You're wrong about the religious extremists. Canada was home to a large number of devout Catholics and Protestants, and has had many important internal conflic

You're wrong about the religious extremists. Canada was home to a large number of devout Catholics and Protestants, and has had many important internal conflicts between the two. Read up on Louis Riel for a good introduction. What we lacked was homogeneity in the religious extremism; thanks to an early balance between French and English settlers there was never long a period when Catholic or Protestant were dominating. We also enjoyed being the home to English loyalist refugees during the American war of independence... And the destination of the underground railroad.