Introduction: Making Exceptions, Taking Refuge: Canadian and American Border Crossings

Using this current political moment (and some of its previous iterations) as points of departure, this issue of the Canadian Review of American Studies , titled “Making Exceptions, Taking Refuge: Canadian and American Border Crossings” examines Americans’ well-established imaginative perceptions of Canada and how Canadians have borrowed from, refashioned, resisted, and cultivated those portraits to serve our own goals. The articles in this special issue probe how the United States and Canada each embrace distinct versions of exceptionalism by focusing on the potency and limitations of such narratives. The authors consider how transcultural and comparative analyses can helpfully navigate a better understanding of Canada–US border relations and what this dynamic contributes to the creation and reinforcement of distinct but connected national identities.