Relations between Canada and its tightly coupled neighbor to the South, generally but not always good, influenced the Alaska Highway Project in 1942.
Even today, the things we get up to down here don’t always leave Canadians, our oldest and best international friends, with a warm fuzzy feeling. And the things we get up to up there can leave our neighbors even less happy!
Link to a story about a tragedy that could have been averted had the American’s Asked
Canada attracts people up from the United States and we carry attitudes and assumptions north across the border. A famously friendly lot, Canadians don’t always challenge our mistaken assumptions. And they don’t take us to task for our attitudes. That doesn’t mean they don’t notice.
In 1942 United States Army troops stormed across the international border and commenced building the Alaska Highway through Canada’s territory, an unthinkable invasion under anything like normal circumstances.
Circumstances in the spring of 1942 didn’t remotely qualify as “normal”. Canada had been at war since 1939. Canada’s leaders recognized America’s vulnerability to a Japanese advance through the Aleutians long before leaders in the United States did. When FDR launched the Corps of Engineers into Canada, he did it with the permission of the Canadian government.
The Americans, an occasionally arrogant lot, more inclined to tell than to ask, tended to go where they wanted and take what they needed. They made mistakes they didn’t have to make had they been willing to accept advice. Old timers still chuckle about the bulldozers and other equipment buried in muskeg or simply abandoned along the way.
Sometimes the soldiers left Canadians angry and resentful. More often the Canadians chuckled to themselves at the soldiers’ willful ignorance and kept their advice to themselves until the soldiers decided to ask.
Relations between Johnny Johns of Carcross and the 93rd Engineers created a local legend. Johnny signed on to help lay out the route through Yukon. And the soldiers took his advice. But Johnny’s friends and neighbors chuckled, noticing that the twisting, turning route of the road managed to take in all of Johnny’s favorite hunting and fishing spots.
Canadian Governments Official Take on Relations Today