For over a century, our border with Canada has been the largest undefended border in the world. Our northern neighbor is a major military ally whose participation in both World War I and World War II was vitally important for our victories alongside our British allies. Canada serves as critical member of our Five Eyes Alliance, which represents our closest intelligence alliance.
Every day, Canadian law enforcement works hand in hand with their American counterparts. For many decades now, Canada and United States air and space defenses — primarily against the threat of Russian nuclear strikes — have been fully integrated under the shared NORAD command. On 9/11, Canada quickly opened its airspace to American airliners coming home from Europe and elsewhere.
Our economic partnership has also played a major role in American prosperity. Very few countries have the resources Canada has. From timber to potash to uranium, it is difficult to imagine the prosperity the United States has had since World War II without strong trade ties with Canada.
Since the 1965 Canada-U.S. Auto Pact signed under President Lyndon B. Johnson, our automobile industries have been so tightly intertwined that it’s impossible to even imagine them being separated. Ronald Reagan had the vision for a North American Economic Union, which culminated in the signing of the NAFTA agreement by his successor, George H.W. Bush, and its implementation during the presidency of Bill Clinton. Today Canada’s Magna is the largest car parts company in North America, and the supply chains of American car companies are seamlessly interwoven across the border.
Americans have always gained by the innovative nature of Canadian society. Alexander Graham Bell, the main inventor of the telephone and founder of AT&T, got his start experimenting with sound and electricity in Canada. Canada would continue that innovative tradition in launching the world’s first domestic communication satellite in 1972, commissioned by Telesat Canada but launched on a NASA rocket in Florida.
One of the leading telecom infrastructure companies in the 1990s was Canada’s Nortel, while Ontario’s Blackberry in large part pioneered the role of smartphones in business. More recently, Imax helped transform the movie experience, and Lululemon has played a leading role in women’s casual athletic wear. One of the leading providers of ecommerce services for American small businesses is Shopify, another significant Canadian star.
Much of America’s economic prosperity over the past 40 years came from the move led by leaders like Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Brian Mulroney to promote global markets and free trade. Partly as a result, Canadians represent major investors in the American stock markets and in American real estate. Large Canadian private equity funds, venture capital firms, insurance companies and pension funds play a major role funding American enterprises large and small. The stock and derivatives markets owned by Canada’s TMX Group, as well as newer Canadian trading entrants, complement major American exchanges like the NYSE and Nasdaq.
All in all, there should be no doubt that our old friendship with our neighbors to the north is a win-win scenario for us both.
Michael J. Szanto, of Fort Lauderdale, received his Ph.D. from the University of Miami, where his dissertation analyzed Canadian and American stock markets.
