The U.S.-Canada border stretches from ocean to ocean to ocean, and from sea level to the 18,008-foot summit of Mt. St. Elias at the Yukon-Alaska line. It’s a border crossed by great rivers (Columbia, Yukon) harnessed and managed by both countries.
As a high school kid, I witnessed the 1964 signing of the Columbia River Treaty, which provided for three big dams in British Columbia to store water that would power the great powerhouse at Grand Coulee Dam. When President Trump says Canada has nothing we need, flick on a light switch and prove him wrong.
Trump is making noise as the treaty is in the process of being renegotiated, with the White House coveting Canada’s water. And he wants oil drilling in the trans-boundary Arctic migration route of the Porcupine Caribou herd. He has spoken of making Canada “the 51st state” and launched a tariff war. Canadians are taking him seriously, appalled at the breach of longstanding ties.
As well they might. Canadian exports to the states totaled $434 billion in 2024, three quarters of the country’s total. In turn, $349 billion in worth of exports traveled north to Canada.
I’ve traveled the border from the icy Beaufort Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. One fond memory is of two musk oxen lumbering through camp in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Another is visiting the summer home of Franklin D. Roosevelt at Campobello Island, in New Brunswick.
Our border story is one of mutual dependence, mutual benefit, and convenience. The St. Lawrence River, boundary waters between New York and Ontario, is the main passage for Atlantic-bound exports from our Great Lakes. The Canadian and U.S. automobile industries are heavily integrated, thanks to low tariff agreements (now threatened by Trump), with parts moving north for assembly in the “Great White North.”
Hells Gate, in British Columbia’s Fraser River canyon, is a narrow, turbulent defile. A big rockslide in the last century further constricted river flow and created a major obstacle to upstream migration of the great salmon runs of the Adams, Quesnel, and Chilcotin Rivers. Although the Fraser is a Canadian river, its salmon migrate home through international waters. After some debate, the U.S. and Canada came together to build fishways on both sides of the river. The salmon runs were saved, in part with U.S. dollars.
As a kid, visiting Hells Canyon and watching salmon spawn in the Adams River, I learned to appreciate both nature and benefits of cooperating. The benefits were underscored 30 years ago, when Gov. Gary Locke and Canada’s fisheries minister David Anderson did a deal to rescue Washington’s coho salmon — a prize sports fish — while allowing an early season sockeye migration up the Fraser to far-distant Stuart Lake.
Another case of cooperation came when Seattle City Light wanted to raise Ross Dam by 140 feet, which would have turned eight upstream miles of the Skagit River in B.C. into a fluctuating reservoir, while destroying the ancient cedar forests of our Big Beaver Valley. A marathon negotiation, with Seattle Deputy Mayor Bob Royer and B.C. Energy Minister Stephen Rogers, produced a win-win deal. The dam was not raised, avoiding environmental damage. British Columbia supplied the electricity that “High Ross” would have produced from a dam on the Pend Oreille River, another trans-boundary stream.
The U.S.-Canada border is also scene of people trafficking, and not just “illegals.” B.C. Premier David Eby has U.S. kinfolk; so too his predecessor Dave Barrett. Actor Michael J. Fox is a Vancouver boy, former B.C. Cabinet minister Corky Evans a U.S.-born Vietnam War draft resister. The great icy tower that tops B.C.’s Coast Range, 13,000-foot Mt. Waddington, has subbed for Himalayan giant K2 in climbing movies.
Recovering from Ross Dam dealings, Bob Royer was poolside in Maui when he recognized a familiar face with a large bulbous nose: B.C’s then-Premier Bill Bennett was vacationing at the same hotel. “Snow bird” Canadians migrate south in winter.
Not so much this year. Visitor traffic is down, from Bellisfair in Whatcom County to “snowbird” destinations in Florida, and provincial and federal governments are urging Canadians to stay home. Car travel coming south was down 35 percent in April, the fourth straight month. Last year, Canadian tourists made a $20-billion-plus contribution to the U.S. economy. Already in 2025, Trump bluster has carried a $7 billion cost south of the border.
Trump, too, is way off base claiming that Canada has been “ripping us off.” Consider the Columbia River Treaty. Dam building had done vast environmental damage in B.C., as wildlife populations were drowned and decimated in the 90-mile-long reservoir behind Mica Dam. The lovely Arrow Lakes were reservoirized, with drawdowns generating major dust storms.
To top it off, B.C. Premier W.A.C. “Wacky” Bennett (father of Bill) sold power generated by British Columbia’s dams to buyers south of the border. Then electricity prices surged. British Columbia was left bearing the pains but not sharing the gains.
As evidenced by Trump, the U.S. has often assumed it could order Canada around. Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson, in a Temple University speech, suggested halting U.S. bombing of North Vietnam to get peace talks underway. A day later, an infuriated Lyndon Johnson bellowed at Pearson, “You pissed on my rug.”
Gov. Dixy Lee Ray flew to Victoria to demand that B.C. roll back a hike in natural gas prices. Not in my power, said Premier Bennett, explaining that prices are set by the National Energy Board of Canada. Lunching in the Bengal Room of the Empress Hotel, with a couple drinks in her, Dixy told Bennett he could stick his gas where the moon don’t shine. She flew back home and said Washington gas customers should switch to oil heat.
Ex-PM Justin Trudeau was denounced and ridiculed by Trump. Successor Mark Carney has won a national election with a promise not to be bullied. In the tradition of bullies, Trump backed off from threats and praised Carney after a White House meeting.
“This is a SOVEREIGN country,” Dave Barrett loved to exclaim. Quite so, as our next-door neighbors are different. Canada appreciates its diverse cultures; the Trump regime is clamping down on diversity. Immigrants have accounted for Canada’s population growth; Trump is expelling immigrants. Canada has strict gun-safety laws; the second amendment to the U. S. Constitution guarantees a right to bear arms. The two countries are democracies but have very different forms of government.
“Out of Many—One” is a motto of the United States. Canada is very much a community of communities, with French-speaking Quebec recognized as a “distinct society.” The long-governing Liberal Party has alternated between English Canadian and French Canadian prime ministers.
All the while, geography dictates cooperation and collaboration. The Tatshenshini-Alsek river system rises in the Yukon, carves its way through coastal mountains and crosses the border. It has become a premier North American rafting destination. At pullout, Glacier Bay National Park rangers have taken to weighing poop, to make sure rafters pack it out.
After a long day of driving, I’ve enjoyed unwinding along the Kootenay River in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. The river rises in Canada, crosses into the U.S., then swings back across the 49th Parallel. It has been harnessed as a power source by both countries.
A friendly border, spanning a continent, is an immeasurable asset — socially, economically and environmentally. Keeping it requires just a modest use of intelligence. Unfortunately the Trump Administration is neither modest nor intelligent.
This story also appears in Cascadia Advocate.
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Joel: Your deep interest in US/Canada history has finally found its moment. One of my Canadian friends, in his 80s and no slouch, complimented this piece by saying “he knows more Canadian history than I do.” Keep it up.