the Annexation Gambit : 175 Years of Trade War Between Canada and United States

In 1849, Montreal merchants demanded annexation to the United States. In 2025, it was Washington that brought the word back - this time as a threat. Between those two moments, Canada and the United States have clashed commercially again and again: tariff wars, calculated retaliation, alliances turned inside out, promises never kept. The Annexation Gambit traces 175 years of this relationship, from the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 to the crisis of 2025-2026, to show that today's anxiety has almost always found its echo somewhere in history. This book tells the story chapter by chapter, including: - The repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty in 1866, and the birth of Canada as a response to American trade hardening- Macdonald's National Policy and the 1911 election, lost over the question of free trade- The 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff and Canada's response with the Dunning budget- The Auto Pact, the GATT, then the 1988 Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA- The four great softwood lumber wars and the logic of countervailing duties- The 2018 steel and aluminum tariffs, early signs of the shock to come- The 2025-2026 crisis: IEEPA, the Supreme Court, Section 338, all the way to Canadian countertariffs and the shockwave felt in Quebec From the distilleries of Kentucky to the sawmills of Quebec, from the corridors of Congress to those of Ottawa, this book gives readers what the headlines never can: the depth of time. The word keeps coming back, again and again. And yet it has always faded away in the end. This book explains why - and what it changes to know it. Written by Alexandre Gagné (AlexG Raconte), a Montreal-based historian and author of books on Quebec history, The Annexation Gambit draws on a complete timeline, a glossary of tariff mechanisms, and a detailed bibliography in the appendices.