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September 12, 2026 | Listen online | Read online None of This Is NewRemember: Bullies fold when nobody flinches.       Simulated imageby Tod MaffinFollow me on Hey.Cafe, Eh!, Gander, and elsewhere All my videosNathaniel Banks was an American.He worked as a newspaper editor, until the papers ran themselves into the ground. Tried for a seat in his state legislature, but lost. (Twice.) Eventually, though, he ran for Congress to represent Massachusetts and won.At the time, the Republican Party was dominated by radicals. Banks was seen as not loyal enough to the cult, and so the radicals who ran the party opposed his candidacy. He won anyway. T O D B I T In 1860, Banks was one of Abraham Lincoln’s own rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. Lincoln still made him a Union major general the following year, despite Banks having no military training whatsoever. And we might all be celebrating a Nathaniel Banks Day instead of Canada Day.That’s because in 1866, he introduced a bill that called for the takeover of Canada. House Resolution 754.The bill authorized the American president to take over most of what we call Canada today, turn them into states, and give the British $10 million for it. T O D B I T The Toronto Globe mocked the annexation offer as laughably foolish political romance, and suggested the Americans might have better luck trying to annex the moon. An important connection that not many people make: Four months earlier, the Americans had cancelled the Reciprocity Treaty. That was 12 years of open trade in fish, lumber, grain and coal, dropped. Congress was furious with Britain over the Civil War, and American politicians bet that closing their doors to commerce would leave the colonies broke enough to come asking for admission.Economic force.Then, trade war.Then, annexation.That was the plan then; it’s probably the plan now.But the British colonies did something Washington hadn’t expected. They started talking to each other. Trading more with each other. And in July of the following year, they became a country. Canada. The Ghosts Of 1866 It’s easy to forget history in the kerfuffle of the 24-hour news cycle. It’s easy to forget that this is something the Americans do, because they believe they should be the one country in charge of the planet (which is a ballsy opinion for a nation with a collapsing democracy and Vladimir Putin as their side chick)./ Canada has never been a nation of inaction. We do not respond to intimidation with submission.We will get through this time because of the one defining characteristic of our nation: Even in the worst of times, we do not let our neighbours down.In a snowstorm, that means our literal neighbours. In a political storm, that means our businesses, our farmers, our artists, our bookstores. Spend Like A NationCounter-tariffs went into effect earlier this week. That was the government’s part. Now, it’s our part: we double-down on buying Canadian. Ontario cheddar. Okanagan wine. Alberta beef. Quebec cider. Coastal lumber.We shop for Christmas gifts from small businesses hit by the tariffs. We buy that bag for the food bank at the grocery store, especially if we’re in a town that’s had layoffs. We do what we have always done.Banks Folds His HandAs for Nathaniel Banks? His bill was sent to committee, and was there just long enough for the American politicians to see how we reacted here, up north. The bill stalled and fizzled out. It never even got to a vote. Banks himself lost his re-election bid, sank some money into the crypto-scheme of the day, a railroad venture, and lost a tonne of money. All that to say, it’s not just Trump that always chickens out.If we do our job, keeping our dollars here, history will show that when the Americans, once again, started pushing their weight around, the only thing that happened is that they got weaker. And Canadians got more Canadian. T O D B I T The ghost of 1866 walked again in 1911. Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier negotiated a new free-trade reciprocity deal with Washington, and it collapsed after US House Speaker Champ Clark declared on the floor of Congress that he looked forward to the American flag flying over Canada “clear to the North Pole.” Canadians started calling him “Chump” Clark. |
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