Maybe you can set me straight...
I got the impression from my Canadian friends (this was many years ago)that there were strong centrifugal forces at work in that country, and that under stress, Canada might fracture into component parts.
According to them, French-speaking Quebec has always had a separatist bent, and the plains and Mountain provinces felt they had more in common with cowboy USA than with the city slickers in Toronto and Ottawa. Only Ontario, BC and the Maritimes identified with an English Canada.
Is there any truth to this over-simplification, or is my anecdata out of date?