It is often said that English Canada was "created" when the American British loyalists migrated to Ontario/Quebec/NB to live under the empire. There were English settlements before that, but they are frequently glossed over with not much information on how they arrived there, their culture, population, communities, politics, dialect, etc. What was Anglo Canada like before the American revolution?
There's always more to be said, but in the meantime you may find answers about the Loyalists who would move to Canada in this thread by u/enygma9753.
Until the American Revolution, English Canada's limited presence was largely restricted to the Maritime region primarily, the political and commercial centres in Quebec (Quebec City and Montreal respectively) and the remote trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company in Rupert's Land: the rugged and sparsely settled regions around Hudson's Bay and northwest Canada under nominal British jurisdiction. The fur trade continued to remain a valuable industry, though of declining importance by the Conquest of Quebec in 1759.
The majority of the population in Canada was still French and Catholic in Quebec and the Maritime colonies (formerly Acadia) after the fall of New France, numbering 70-80,000. Roughly 10,000 were Acadians. Britain and France had skirmished for control of Acadia frequently throughout the 1600's.
Britain began to establish settlements in Acadia in the aftermath of the Queen Anne's War (1702-1713), essentially the North American theatre of the War of the Spanish Succession, when they first gained control of peninsular Acadia. For the first half of the 1700's the British were confronted with several insurrections and attacks on Protestant settlements by the French Acadians and their native Mi'kmaq allies.
Britain founded the town of Halifax in 1749, which would soon replace Annapolis Royal as the colonial capital and become the North American station for the Royal Navy.
Britain firmly asserted its claim over the region during the Seven Years War with the capture of the French fortress of Louisbourg and the expulsion of the Acadian population. This opened up the region to English Protestant settlement. The colony of Nova Scotia closely resembled the Thirteen Colonies with its own assembly, the prominence of Protestantism and an influx of settlers from America. Despite this, the colony's population was still sparse compared to New England.
Unlike their American cousins, the English settlers in Nova Scotia did not become as radicalized despite the presence of Patriot cells. Many shared similar grievances about asserting their "rights as Englishmen" but felt that any issues could be addressed within the Empire. Most wanted to be left in peace and gained a reputation among the Thirteen Colonies as the "neutral Yankees" of Nova Scotia at the time of the American Revolution. The Great Awakening, a religious revival that swept the Protestant churches in the Maritimes, also had a profound effect on the locals by dissuading rebellion and encouraging neutrality in the upcoming conflict. A brief Patriot rebellion -- it was more like a raid -- led by Jonathan Eddy, a member of the NS Assembly, was crushed. British authorities razed villages of Patriot sympathizers and arrested or exiled ringleaders. American privateering raids also turned the indifference of the local population into opposition to the Patriot cause.
The highest offices in the British colonies in Canada were restricted to English Protestants. Catholics were not permitted to run for office or vote and such restrictions would largely remain until they were eased in the 19th century.
Quebec's situation was unique in that French Catholics there could practise their faith with few restrictions and could even hold minor local offices. British authorities even allowed the seigneurial class to exercise authority over their tenants and permitted the Catholic Church to collect tithes. These accommodations alienated the English Protestant merchant class who had hoped to recreate a Protestant Ascendancy in Canada and dominate the political and economic life of the colony. The expected mass migration of English Protestant settlers to Quebec never materialized in the years following the fall of New France, as most settlers wanted to move west beyond the Appalachians to the Ohio Valley, and not north.
Canada would only see a significant rise in English settlement after the American Revolution with the arrival of Loyalist exiles from the U.S. in the 1780s-90s. Most would go to the Maritimes, while others moved to Quebec and what is now southern Ontario.