understand--is: Canada is _not_ drifting because she is sheet-anchored
and gripped to the Mother Country. We may like it or dislike it. We
may dispute and argue round about. The fact remains, without any
screaming or flag waving, or postprandial loyalty expansions of rotund
oratory and a rotunder waist line--Canada is sheet-anchored to England
by an invisible, intangible, almost indescribable tie. That is one
reason why she rejected reciprocity. That is why at a colossal cost in
land and subsidies and loans and guarantees of almost two billions, she
has built up a transportation system east and west, instead of north
and south. That is why for a century she has hewn her way through
mountains of difficulty to a destiny of her own, when it would have
been easier and more profitable to have cast in her lot with the United
States.

What is the tie that binds? Is it the hope of an Imperial Federation,
which shall bind the whole British Empire into such a world federation
as now holds the provinces of the Dominion? Twenty years ago, if you
had asked that, the answer might have been "Yes." Canada was in the
dark financially and did not see her way out. If only the Chamberlain
scheme of a tariff against the world, free trade within the empire,
could have evolved into practical politics, Canada for purely practical
reasons would have welcomed Imperial Federation. It would have given
her exports a wonderful outlet. But to-day Imperial Federation is a
deader issue in Canada than reciprocity with the United States. No
more books are written about it. No one speaks of it. No one wants
it. No one has time for it. The changed attitude of mind is well
illustrated by an incident on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, one day.

A Cabinet Minister was walking along the terrace above the river
talking to a prominent public man of England.