The Canadas
The Canadas were two
British colonies,
Upper Canada and
Lower Canada, part of modern-day
Canada. The region (formerly known as the Province of
Quebec) was first divided into these colonies at the
Ottawa River by
the Constitutional Act of 1791, in response to the desire of recently arrived
American settlers for British institutions and laws, especially British laws of land tenure, and to agitation by the English merchants of
Montreal for
representative government. Upper Canada corresponds to modern-day
Ontario and Lower Canada to modern-day Quebec, although the northern majority of the current land masses of these provinces were still part of
Rupert's Land.
The Canadas persisted in that form until 1841, when on the basis of Lord Durham's report (1839) they were merged into the Province of Canada.