Canada was left with a self-selected group who didn't want much from life: an agrarian, very religious, austere population of peasants and labourers who tended to see a consumer economy as generally sinful excess

Maximum Canada: Toward a Country of 100 Million Paperback. Doug Saunders. August 20, 2019. https://www.amazon.com/Maximum-Canada-Million-Canadians-Enough/dp/0735273103

"Americans were the first major population group to settle permanently in Canada in more than token numbers, and they dominated Canada's population for six decades.  From the 1770s until the 1830s, the majority of English-speaking Canadians were U.S.-born [...].

"Over the preceding decades, most ambitious and inventive immigrants to Canada had quickly departed for the United States.  The colonies were left with a self-selected group who didn't want much from life: an agrarian, very religious, austere population of peasants and labourers who tended to see change and growth as a threat rather than an opportunity and a consumer economy as generally sinful excess."

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From the editor:
Canada’s population has always grown slowly, when it has grown at all. That wasn’t by accident. For centuries before Confederation and a century after, colonial economic policies and an inward-facing world view isolated this country, attracting few of the people and building few of the institutions needed to sustain a sovereign nation. In fact, during most years before 1967, a greater number of people fled Canada than immigrated to it. Canada’s growth has faltered and left us underpopulated ever since.