These novels tapped into the Canadian fear of American invasion. Are there more to come?

Day 610:12The paranoid Canadian novels that tapped into our collective fear of an American invasion

U.S. President Donald Trump's "51st state" taunts are far from the first time Canadians have contemplated the idea of an American takeover of Canada. 

Just take a look at the book Ultimatum by Richard Rohmer. It was the bestselling novel in Canada in 1973, telling a story of the U.S. invading Canada to get at its natural resources. Sound somewhat familiar?

Stephen Azzi says that's not the only book to explore the idea over the last century. 

"All of them are based on the idea that the United States is inherently violent and that the United States covets Canada," said Azzi, a political science professor at Carleton University and former policy officer and intelligence analyst at the Department of National Defence.

"I think there's this lingering fear that the Americans really want to take us over."

Azzi has taken a look at some of those novels, from the 1960s all the way up to the 21st century. He spoke to Day 6 host Brent Bambury about why the narrative persists. Here's part of that conversation.

When you hear the descriptions of these novels, it's amazing how much they mirror our current collective anxiety, which began with this new [U.S.] administration. But let's start with [1973], because that's when those Richard Rohmer books came out. What was going on to prompt so many books that resonated with readers then?

There are four that I could identify that come from the same period beginning in 1968. And I think what you have to do is cast your mind back a little earlier in the '60s. 

You have civil rights protests in the United States, and citizens and police violently attacking peaceful civil rights protesters. You have the war in Vietnam, which is broadcast into Canadian living rooms on the television sets. You have high-profile assassinations of Martin Luther King [and] Robert Kennedy, both in 1968. You have riots in American cities. In 1968 alone, there were riots in more than 100 American cities.

You have violence on college campuses in the United States. There's the Kent State shooting in 1970. And then, of course, you have the Watergate scandal. So to Canadians, the United States appears as a violent and corrupt society.

Let's just look at those four books in detail. Can you tell us what they are, beginning with the one from 1968?

The one in 1968 is written by Bruce Powe, and it's called Killing Ground: The Canadian Civil War. It begins with Quebec declaring independence, and then terrorists target federalists in Quebec. American troops intervene to stabilize the situation and then Canada, the federal government, sends troops to help Quebec repel the American invasion. 

That's fascinating. This is two years before the October Crisis, right?

That's right. People at the time said the plot was preposterous. In many ways it is, but not completely unbelievable. The book sold well. It was 4,000 copies, which is good sales for a first novel for a Canadian. 

The next book was Ian Adams's The Trudeau Papers. Adams was a journalist who, among other things, had covered Vietnam for Maclean's. In that book, the beginning echoes the movie Doctor Strangelove. 

There's a misunderstanding between the United States and the Soviet Union. Missiles are launched over Canadian territory. U.S. troops invade Canada to protect U.S. interests, and then a Canadian resistance movement builds up and begins fighting guerrilla warfare against the Americans. 

And that one was a bestseller. It was on the Toronto Star bestseller list for five weeks.

And the other two are Richard Rohmer's books?

That's right. Rohmer was a part-time writer. He was also a part-time Air Force Reserve officer, and he was a full-time attorney with a specialization in land development law. 

His first book was, actually, not a novel. It was called Practice and Procedure Before the Highway Transport Board. And I'll say the novels echo the style of that first book.  

These are pulp books then. Are there any that, when you read them you think, hey, this person actually has a gift?

No, none of these books have any literary pretensions. The interesting thing is that Rohmer's first book is the best-selling book in Canada in 1973, outselling Margaret Atwood and Margaret Lawrence and Mordecai Richler, even though it has absolutely no literary merit. But it spoke to something deep inside of Canadians.

Many of these Canadian novels in the '70s had to do with the U.S. wanting our natural resources. This seems to be close to what our prime minister is telling us they want today. How is it that these 50-year-old books seem to echo our current situation?

I think they speak to a long-standing concern among Canadians that the United States wants our resources. That's been the reality of the American economy from the beginning of the United States, really — that Canada has resources to provide to the Americans. So I think it's simply a reality that's always existed.

For several decades after the period in the '70s, there seems to be a lull in Canadian novels about American invasion. But then in 2010, there's this kind of resurgence. There's Faultline 49. There's a book called The Red Wing Sings. What was happening in 2010 that brought these books back into focus?

There are several things happening in the period. There's still resentment towards the United States over the war in Iraq. Again, the United States emerges as a violent place. The United States emerges as a place that doesn't respect the sovereignty of other countries. 

And then later, the emergence of Donald Trump, of course, fortifies that sense of the Americans.

Do you think that there will be another resurgence of this kind of narrative, either in novels or television programs or series, now given what's going on and the animosity between Canada and the United States at present?

Yes, absolutely. Our anxieties are perhaps at an all-time high, certainly at the highest level they've been at in the last hundred years, and I certainly expect this to be reflected in the popular culture.