[NZerFromHK]

Indeed the first Canadians, apart from the French from what's called Lower Canada later (now Quebec), are the Loyalist Americans who remained loyal to the Crown in 1776. If I remember correctly, after 1783 most moved north to British North America and only a few returned to Britain.

Even today, their descendents still yield tremendous influence in political and cultural influence, particularly in Ontario. If you visit places like Kingston, Peterborough, Waterloo, Toronto, London, they have lots of monuments to the United Empire Loyalists. This is why Ontario on one hand is fiercely socialist (it is un-American), and on the otehr hand has the most sentimental attachment to the monarchy as the head of state of Canada (it is once again un-American to have a monarch as your HOS).

[Jacob Kell]

Wasn't the Royal American Regiment based in Ontario? What is it exactly?

[goldstategop]

I've passed through Western Ontario on the way to and from Toronto quite a few times in the past few years... the first thing a visitor is struck by the province is the attachment to the Mother Country. Names like Windsor, London, Kingston, Peterborough, Essex, Woodbridge and Cornwall all testify to the breadth and extent of Loyalist influence upon English Canada. Ontario is one of two provinces that has retained the old Canadian Red Ensign Flag with the provincial coat of arms in the fly along with the Union Jack in the upper left quadrant. Canada may not be a part of the British Empire any more and it may have repatriated the Constitution but it still refuses to form a positive national identity. The failure to do so leaves anti-Americanism as the only "authentic" means of expressing a Canadian sense of self.

("Denny Crane: Gun Control? For Communists. She's a liberal. Can't hunt.")