The TR problem in Canada-U.S. relations
David G. Haglund notes that American presidents are often not popular in Canada, and he asserts that Theodore Roosevelt is especially disliked because of the perception of him as a unilateralist and because of the outcome of the Alaska boundary dispute in 1903. Haglund argues that Roosevelt’s bad reputation in Canada is undeserved because for the first time in American history the United States actually grew smaller as a result of its concessions in the boundary dispute. Haglund says Canada feels aggrieved because of Great Britain’s desire to draw closer to the United States at Canada’s expense. Haglund writes that Canada’s embrace of Franklin D. Roosevelt while scorning his distant cousin is the result of a “fundamental misperception.”
A map of the Alaska-Canada boundary dispute and two photographs supplement the text.