For the rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 team that competes in the North America 4 Series, see Canada East (rugby team)

Canada East (rugby team)

Canada East is one of two national representative rugby union teams from Canada that compete in the North America 4 Series.-Formation:Canada East was founded in 2005 by the NA4 Committee. The NA4 Committee is made up of the International Rugby Board, Rugby Canada and USA Rugby...

.

Canada East was the eastern portion of the United Province of Canada

Province of Canada

The Province of Canada, United Province of Canada, or the United Canadas was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of...

. It consisted of the southern portion of the modern-day Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 Province of Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, and was primarily a French-speaking

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 region.

Formerly a colony called the Province of Lower Canada

Lower Canada

The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...

, based on Lord Durham

John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham

John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham GCB, PC , also known as "Radical Jack" and commonly referred to in history texts simply as Lord Durham, was a British Whig statesman, colonial administrator, Governor General and high commissioner of British North America...

's report it was merged with the Province of Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

 (present-day southern portion of the Province of Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

) to create the United Province of Canada.

The most important farm products were potatoes, rye, buckwheat, maple sugar, and livestock. When it came time to confederate the Francophones were nervous because they did not want to lose their French heritage. They were afraid that it would be overwhelmed by the English. At the time of confederation, 1867, Montreal was the biggest city in the British North American colonies.

Due to heavy immigration, the population of English-speaking residents of Canada West soon outstripped Canada East. Under the Act of Union, 1840, however, the seats in the house were evenly divided between Canada East and Canada West.

By the late 1850s all the land of Canada West had been bought. The next frontier was west of Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

. However, this land was owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Most in Canada East resisted the takeover of this land, as it would have changed the balance of the seats in the legislature.

The St. Lawrence River was full of ice for half the year. For that half of the year goods had to be transported on American railways. A railway through Canada East to Halifax would provide an all-British route for trade and defence.

By the 1860s, the Grand Trunk Railway

Grand Trunk Railway

The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec; however, corporate...

 was about $72 million in debt. Its annual income was about $200. Partly because of this, the Province of Canada pulled out of the negotiations for the Intercolonial Railway.

Only 20% of Canada East's residents lived in the city, the rest were all farmers or habitants as they called themselves. They made their own stone houses and wooden furniture. Their clothes were homemade and their food was grown on the farms.

At the time of Confederation (1867) Montreal was the largest city of the British North American colonies, with a population of 107,225. Some of the richest people in Canada lived in Montreal.

There was a danger of Fenian raids

Fenian raids

Between 1866 and 1871, the Fenian raids of the Fenian Brotherhood who were based in the United States; on British army forts, customs posts and other targets in Canada, were fought to bring pressure on Britain to withdraw from Ireland. They divided many Catholic Irish-Canadians, many of whom were...

along the Canadian-American border south and east of Montreal.

Lumber was the most important natural resource of Canada East. In the woods, hundreds of workers cut down trees, then floated the logs down the St. Lawrence River during the spring floods. Sawmills turned the logs into planks and boards to sell to the Americans. There were also factories in the District of Canada East that made windows, shingles, washboards, and door frames.