I am not enough of a 19th century social historian to talk deeply about the daily impact, I will argue that the Civil War led to some events which had massive impacts on Canadians daily lives.

First, the Civil War was the final push that led to Confederation. The Civil War is why Confederation happens in the 1860s, not the 1850s, 70s, or 80s. The Civil War scared Canadians. Only 40 years after 1812, they saw the deep military-industrial might of America and feared if they did not unite they would not be able to defend themselves. Further, Britain was unwilling to pay for the massive defense forces required to hold the Canadian colonies against such a threat and was eager for Canadians to take on those costs. A United Canada had more resources, more capacity, more manpower, to defend itself against an American attack.

Second, the Civil War led to the end of the Canada-US Reciprocity agreement. Signed in 1854 it was an early form of free trade that in particular benefited the Martimes. The Americans backed out in 1866 in large part because of their frustrations with British behavoir in the civil war. This too increased the push for confederation as it would open up new trade markets between the colonies. It also lead to the 'National Policy" of MacDonald - a series of protectionist tarriffs designed to protect Canadian manufacturing. This policy helped greatly industrialize Ontario and Quebec and was a source of alot of tension in the confederation as more raw resources oriented western and eastern canada felt like they got a raw deal. Some of the core tensions in the federation which same political dicussions to this day are connected to the issue of the national policy.

Lastly, and I am sadly too ignorant of this topic to go into great detail, but at least some French-Canadians served in Union units. Why or in what scale I am not sure, but they did fight.