THE 49TH PARALLEL
Although the 49th // (Parallel) may well be touted as the longest international border in the world covering 8891.63 km or 5,525 miles of land and water shared by Canada and the United States it is a border not respected, and certainly undefended, against the smoke of 2023 as Canada burned from coast to coast. As of June 8, 2023 smoke from forest fires in Quebec and eastern Ontario were impacting Ottawa, Canada’s capital, Toronto, Ontario’s capital, Washington, D.C., America’s Capital and New York City, New York’s capital. The latter has been recently reported, as of June 7th, as suffering the poorest air quality anywhere! All due to the forest fires which, according to climatologists, have started their season earlier due to the hot, dry weather. And, according to some, the forest fire season could continue well into October. Some headlines proclaim: “The Number of Ontario Forest Fires doubled compared to Last Year”; “Canada Marks Clean Air Day With Worst Air Quality In The World As Wild Fires Rage.”
According to the publication, Our Daily Bread (Friday, June 2, 2023), writer Karen Pimpo says workers regularly cut down ten feet of trees on both sides of the boundary to make the border line unmistakable. “This lengthy ribbon of cleared land, called ‘the Slash,’ is dotted by more than eight thousand stone markers so visitors always know where the dividing line falls.”
The 49th parallel is the line of latitude that forms the boundary between Canada and the U.S. from Lake of the Woods to the Strait of Georgia being the political divide between the Great White North and the Manifest Destiny to the south. Manifest Destiny relates to the idea that the U.S. was destined to extend across the continent from sea to sea.
In fact, roughly 72% of Canadians live below the 49th//; 50% south of 45.7 degrees as of March 3, 2023. As for being unguarded? Perhaps that is just semantics.
Following the War of 1812, arguably won by Canada although under British rule, the Brits and Yanks met to discuss boundary issues hoping to avoid further armed conflict. And so the 49th was established in The Treaty of1818.
The Pig War
More semantics; not a real war but a dispute over a pig apparently owned by the HBC (Hudson Bay Company) that occurred on one of the San Juan Islands inhabited by British and American settlers. Who reigned, Britain or America?
Seems the pig escaped its HBC pen and was shot by an American farmer for eating his crops. U.S. General William Harney sent 60 soldiers to the island to assert American sovereignty. James Douglas, Governor of Vancouver Island, responded with British warships. Eventually German Emperor Wilhelm 1 arbitrated the conflict awarding the islands to the U.S.
The International Boundary Commission (IBC) operates with an annual budget of $1,400,000 to keep the boundary ‘deforested.’
