Angering The Neighbours?

Next year is the bicentennial of the War of 1812.  The government intends to spend a bunch of money commemorating the event.  In a way I'm surprised.  Stephen Harper and much of the current strain of Canadian conservattism tends to treat anything American as wonderful, and will frequently denounce even the mildest of criticisms of the US by Canadians as anti-Americanism. Yet the current Conservative government intends to celebrate an event where the Americans, from a Canadian perspective, were the bad guys.  Apparently they aren't worried about bringing up bad memories in the US, as the War of 1812 included the occupation of Washington, DC and the burning of the White House and Capitol Building in 1814.  This was retaliation for the US attack on York, the future Toronto, so apparently the government isn't worried about stoking Canadian resentment towards the US either.  Most interesting.