For a hundred years Canada had been at peace.  The Rebellion of 1837 can hardly be called a war.  In 1870 the Indian unrest known as the First Riel Rebellion had occurred, but this amounted to little more than a joy jaunt for the troops under Lord Wolseley to Red River.  The Riel Uprising of 1885 was more serious; but every Canadian who gave the matter any thought at all knew there had been genuine cause for grievance among the half-breeds; and fewer lives were lost in this rebellion than in many a train or mine accident.  Canada sent to the South African War troops who distinguished themselves to such an extent as to give a feeling of almost false security to the Dominion.  On every frontier are men born to the rifle and the saddle—­ready-made troopers; but as the frontier shrinks, this class deteriorates and softens.

For a hundred years Canada has been at peace with the outside world.  For three thousand miles along her southern border dwells a neighbor who has often been a rival in trade and with whom Canada has had many a dispute as to fisheries and boundaries and tariff, but along this borderland of three thousand miles exists not a single fort, points not a single gun, watches not a single soldier.  It is a question if another such example of international friendship without international pact exists in the history of the world.  Where international boundaries in Europe bristle with forts and cannon, international boundaries in America are a shuttle of traffic back and forth of great migrations of population, of great waves of friendship and good feeling which all the trade rivalries and hostile tariffs of a half century have failed to stem.  The pot shot of some fishery patrol across the nets of a poacher on the wrong side of the international line fails to excite anybody.  Even if some flag lunatic full of whisky climbs a flagstaff and tears down the other country’s national emblem—­the boundary does not go on fire.  The authorities cool such alcoholic patriotism with a water hose, or ten days in the lock-up.  The papers run a half column, and that is all there is about it.

So why should Canada become excited over national defense?  On the south is a boundary without a fort, without a gun, guarded by a powerful nation with a Monroe Doctrine challenging the world neither to seize nor colonize in the Western Hemisphere.  On the east for three thousand miles washes the Atlantic, on the west for five thousand miles the Pacific—­what has Canada to fear?  “Why,” asked the Conservatives, “should we support the Laurier policy of building a tin-pot navy?” “Why,” retorted the Liberals when Laurier went out and Borden went in, “should we support the Borden Navy Bill to contribute good Canadian cash to a British navy?”