The Burning of the White House (August 24, 1814)

I asked for a subject to write about this morning and found a post of Facebook highlighting this event from 212 years ago. It’s appropriate for this moment because of the recent trade “war” between Canada and the United States.

The timing has been rectified to show what energies were ‘in the air’ that evening. The burning of the White House was a symbolic act to embarrass the Americans. It is also the last time that an enemy has invaded the continental states and got away with it. Americans like to think they won that war, but Canadians know better. It might be the same with the tariff battle going on now. Have the lessons of being at war with your neighbours been learned? We shall see.

Obvious, isn’t it?