I'm writing this before the federal election results of Monday, April 28, are yet known. I have no idea yet whether the polls are right or wrong, whether it will be a Liberal or Conservative government, a majority or a minority.

What I do know is that whoever forms the next government is going to have to deal with a very different relationship with the United States.

Let's put aside the specifics of Donald Trump's presidency for a moment.

Canada and the U.S. have always had an asymmetric relationship. 

The United States has always had a larger population, economy, military, news media, and cultural footprint. 

This has resulted in Canadians knowing a tremendous amount about our neighbours to the south, while they know relatively little about us. Ask a Canadian to fill in the names of U.S. states on a blank map, and they'll likely get a dozen to two dozen without even trying hard.

How many provinces could the average American label correctly on a blank map of Canada? (Hint: the big one in the middle is not "Toronto.")

Canadians may, in our minds, caricature America as a land of gun-toting, loud-talking, people who reflexively say "ice hockey," but we actually know that they're not that simple in reality. We know a great deal about them, about their culture, their politics, their celebrities, their geography. We are the world-leading experts in America, out of necessity.

Meanwhile, in the minds of Americans, Canadians are a bunch of polite French lumberjacks and red serge-wearing Mounties who say "aboot" and "eh" all the time.

Beyond that, American conservative deride Canada as "Canuckistan," a land of soft, weak socialists.

U.S. liberals largely seem to see Canada as an escape hatch – somewhere safe to flee when their own country becomes too deranged. It's not clear if this is more or less insulting than "Canuckistan."

Once the trade war began, and their president began insisting that he was planning to annex our country, Americans actually started paying attention to Canada. At least a little bit.

But it's far from clear that this will last.

There is a deep-seated urge here to make the Americans pay attention to us and take us seriously.

It's possible that this will happen, to some degree, during the trade war. We are resolute, we are angry, and we have 90 per cent of their potash supplies. We can make ourselves heard.

We can't stop caring about what the Americans do.

What they do affects us greatly. Who they choose for president, how they conduct their trade policy, their alliances and military entanglements all demand a response from Canadians.

But maybe we can stop caring about what the Americans think about us.

Once there is some stability again in the trade situation between our countries, and once we have settled the question of annexation with a firmly bilingual "No!/Non!" we will have to decide if it matters that Americans will never, ever know as much about us as we know about them.

It's probably healthier if we stop worrying about how America sees us, and decide how we see ourselves, first.