From: "John Beamish" 

Yeah ... we got our independence by basically going to the UK and saying
"Please, sir, can we be independent?"  (Reputedly, the immediate
response was "about bloody time!")  So, technically, we didn't
really become independent until 1982 when our constitution was patriated. 
Patriated? Patriated.  You'll enjoy the first sentence here:
http://www.law.ualberta.ca/ccskeywords/patriation.html

In 1867 (55 years, not 50, after 1812) the British North America Act united
Upper Canada (now Ontario), Lower Canada (now Quebec), Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick into a confederation.  So ... the name Canada had been used long
before 1867 -- long before 1812, for that matter -- to refer to the
political and geographic area.  Thus, the war was fought by, technically,
the British army -- which, in this case, was a force of British and
Canadians who had been born and raised here -- and by a Canadian militia.
First Nations were also involved but their activities were not part of
anything co-ordinated by or with either the British Army or the Canadian
Militia.

As for "fighting for our independence" ... books have been
written about that.  There's a general historical concensus that Canada's
independent participation in WWI established that we were an independent
country.  So the fact that we fought independently is often cited as the
time when Canada "fought" for its independence.

(I hope you were taking notes; there will probably be question about this
on the final exam.)


"Mark"  wrote in message
news:40945e12$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>
> "Gary Britt"  wrote in message
> news:40945879{at}w3.nls.net...
> > In 1812 we were fighting the British in Canada, and not the Canadians in
> > Canada.
>
> Yes, 1812 was, what, 50 years prior to their being a country? I've never
> really thought about it/investigated it before, did Canada ever fight for
> their own independence? If not, that could explain the marked difference
in
> attitudes between them and us - different histories and all.
>
>

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