Families watch the East York Canada Day Parade in Toronto in a file photo. Cole Burston/Getty Images
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Commentary
Confederation was largely a defensive act prompted by fear of the United States. The architects recognized that a fragmented British North America risked being overtaken or becoming a battleground. With the end of the American Civil War, diminishing British interest, and tensions heightened by Fenian attacks, Confederation aimed to protect British institutions north of the border.
Marco Navarro-Génie
Author
Marco Navarro-Génie is president of the Haultain Research Institute. He is co-author, with Barry Cooper, of “Canada’s COVID-19: The Story of a Pandemic Moral Panic.”
