Introduction

Abstract

The Canada–US relationship is marked by higher levels of institutionalization than is commonly understood. That is because these institutions are not often examined together as a whole but in isolation, as individual pieces of a larger process of increasing interdependence, whether that interdependence exists at the para-diplomacy level through provincial and state relations, through private actor arrangements, or through federal government cooperation. In this chapter, we show that several institutional arrangements have generated outcomes that make the Canada–US relationship unique. These shared institutions designed by Canada and the United States are intended to remain accountable to sovereign governments, and therefore are, to some degree, democratically accountable. These shared institutions have, thus far, escaped scrutiny over “democratic deficits” and illegitimacy. They do, however, remain vulnerable to political reconsideration or revision by subsequent US administrations and Canadian governments.