The war America forgot

Here's a preview of my next column, which will appear in Monday's edition of The Morning Sun newspaper:

Today marks the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Ignorance of the war, however, isn’t your fault. Most Americans simply have not been taught about it.

Had the war turned out differently — historians are divided on who actually won, though the consensus is that a draw occurred — Michigan would be vastly different.

Since the British occupied this territory for most of the war, it is conceivable that Michigan could have remained in what is now Canada.

This means communities with more Anglophile names; the counties of Gratiot and Isabella would surely be called something similar to Sussex and Leicestershire. Her Majesty the Queen’s portrait would hang on the walls of government buildings and adorn money and postage stamps. Tim Hortons would be the coffeehouse of choice, and “eh” would be said by everyone and not just those living in the Upper Peninsula.

Seriously though, the War of 1812 was truly a defining moment in the country’s history.

The full column will be posted once the newspaper publishes.

— Dennis Lennox