British Journal of Canadian Studies

Abstract

In the first decade of the twenty-first century Canada's friendship with the United States will be severely tested. Canada's refusal to take an active, visible role in the US-led invasion of Iraq, and conflicts between President George Bush and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien created a temporary setback in relations between the two nations, yet since 9/11 the two nations have worked diligently in jointly building a protective wall of security around North America intended to prevent a reoccurrence of the devastating events of 11 September 2001. A major theme of this article is that as a consequence of 9/ 11, profound, unprecedented questions have arisen regarding security concerns common to Canada and the US: given the profound differences in the financial resources, areas and populations of the two nations, how can they strengthen the effectiveness of their common borders and maximise security against terrorist attacks and biological warfare while maintaining separate government and legal systems and insuring sovereignty without impeding the cross-border flow of people and goods? The first part of this article addresses these questions within the contexts of security and trade integration with the US and employment of new technologies; the second presents a series of recommendations for addressing major security issues, and the third part speculates about the future of US–Canadian relations under Paul Martin, Canada's new Prime Minister.