Thanks for the holiday greetings Liz.

Colwyn, here's a brief history lesson. The French surrendered Canada to the British in 1763. The British Parliament had to devise a way to govern the new territories. They couldn't organize them the way the 13 other American colonies were (a royal governor and a locally elected legislative assembly) because most Canadians at the time were Catholic. British law didn't allow Catholics to hold public office. Nearly 10 years later, in 1774, they enacted the Quebec Act. This said that French civil law would continue in Canada, but criminal law would be under the British system, Catholics were granted the right to hold office if they swore an oath of allegiance to The British, and the southern boundary of Quebec was set at the Ohio River. This upset plenty of people in the 13 other colonies. There were still some lingering hostilities from the "French and Indian War". Many American colonists were fervently anti-catholic. And several of the 13 colonies claimed the Mississipi River as their western border. The Quebec Act was one of several acts of Parliament the American colonists lumped together as the "intolerable acts". Most of the other acts were aimed at punishing Boston and Massachusetts for their rebellious acts, instead they galvinized the other colonies to support the Bostonians. The article you quoted may have been an attempt to invite the Canadians into the union of American states, but it wasn't well recieved. The next year Benedict Arnold led an unsuccessful attack on Quebec. Hope that helps some. Happy Canada day to you!

Timehiker