The Articles of Confederation was the first “Government” of the United States. It was created and ratified by a group of men representing the interests of their various colonies (soon to be states) during the American Revolutionary War. These men and their states were very wary of powerful, centralized governments, given that they were in open rebellion against a powerful and centralized government. If you read the Articles, you will notice that it provides severe restrictions on the “Federal” Government. In fact, it doesn’t provide restrictions in so much as it says “The Federal Government can do these things and only these things”. Among these things was raise an army (not funded mind you, it must ask the states for funding), and conduct foreign diplomacy (only for itself, each state could also perform independent diplomatic missions), with specific guidelines on its relationship with France and Spain. Wait, why have specific mentions of France and Spain in your constitution? Because the Articles of Confederation can be read as a “Wartime Document”. The Federal Government is permitted to perform the duties necessary to conduct a war: Raise an Army, Conduct Diplomacy. Very little else. Specific mentions of France and Spain were deemed necessary because they were the preeminent rivals of Great Britain in World Power status. If we wanted to win the war, we needed at least one of those powers to back us up (Thanks France!) and this was well known to the leaders of the young United States.

So thinking about the Articles of Confederation as a Wartime Document, the provision for Canadian Admission to the union can begin to make more sense. Adding some historical context, Canada was still at this time a primarily French settlement. Quebec (including the southern areas of modern day Ontario) had been recently concquered by the British in the 7 Years War (French and Indian War). The population there was ethnically, linguistically, and religiously tied to Britain’s great rival, and they were none too happy about being subjects of the British. With all of this context, the American Revolutionaries saw an opportunity to both strengthen their rebellion and to secure their northern/western flank. This open invitation to join the United States was also an open invitation to start a Quebecois Rebellion against British rule.

So why didn’t they do it? Well that’s a more complicated question that hopefully someone more educated than myself can answer. Initially, they didn’t join the United States for the same reasons they didn’t like the British. Cultural, Linguistic, and Religious differences. It would be hard to ask the Quebecois to exchange one distant Protestant, English-Speaking overlord for another, slightly-less-distant, Protestant, English-Speaking overlord. Additionally, the British had a few policies in place with Quebec to recognize and marginally respect their differences, policies that may not be guaranteed under a new American government. As for after the war ended, yet before the ratification of the Constitution in 1789 (and subsequent ending of the open invitation), Canada was one of the primary places of resettlement for Americans who had retained loyalties to the crown during the war.

In summary: we invited Canada (Quebec) to join the United States as a wartime strategy to exploit the existing animosity against the British there. They (Canada) did not act in any meaningful way on this offer because of A) Cultural/Religious/Linguistic differences in Quebec and B) The resettlement of British Loyalists in modern Ontario after the war.