 1812 here in Canada
as you do in the U.S. I wouldn't suggest turning to the schoolbooks of
either Canada or the U.S. for an honest evaluation.


All the best,


David