<P> Economically, Canadian governments were interested in free trade with the United States; however, since this was difficult to negotiate and politically divisive, they became leading advocates of imperial preference, which met with limited enthusiasm in Britain . Ottawa is the capital of Canada </P> <P> At the outbreak of World War I, the Canadian government and millions of Canadian volunteers enthusiastically joined Britain's side, but the sacrifices of the war, and the fact they were made in the name of the British Empire, caused domestic tension in Canada, and awakened a budding nationalism in Canadians . At the Paris Peace Conference, Canada demanded the right to sign treaties without British permission and to join the League of Nations . By the 1920s, Canada was taking a more independent stance on world affairs . </P> <P> In 1926, through the Balfour Declaration, Britain declared that she would no longer legislate for the Dominions, and that they were now fully independent states with the right to conduct their own foreign affairs . This was later formalised by the Statute of Westminster 1931 . </P> <P> Loyalty to Britain still existed, however, and during the darkest days of the Second World War for Britain, after the fall of France and before the entry of the Soviet Union or the USA, Canada was Britain's principal ally in the North Atlantic, and a major source of weapons and food . However, the war showed that the Imperial alliance between Britain, Canada, and the other Dominions was no longer a dominant global power, not being able to prevent Hong Kong from being overrun by Japan, and narrowly avoiding a German invasion of Britain itself . </P>

What was canada's relationship to britain at the turn of the century