I cannot say that I am terribly surprised that President Trump would base his trade policy with Canada on the belief Canadians were responsible for burning down the White House during The War of 1812. Trump reportedly made reference to this act during a heated phone conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau regarding the Trump Administration's recent imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum on its northern neighbor. These levies were also imposed against Mexico and the EU.
Of course, Canada wasn't even a country at the time. In 1812, Canada was a British territory on which the United States had designs. The U.S. would not succeed in its objective. Canada would gain its independence from the UK in 1867. Trump should recall he gave Canada his warmest wishes on its 150th anniversary last year.
As someone who was born in Canada and spent the first 27½ years of my life there, it is something of a sore point that Americans know so little about us while we know more than we want to know about the United States. Now perhaps we cannot realistically expect someone in Wheeling, West Virginia to know about what's going on in Medicine Hat, Alberta. But I do expect the President of the United States to have more than a passing knowledge of the United States' largest trading partner. But given Americans didn't care about Trump's lack of knowledge of American history (i.e. Andrew Jackson & The Civil War) then why would he concern himself with knowing anything about Canada?
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