The history of modern Canada has been characterized by a concurrence of dichotomies typified by the ongoing discord between French and English Canadians. This dichotomy, however, has been only one of a number of defining antitheses involving ethnicity, religion, and regionalism. Historians have long recognized the preeminent role of religion in the formation of the nation, and the relationship of religion—particularly the churches—to the growth of the specific dichotomies that define the Canadian Confederation. The churches, and religion more broadly, have been thoroughly bound to the political, social, and cultural development of this nation whose designation of "dominion," and motto, "from sea to sea," are both taken from the seventy-second Psalm.

The Churches

The relationship between churches and state in Canada was inaugurated in 1534, when Jacques Cartier erected a cross at the Gaspé Peninsula...