"Manifest destiny". (Comment).

Once there was only the continent. There were no borders, no artificial lines drawn on maps. There was only the land.

Then, the Europeans came. They divided up the land among themselves. This piece is mine, that piece is yours.

Through wars and the treaties that followed them boundaries became fixed.

A country called Canada occupied the northern half of the subcontinent. The southern half belonged to the United States.

But, as Canadian political scientist Stephen Clarkson has written, the U.S. has often cast an envious eye northwards:

"Everybody familiar with its history knows that the United States of America has always wanted Canada. During its first 130 years, it wanted annexation and was willing to use force to get it. The American revolutionaries called on the British colonies to join their republic. The First Continental Congress sent two armies north in 1775 to make the offer more persuasively. When the United States declared war against England in 1812, its triple invasion of Canada was equally unsuccessful.

"Later in the 19th century, the slogan. Manifest Destiny" expressed the Americans' belief in their divine mission to bring life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to their benighted neighbours."

But, for 135 years Canadians have maintained their independent status as a sovereign nation. The Canadian vision has stressed the importance of the community over the individual. It has been characterized by a quiet pride in citizenship rather than a robust expression of patriotism. Canadians like consensus and compromise.

Together, Canadians built a society that shared the benefits of free enterprise, where the disadvantaged were given help, where inequalities were smoothed out. There was equal access to high-quality education, income support for the less fortunate, and health care and pensions for all.

In 2000, Richard Gwyn described these Canadian values in The Toronto Star. Canada's traditions, he wrote, are "more collectivist, with Canadians having a stronger sense of reciprocal obligations--including the starkest crossborder difference of all, universal and publicly paid health care."

This feeling echoes a comment once made by Ed Broadbent, the former leader of the federal New Democratic Party. He said he couldn't imagine an American politician getting elected on a promise to introduce publicly funded health care, and couldn't imagine a Canadian politician getting elected on a promise to abolish publicly funded health care.

Mr. Gwyn added that Canada's worldview is dramatically different from that of the U.S. "A last strand of this model is the strong attachment to internationalism, and the pride that Canadians feel in (their) peacekeeping contributions and in (their) drive, by instruments such as the landmines treaty, to promote global human security." Add to this a commitment to foreign aid and a diplomatic corps that received worldwide praise for its ability at finding peaceful solutions to conflicts.

But, the Canada described above began to disappear two decades ago. In the pages that follow, we'll look at how the differences between Canadian and American societies have blurred.

And, it isn't because they have become more like us.

"Every American statesman covets Canada." Sir John A. Macdonald Canada's first prime minister

There are several groups that think Canada and the United States should join to become a single country. Some of them are a bit whacky, but a scan of their websites makes for an interesting exercise.

American Millennial Order--http://www.angelfire.com/country/americaamerica2000/

Expansionist Party of the United States--http://hometown.aol.com/XPUS/

Nova Scotia--Join the

United States!--http://www.nova.scotia.statehood.20fr.com/

OntarioUSA--http://www.ontariousa.org/

Pax Americana--http://www.homestead.com/paxamericana/

United North America--http://www.unitednorthamerica.org/