Why wasn't Canada rebellious?

[emzie]

SSSHHH!! Don't tell Alberta!

I don't believe it is a legal document anymore. However the current Constitution doesn't bar soverign nations from joining the Union (Texas and California). And every province has the right to live the Dominion (though I'd imagine Canada might put up more of a fight for Alberta than Quebec )

In fact, I was in Montreal right before the '95 referendum and one of the talk show hosts was claiming that 'the rich families who control Quebec' were playing up the nationalist card in an attempt to join the States.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

'the rich families who control Quebec' were playing up the nationalist card in an attempt to join the States.

And the rich don't control the US as well?

IMO, the reason that Canada wasn't rebellious is, as some have said before, simply because it had a very small population that was primarily pro-British (and unaffected with many of the colonists' grievances) or French. We didn't have a large locally-born population that was seriously falling out of the British fold.

 

[Evie]

And for French Canadians the choice was between taking the side of englishmen who had just been very nice on them, and englishmen who were rebelling in part because the other englishmen were being nice on the french.

Hmmmm, geez, wonder which side you'd expect those people to fall on...

 

[nivekclough]

In my honest opinion, French Canada didn't rebel because they had almost nothing in common with the 13 colonies that did rebel.

Keep in mind, these 13 colonies, by the mid 1700's, were the fastest growing part of the British Empire. They had a young population (averaging around 16 in 1776) who, as teenagers, were easily excitable. The population had quickly grown, and they were wealthier on average than the average British. The majority of the Americans had no real loyalty to the British crown (a slim majority. About 51-52% of Americans were not of English descent, and Scottish (technically part of Britain) had very little loyalty to the crown in the best of times.) This was a dangerous factor to British control.

However, the American revolution truely came into swing after the Proclomation of 1763 which was largely ignored by Americans. It led to the societal change that basically said it is alright to disobey the King. After the 13 Colonies managed to force the repealing of the Stamp Act, there was no going back. The only way the crown could have kept the 13 colonies would be to not tax them, which just wasn't going to happen.

Canada, on the other hand, had a relatively small population. They didn't have the diversification of the 13 Colonies. The taxes that the other colonies considered punishment, the French colonies were used to paying. They had paid their taxes to the French monarch for years. The British Crown was also more willing to make concessions to Lower/Upper Canada. He gave them permission to practice the Roman Catholic faith, and to continue their tradition of trial without a jury.

Canada really had no reason to rebel. They had a largely benevolent leader, and were preoccupied by the beginnings of the French Revolution in France. The Canadian colonies didn't feel their rights were being infringed. Remember, the colonists were not originally rebelling for independence. If you consider the Boston Massacre the beginning of the American Revolution, then the Americans had been fighting for six years before they even considered Independence. In fact, it is noted in the journals of many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence that they thought they were declaring their Independence from tyranny, not from Britain.

Anyways, enough rambling.