PLANNING FOR A WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. Over the years, I have heard from a variety of people that at one time there were plans for a possible war between the United States and Canada. It was always cited as an example of planners having too much time on their hands. Ralph Gardner, Jr. had a review in the Wall Street Journal of WAR PLAN RED by Kevin Lippert, a book about two war plans from the 1920’s and the 1930’s—a US plan to invade Canada and a Canadian plan to invade the US. Gardner quotes Lippert: “Both sides thought a war between the U.S, and the British was inevitable for plenty of reasons.” It was expected that the war would be fought on Canadian soil.
The Canadian plan was to buy time for a British rescue by invading quickly and then blowing up bridges and roads as they retreated. The US plan included seizing Halifax to prevent the British from using it as a staging area.