The modern notion of "13 colonies" is a misnomer; there were a few more at various times from 1607 to 1783. While the majority of the mainly-English speaking colonies along the Atlantic coast successfully rebelled, others, such as Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick did not for various reasons. Prior to the American Revolution, there really wasn't much more of a disjointment of identities between what would later become American states and Canadian provinces as there were among the thirteen themselves. The shared struggle for independence did much to forge an identity for Americans obviously, as did the War of 1812 for moth Americans and Canadians. Whatsmore, the mass exodus of Loyalists from "the thirteen" to Ontario cemented an identity in turn, as men from disparate southern places were more and more united in their Tory ideologies.

Canada was only won by the British from the French following the Seven Year War (commonly known as the French and Indian War in the States) in 1763, and this there was always a distinction between the American colonies and Canada. In fact, such a distinction that the Colonies/States actually tried to conquer Canada during the Revolution and War of 1812.