I must confess to a lot of ignorance about Canada, and especially Canadian politics and history. I live in Minnesota, but it seems that most Minnesotans think of Canada as a place to go for really good fishing. (Everybody wants to go farther north to fish. Iowans come to Minnesota. People from the Twin Cities go to northern Minnesota. I suppose people from northern Minnesota go to Ontario or Manitoba, and Canadians go up to the Arctic Circle.) We are reminded that Canada exists whenever we find an occasional Canadian dime or quarter among our change. (Our machines won't accept them.)

I have a few questions. During the American Revolution, what was the status of Canada? (I know a lot of loyalists emigrated to Canada then, mostly under threat of persecution.) Was there any inclination on the part of Canadians to join the Americans in seeking independence? Were they given the opportunity? If not, why not? (Odd that Washington and his pals called themselves the Continental Congress, Continental Army, and so on, when they didn't represent the whole continent - and odder still to contemplate how history might have been different if there had been more than 13 colonies.) Or did the Canadians fight the Brits, too, and lose? These things are never mentioned in American history classes.