(Nice to see this piece turn up in today’s Globe and Mail)

Not long ago, playing tourist in my native Montreal, I visited the historic Château Ramezay. Built in 1705 for the city governor, Claude de Ramezay, it later served as headquarters for the American Continental Army during its brief occupation of Montreal. And in March 1776, Benjamin Franklin spent his first night in the city right here—hoping to persuade French Canadians to join the American Revolution. He failed. And Canada has been diverging from the United States ever since.

More than two centuries later, we’re still going in different directions. As Donald J. Trump leads a populist movement that increasingly resembles a second American Revolution—fueled by white grievance, disdain for expertise, and contempt for human rights —Canadians remain steadfastly opposed. A MAGA-style uprising will find no welcome here. And it never could. Our national identity emerged out of resistance to the first American Revolution.

Franklin’s journey north came after the British government passed the Quebec Act of 1774, which recognized the rights of French-speaking colonists to speak their language, follow French civil law, and practice Catholicism. The Act infuriated the American revolutionaries, who accused Britain of pandering to papists and denying democracy. Franklin himself helped stir up resistance, calling the act undemocratic and dangerous.

But where the Americans saw tyranny, French Canadians saw tolerance. The Quebec Act protected their culture and religion—something the revolutionary rhetoric from the south threatened to eradicate. In November 1775, the Continental Army invaded. Montreal fell easily.

The revolutionaries still hoped to gain French support—hence Franklin’s mission.

It didn’t work. The American invasion of Quebec City had failed. Most French leaders had already gone back to France. Those Canadiens who remained – among them my own Pelletier ancestors — were mostly farmers. Conservative by nature, loyal to their parish priests, they were unimpressed by talk of liberty that reeked of Protestantism and English-only governance.

Franklin left Montreal after a few weeks, recognizing that the Revolution had no future in Canada. But by then, the damage was done. His failure was the first in a series of moves that alienated four key communities that would become foundational to Canada’s identity.

French Canadians: By opposing the Quebec Act and attempting to impose American republicanism on a deeply Catholic, French-speaking society, the revolutionaries showed that their idea of freedom was one-size-fits-all.

United Empire Loyalists: As the Revolution advanced, tens of thousands of Loyalists were driven from their homes in the Thirteen Colonies. Ben Franklin was among those who fought against compensating them in the Treaty of Paris.

African American Refugees: More than 3,000 Black Loyalists escaped to Canada after siding with the British. Franklin and others supported the re-enslaving some of them and denied restitution to others.

Indigenous Peoples: The Treaty of Paris (1783), negotiated by Franklin and others, disregarded Indigenous land claims and claimed vast territories without consultation. Canada, despite failures and broken promises, at least recognized the Indigenous presence in constitutional terms.

Those four communities – augmented by thousands of Scottish and Irish immigrants — helped shape a country that resisted the assimilationist melting pot and opted for a pluralistic country grounded in negotiation, compromise, and cultural survival.

Fast forward to 2025. A resurgent American right dreams of turning back the clock. Donald J. Trump leads a MAGA movement that embraces conspiracy theories, denies election outcomes, and persecutes minorities. Trump still talks of “annexing Canada.” But the cultural divergence that began with Benjamin Franklin’s failed mission has only widened. Canada has long rejected American gun culture, religious fundamentalism, anti-government rhetoric, and profit-driven healthcare. It has embraced multiculturalism, social welfare, and—in theory at least—reconciliation with Indigenous nations.

This is the legacy of foundational choices. Canadians are who we are today because, in the 1770s, Franklin and the revolutionaries made clear that they did not welcome difference. In defining freedom narrowly, they drove us to imagine it more broadly.

Franklin did not intend to build a Canadian Resistance. But that’s what he did.

He failed to win French Canadian support. He refused to compensate Loyalists. He championed the re-enslavement of Black escapees. And he dismissed Indigenous sovereignty in the Treaty of Paris. Each of those decisions shaped the northward migration and political consolidation that gave rise to Canada. This country was born in resistance to the American Revolution. And in that resistance, we still see ourselves.

(Link to article in Globe and Mail.)