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DID does not publish on July 4th, or on the associated civic holiday when July 4 falls on a weekend. We hope our readers in Canada and the USA have enjoyed the period from Canada Day on July 1st to Independence Day on July 4th, celebrating freedom, friendship and long-standing peace across the world’s longest undefended border.

Fortunately, the Americans elected not to hold a grudge over the the 1814 expedition that put the Presidential residence and other nearby landmarks to the torch during the burning of Washington. That residence was later restored and painted in white, hence its current name. North of the border, the war’s events prompted Upper Canada to move its administrative center from York (now Toronto) on Lake Ontario, to the frigid swamps of Ottawa near Lower Canada. Ottawa is now the world’s 2nd coldest national capital, ahead of Moscow and behind only Mongolia’s Ulan Bator. America’s second most divisive war had left little appetite for further hostilities, and some wags quip that the resulting “capital punishment” was seen as sufficient requite by both sides.