American Influences on Canadian Protestant Churches Before Confederation

Abstract

American influences on Canadian Protestant Churches before Confederation do not present any simple historical pattern. As any student of Canadian history would expect the responses of the Canadian Protestant denominations vary widely, not only from one denomination to another but from one region to another. Indeed, regionalism seems to be the most important factor in determining the degree of American influences, both positive and negative, on Canadian Protestantism. Canadian historians have examined or at least noted separate aspects of American influences, particularly in a denominational context, but no one has apparently attempted a survey approach to the wide range of such influences—wide both geographically and topically.