“Between Friends/Entre Amis”: 50 years on the border
by: Rob Shields
“Will that be an Americano or a Canadiano?”
Borders appear in everyday activities in the funniest ways.
They are where the contradictions of our time are lived out acutely. People in the Thousand Islands are no strangers to changing border regulations, and a changing environment and River. But community and family ties across the banks of the St. Lawrence are an enduring reality. From River Rats to today, residents always lived the reality of the River and the Islands. Residents have looked for the best of the United States and Canada to build a unique culture along the border.
When the United States marked its 200th anniversary in 1976, the Government of Canada published Between Friends/Entre Amis, a lavish coffee-table book celebrating harmonious Canada-U.S. relations through images of community life on both sides along the border.
Fifty years later, a team of researchers from The University of Alberta is now spending the summer documenting how life on the Canadian side of the border is changing for residents and visitors. Our study echoes Between Friends/Entre Amis, Canada’s gift to the United States on its bicentennial.
Now, residents on both sides of the River are navigating a changing cross-border relationship. From what we hear in the news to kitchen table conversations, everyone is talking about changes that are reshaping tourism and everyday expectations.
Between Friends at 50!
I grew up along the Rideau River near Kars, ON, in the township of North Gower, on the Rideau River, and I am now Professor and Henry Marshall Tory Research Chair at the University of Alberta. I am leading the study in Gananoque and the Thousand Islands. With funding from the University of Alberta and Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, we are asking people about their experience and stories of the border, crossing back and forth, and relations across it over the last 50 years since Between Friends/Entre Amis was published.
Over summer '26, our team will be taking photographs at events. The photographs hope to capture a sense of the “borderscape” to compare with the 1976 book. Our photography will be the basis of an exhibition at the Gananoque Public Library starting September 3rd and running for 2 months.
At the same time in Alberta, other researchers, under the direction of Professor Andriko Lozowy, will do the same photography work. They will collect comments, memories, and local histories in Coutts, AB, a small town that even shares its water supply with its American twin, Sweet Grass, MT. Coutts found itself the focus of national attention when trucks blockaded one of Canada’s busiest border points during the Covid pandemic in April 2022.
Upper L: Canadian and American flags together are a taken-for-granted part of the background of everyday activities in the Thousand Islands, such as fishing. They reflect the ties that link both sides of the St. Lawrence River; Upper R: Spring snow settles on Gananoque’s welcome arch. Tourism is a year-round activity, boat tours of the Thousand Islands typically run from May-October; Lower L: Canadian and American flags together are a taken-for-granted as part of the background of everyday activities in the Thousand Islands. They reflect the ties that link both sides of the St. Lawrence River; Lower R: A balcony sign proclaims Canadian pride amongst striped Hudson’s Bay blankets, an icon of the historical fur trade.
Getting your help!
As part of the project, we are also asking for reactions and making a comment book about the images. Stories about the border will be recorded and contributed to a community history project at Gananoque Public Library and archived locally.
The Thousand Islands and St. Lawrence are well photographed. We would love to reshoot some of those images of the 1970s, updating them to show how the places look now, to let us think about where we are going with changes, and what local communities value.
Do you have family photos of the border in the past? We’d love to hear your stories. To get in touch with the project, contact me at: rshields@ualberta.ca
By Rob Shields, Henry Marshall Tory Endowed Research Chair, University of Alberta
Prof. Rob Shields started out in architecture, got interested in people and ended up studying and writing about the social life of cities and how places and regions become meaningful to different groups. His award-winning books include Spatial Questions and Places on the Margin as well as art projects on environmental change. A forthcoming book examines Spatial Justice. His painting series ‘20 Years of Landscape Change’ in Jasper National Park are currently on exhibition at the Jasper Yellowhead Museum.
