Anniversary marks battle that kept Canada-U.S. borders intact, bizarre though they are

On this date 200 years ago, an American army had invaded Canada as far as Stoney Creek, before a group of feisty British and Aboriginal soldiers sent them running back into their inferior Yankee borders, tails between their legs.

Then we put up a monument to remind everyone we won.

That biased summary describes a key battle in a war that helped to keep Canada's border where it still lies today, instead of having the country become part of the U.S.

[ Related: War of 1812 looked at differently in U.S. despite outcome ]

A new video produced by C.P.G Grey has documented just how bizarre that border really is, with its zigzagging line stretching across 8,891 kilometres of towns, cities and wilderness. It's far from straight, but he suggests we should give our ancestors a break; they didn't have a GPS.

A gap between trees belonging to each country's territory marks what he calls the "no-touching zone." Canadian Geographic has described the area as a frontier maintained by "weed whackers and wile."

If you look very closely, you can tell the difference between the American trees and the Canadian ones. We hear one side is more polite.

Grey points out a number of anomalies along our borders that make for strange blips on the map, not to mention awkward commutes for residents of these border towns.

A chunk of Canada cut off due to miscalculation, a cut off peninsula in BC there. There's no need to tell students in Point Roberts, Wash. where the border lies; they cross it twice a day to go to high school, according to the video.

[ Related: Residents who cross Canada-U.S. border marked by flower pots face big fines ]

And let's not forget the flower pot border haphazardly dividing the towns of Stanstead, QC, and Derby Line, Vt., where crossing the street to order a pizza could land you in jail.