The original settling of the North West Coast was all one rush for trapping and resources. There was a bit of a battle between American and British interests over who was going to control the lands politically. So the settlement of western Canada and the United States actually was profit motivated and the competing interests fed one another. The reason for the land offer that started the Oregon and California trails was so that America had a population there to make a political claim on the lands. There was a good ebook I read about it that's free on Amazon here

Now, I'll try to find background information online, but most of the answers I have come from classroom lecture at primarily the university, but also at the high school level.

Did Canadians have some comparable to manifest destiny? Not as official doctrine. Sir John A McDonald wished to have a state that was coast to coast to coast, but knew that American expansion limited Canadian expansion. He had to move quickly to build an overland link with British Columbia as a necessary requirement for them joining Confederation, and to do that he needed to build a railing connecting them to Central Canada. This would eventually mean the purchase of the Northwest Territories from the Hudson Bay Company, which connected B.C. and Central Canada. It also led to armed rebellions and pissing off everyone who wasn't a white protestant.

Did the relations with First Nations differ then with the States? Yes, to a certain extant. The only "wars" fought between the Canadian Government and Aboriginals/Metis were the Riel Rebellions which were named after the famous Metis leader. He was fighting because when the Canadian Government purchased the Northwest Territories, the settlers of the Territories were not given a say in whether they wanted to join Canada or not. The purchase of their land by Canada and paved the way for white, protestant settlement, which led to conflict between the two sides.

Eventually, the Metis were pushed further West, and kept on getting misplaced as settlers coming from Ontario settled former Metis lands. The Riel Rebellion of 1885 cemented the Canadian Governments authority in the territories, and hanged a number of dissidents, including Riel.

Treaties were signed forcing Aboriginals onto land out of necessity due to disease ans famine which were occurring in their communities, which was due to the new settlers. The Canadian government failed to live up to their end of treaty negotiations, residential schools were formed, very awful stuff on the part of the government.

The motivation for settlers to move onto the land was similar to the settlers in the United States who were settling the West. Many of the settlers were given the land on condition that they lived and worked on the land for a certain amount of years. This led to massive population growth as both European and American settlers moved north to the "Last Best West." On a side note, this is how my own family came to Canada. They had lived in Pennsylvania until my great great grandfather decided to move to Saskatchewan because of the "free" land that the government was advertising.

I'm doing this up on my phone so sorry if I was brief. I can expand and see if I can get online sources if anybody asks. I'll be sure to do that on my laptop.

Last note, and this is again from classroom notes, the reason why Alberta is viewed as being traditionally American is because Alberta was settled by American settlers coming up from the Midwest. Those American farmer brought up traditional and communal ideas that helped shape and guide Alberta politics for many years, until Alberta developed it's own political identity.

In addition to the book provided by ehpuckit, I would appreciate any reading material on how the Canadian West "was won".

Ever since someone told me that the Mounted Police were deployed before settlers actually came, I have been interested in learning more about that.