The Dominion Government Would Construct a Pan-Canadian Identity; the Invisible Hand of the Marketplace Offered the Best Model for Reconciling the Irreconcilable Differences between Canadians

Confederation's advocates envisioned a new civic nationality based on economic self-interest. The Dominion government would construct a pan-Canadian identity rooted in political economy because the invisible hand of the marketplace offered the best model for reconciling the otherwise irreconcilable differences between Canadians. The federal government would govern wealth, not identity and, in the process, create a new kind of virtuous citizen, one who looked to rational marketplace activity to advance his self-interests.

--E.A. Heaman, Tax, Order, and Good Government: A New Political History of Canada, 1867-1917, Carleton Library Series 240 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017), 46.