What this post intends to explore is how Canada’s invisibility
serves as a literary device in fleshing out his character development. While
the approach to this is cruder in older characterizations, it still remains
that Canada’s struggle to establish his independence and form a unique and
memorable identity is integral to his character.

As such, rather than other nations deliberately ignoring
him, his invisibility serves as a reminder of how he struggled to find a place
on the world stage. His entire character arc in World Stars is predicated on
him detaching himself from England’s and America’s shadows and becoming his own
person. Longer posts on that here [x] [x]. 

Invisibility on the
World Stage:

One misconception that I’ve seen perpetuated is that
England, France, and America intentionally ignore Canada, which makes them
terrible people. This simply isn’t true. The fact that they forget Canada is
completely unintentional. It’s supposed to represent how Canada as a nation
wasn’t very well-known around the world; there wasn’t something distinctly
unique to his identity that would make him stand out.

In older strips, the approach to this is much cruder. Some
examples would include Canada not being accounted for and being sat on during a
G8 meeting [x]. Interestingly, the one country who does recognize him, France, still admits that Canada doesn’t have anything remarkable about him. I did say cruder, didn’t I?

Likewise, after mistaking Canada for America, England
apologizes to Canada. He didn’t intentionally forget Canada. Again, the purpose
of this gag was to illustrate his lacking world identity and how he went from
lurking in England’s shadows to being overshadowed by America’s.

A common rebuttal to this latter point would be asking why
France and England were able to see Canada when he was younger.

The answer to this is simple. France and England had a
vested interest in the fur trade in North America, which is what made Canada a
financial mine for settlers. He was well-known to the world at the time. What’s
sad is that Canada was able to recognize the superficial reasons he was valued
for at a young age. 

Ex: He mistakenly believes that England is looking at him
not as a source of resources but as an actual person of value. In reality,
England was analyzing Canada’s hair, which he believes was inherited from
France [x]. 

Nonetheless, the two do become family and treat each other
as such. However, the irony is that while England cares very deeply for both
America and Canada, he devoted most of his attention to America due to political
struggles (e.g., the American Revolution and the Civil War) [x].

Personal Relationships:

What I haven’t seen someone point out is that Canada’s
invisibility is limited to world meetings and his status as a personification
and not as a person. By this, I mean that when Canada represents his nation, he’s
forgotten, but in personal circumstances and interactions he’s remembered. It’s
for this reason I believe that the narrative goes from G8 countries forgetting
about Canada—which includes America—to America playing ball with Canada in the same strip.

On the other hand, others have argued that America throwing
the baseball at Canada is intentionally rude and abusive. It isn’t. America
throwing the ball too fast for Canada to keep up with served as a crude
political metaphor in signifying how Canada respectively struggled to keep up with America’s rapid rate of growth.

In world stars, this is most prominent as Canada gets
frustrated with America’s tendency to push and expect too much of him. The
problem is that Canada’s lack of identity and affluence is what allowed him to be
pushed around. Point is, later versions of the manga have used less crude methods
to portray this identity complex.

This doesn’t mean that Canada didn’t fight against this, though.

Ex: He reprimands America for overlooking him. The context
is that when America found out that England had fallen ill after the
Revolution, he goes to Canada’s house without thinking to ask Canada how
he was faring too [x]. 

On the other hand, this doesn’t mean that America didn’t
value Canada as a person either. The struggle between the two emphasized the
difficulty in balancing politics/self-interest and personal relations.

Ex: America’s jealous of Canada for possessing a personality
that makes it easy for him to get along with other nations [x]. 

Lastly, it’s important to call attention to the fact that
England valued Canada and was grateful when the latter both stepped up to his
defense and later tended to him at his bedside [x] [x]. 

All in all, it would be unfair and one-sided to claim that
Canada is deliberately ignored by those close to them. It’s far more
complicated than that and instead detracts from his character development.