helen wrote: a well negotiated treaty-- each side got to salvage some pride, and claim victory..

That was what I was referring to in the CBC quote (which said something about "fighting to a standstill"). It is interesting that we were taught in school that Canada actually won that war. (I'm realizing in retrospect that a particular teacher of mine really hated Americans, and this tainted her lessons somewhat*. She also told us that in the US, children aren't even taught about that war, because they can't admit that they lost...boy, was she bitter or what?!?!?!) In Canada, we don't consider it a war between the British and the US, but between Canada and the US, because Britain wasn't too successful at actually sending too many troops to help us out, as far as I know. Most of the soldiers were Canadian, although officers were British. Needless to say, without the local knowledge of the land provided by the Canadians, the British couldn't possibly have had any success against the US. They say that if the French, English, and Native people here hadn't gotten together to keep out the US'ns then we would definitely have lost, and become part of the US. It is also interesting that that is probably the last time those three groups ever agreed on something!

*I'm beginning to feel extremely betrayed by this particular teacher - as I check the "facts" I learned from her, I realize that she was full of %#!$. Makes me reluctant to comment on history at all, since I had her for two history classes in high school, and my brain is probably stuffed with erroneous knowledge!