Sold! Canada For 1¢ an Acre

Written by Paul Siluch
February 21^st, 2025

Canada is the second largest country in the world by geography. It is an unwieldy land mass, blessed with water and natural resources, but cursed with ice, mountains, and bad weather. Our dueling nationalities of French and English have pulled us apart since Confederation; meanwhile, the U.S. covets our treasures.

The U.S. has a history of buying assets at bargain prices.

• Dutch settlers in New York acquired the island of Manhattan for $24 worth of glass beads and trinkets in 1626 (West India Company letters)
• Alaska was purchased from Russia for 2¢ an acre (Office of the Historian).
• Florida was purchased from the Spanish for $5 million - about 10¢ an acre This Day in History).

Canada was almost traded for a ship after the US Civil War - A vessel worth just $230,000. Talk about a lowball offer.

In the American civil war, foreign nations were supposed to keep their noses out. France had visions of recovering power in the New World and so had reason to intervene. Similarly, Britain was still smarting over losing the original 13 colonies back in the War of Independence. Any interference by these two would not have been looked kindly on.

Unless they supported the winning side. Britain didn’t. It aided the Confederate south.

The North won the war, as we all know. The newly-united US government claimed that Britain had prolonged the Civil War by up to two years by providing ships to the Confederate navy. This cost America untold millions in lives and lost revenues. Charles Sumner negotiated for the U.S. and demanded $2.125 billion in reparations at one point – equivalent to about $750 billion today (Measuring Worth).

Some Americans suggested Britain instead should offer Canada as compensation for the Alabama affair. The ship cost just $230,000 to build (Naval History and Heritage Command), so it would have been one heck of a price for the second largest country in the world. Even if you assumed each of the 150 ships sunk was worth a similar $230,000, that would amount to just $34 million for Canada’s 2.4 billion acres (Wikipedia).

About 1¢ an acre.

Britain finally agreed to pay $15.5 million to America after seven years of negotiations. They also signed trade treaties to end the hostilities.

Were Canadians enraged by almost being sold for the price of a single ship?

Hardly. Watching the negotiations unfold in the courts instead of at the end of a musket led Canadians to embrace the peace. Trade flourished between the two new nations. We grew closer as a result.

Hopefully, a negotiated trade peace lies ahead for us today.

In modern terms, this is called the Law of Unintended Consequences. We are seeing it on display today.

For example, President Trump’s tariffs threats have caused unexpected reactions in markets:

• Gold has surged to new highs as bullion is being physically moved on airplanes and ships from London to New York. Gold traders are worried that bullion outside the U.S. could be subject to tariffs. This has led to a shortage of gold bars in London as they are locked up in New York.

• China has imposed 10% tariffs on U.S. oil and 15% on US coal and LNG. This has depressed prices for American energy while elevating European energy prices.

• The Canadian dollar has gone up rather than down. We all watch the stock market for clues about the effects of government edicts. Yet currency markets are 79 times larger based on daily volume (Forex Academy). Why would our dollar go up in the face of surprise U.S. tariffs? Is it a realization that the threat of tariffs is the point, rather than actual tariffs? Far from Canada bending the knee to become the 51^st state, Canadians are increasingly united in enforcing our sovereignty.

• Canadians cannot mail wine to a friend (it’s illegal).

• Doctors from the Northwest Territories cannot assist a patient in B.C. (source: National Post citing 2023 wildfire care), and nor can BC doctors assist in NWT.

• Trucks carrying freight between provinces are subject to different weight and dimension standards, as well as licenses for each province.

One positive outcome that could arise from this tangle with the U.S. is a lowering of our own trade barriers. We don’t need protecting as much as we think we do - Canada can compete when its back is to the wall.

Take wine, for example.

When the North American Free Trade Agreement was negotiated in the late 1980s, the B.C. wine industry faced a waterfall of cheaper and better California wines. With the help of the B.C. government, the Great Pullout of 1989 saw thousands of wineries yank out their old vines and replant French and California varietals. B.C.’s Okanagan Valley now rivals the Napa Valley in quality.

Canada imposes 245% tariffs on American and UK cheese (International Trade Administration) to protect our cheese makers. Is our cheese that low in quality?

Hardly. At the most recent American Cheese Society competition, Canadian “nutty and buttery” cow’s milk cheeses won 1^st and 2^nd places (Planet Cheese magazine).

Perhaps we need less protection than we think.

Stock markets have risen since the tariffs were announced, as have bond and the even bigger currency markets. They seem to be saying that while things are changing, Canada will emerge intact.

We’ve come a long way from when we were valued at 1¢ an acre. These days, Canada's price tag reads the same as it did then: not for sale.