Hey Yanks, Thanks for the Revolution

In my younger days, and as a Canadian, I bought the Loyalist spin about the American Revolution. That is the Revolutionaries–George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams–were the bad guys, ungrateful colonists who should have been more than happy to pay the bloody tea tax.

In my younger days, and as a Canadian, I bought the Loyalist spin about the American Revolution. That is the Revolutionaries–George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams–were the bad guys, ungrateful colonists who should have been more than happy to pay the bloody tea tax. The Redcoats, on the other hand, were the good guys–and oh yeah, even though they lost the Revolutionary War, they made up for it by winning the War of 1812. When I got older and wiser, however, I came to see things differently. The American Revolution, after all, didn't produce a "Reign of Terror" or gulags or "Mad Mullahs". Whereas other famous revolutions were all about using the powers of the State to create some sort of socially engineered utopia, the American Revolution was simply about government leaving people alone. What a wonderful idea. As Jefferson made it clear in the Declaration of Independence, government "derived its powers from the governed" and was instituted to secure the rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." And while they were pursuing happiness, a group of extraordinary Americans created one of the most brilliant documents ever written: the U.S. Constitution. This Constitution was designed specifically to check and therefore limit government powers. Now that's revolutionary. So now I am glad George Washington and company thrashed the Redcoats and won their independence. That victory helped make at least part of the world a better and freer place. But I still think the British won the War of 1812.