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Item: In 1913, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson argued that he saw no need to send in the troops in order to take over another country — because imposing tough trade policies would be sufficient to achieve de-facto annexation.

Item: More than 70 years later, a leaked briefing paper for U.S. treasury secretary James Baker applauded the drafting of a groundbreaking U.S.-Canada free trade agreement: “we got everything we wanted … henceforth the vast majority of new U.S. investments in Canada will occur with no interference by the Canadian government.”

Item: More than 30 years ago, at the height of the free-trade debate, former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed sent an urgent letter to his old pal, prime minister Brian Mulroney, saying “We are vulnerable if we become even more dependent upon the United States and particularly the U.S. Congress.”

These fascinating bits of information are contained in an undeservedly neglected 1995 book called Yankee Doodle Dandy. Journalist Marci McDonald’s examination of Canada-U.S. relations, with particular emphasis on Mulroney’s pursuit of a free-trade agreement with Washington, is a riveting read for anyone who cares about Canada today.

But how easy is it to locate a copy? Indeed, how easy is it to access much of the considerable literature published over the years on a subject crucial to Canada’s existence? Not easy at all if you’re relying on the Ottawa Public Library — but more of that in a moment.

McDonald, for many years Washington bureau chief for Maclean’s magazine, angered some journalistic colleagues for her less than reverential appraisal of Mulroney’s prime ministership and for the incendiary implication that he was prepared to sell our country down the river to stay in the good books of his buddy, Ronald Reagan. Nevertheless, to revisit this meticulously researched book now is to recognize its relevance to current times.

Back then, to be sure, there was no Donald Trump — always needing to be perceived as the winner — capriciously rummaging in his tariff toybox. But In McDonald’s high-stakes exploration of the backroom manoeuvring that led to that first free-trade agreement, she delivers a penetrating glimpse into the psychology of a country, then as now, in love with its own exceptionalism and illusions of Manifest Destiny.

… how easy is it to access much of the considerable literature published over the years on a subject crucial to Canada’s existence?

Although officially out of print, it is possible to find remaindered or second-hand copies of Yankee Doodle Dandy online. In Calgary, it can still be borrowed from the public library. But in Ottawa — no such luck.

When I discovered that my own copy had gone missing, I ended up acquiring a replacement from a used bookseller in Stratford. Rereading it left me perplexed: Why was it no longer available at the Ottawa Public Library?

Over the years, much has been written — both academic and non-academic — about Canada-U.S. relationships. It’s central to our country’s story, and one might have imagined it would be well represented in the basic collection of any good municipal library system, especially given the lack of e-reader options. So I visited our Ottawa library’s online catalogue to check on the availability of other books on this subject that had mattered to me over the years. Here are the ones I went after:

• The Struggle For The Border: Bruce Hutchison’s 1955 bestseller is a comprehensive and often exciting account of how the present border between our two countries came to be — the border that Trump now wants to redraw or possibly erase.

• The Presidents And The Prime Ministers: Lawrence Martin’s engaging 1982 book examines the often volatile relationship between U.S. presidents and Canadian prime ministers through to the Reagan era.

• Kennedy and Diefenbaker: Fear And Loathing Across The Undefended Border. Legendary CBC correspondent Knowlton Nash lifts the lid off the intense animosity existing between two leaders more than 60 years ago at a time when the world seemed ready to explode into war.

• Lament For A Nation: Nationalist philosopher George Grant’s heartfelt 1965 bestseller warned that creeping continentalism was spelling doom for the Canadian nation.

• Why We Act Like Canadians. Pierre Berton’s book, written in the form of letters to an American friend who knows virtually nothing about Canada, speaks for itself.

According to the OPL’s on-line catalogue, the Berton book is available for borrowing. Lament For A Nation, a seminal Canadian work, is in the system but cannot be taken out, though there is an e-book. With the other books, I drew a blank.

To be sure, we in Ottawa do have an alternative source of printed material in Library and Archives Canada, but does that really get our public library off the hook? I don’t think so.

And what about this fictional wild card? In retirement, much-decorated Royal Canadian Air Force veteran Richard Rohmer carved out a successful career as both a military historian and writer of thrillers. In the latter category, he jolted the country with Ultimatum, a 1973 novel that sees the United States invade Canada to gain control of our mineral riches.

At 101, Rohmer was recently an erudite guest on TVO’s Agenda. He told host Steve Paikin that when he wrote Ultimatum “there was a lot of demand from the United States to run things for us, whether we liked it or not. That has not changed in 50 years.”

And what of Trump’s threat to Canadian sovereignty? “I still don’t think it will happen, but I know it can happen as the days go along and Trump is opening his mouth and his brain … he will talk himself into doing something which is irrevocable … ”

Ultimatum and its two sequels are still in print and are obtainable from your bookseller. As for the Ottawa Public Library? Sorry, they’re absent from the shelves, crowded out by decades of Danielle Steel.

Ottawa’s Jamie Portman is a freelance writer.

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