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Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin
We exist as a country because what was Canada in 1776 simply didn't want to join the US in rebellion - more likely a case of the situation under the British being comfortable enough vs. an unknown situation with the Americans, than there being any particular loyalty to the British - remember that it was of course a French colony just a few years prior.
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"History is written by the victors" rings true in Canada to some degree. Canadian history (as presented in English) is often Ontario-centric to the point where it barely makes sense. A lot of Canadians think that the American Revolution was vaguely determined by non-existent Ontario settlers being OK with Britain. The (global) War of 1812 is often presented as if it revolved around Niagara, aside from a field trip to Washington.
One huge factor in the American Revolution was that Atlantic Canada was an easy region for the British to hold onto purely with naval power. Halifax had the largest naval base on the Atlantic coast and a few years earlier it was the launching point for the conquest of Louisbourg and Quebec. It was loyal to Britain because of the economic importance of the base and because most people living there had come recently from the British Isles, whereas many Americans had come over much earlier and were part of minority groups like the Pilgrims. Once the war started up privateering also started up so there was even more of an economic incentive to stay on Britain's side.
It's also important to understand that during that period it was very difficult to travel overland from Quebec or Montreal to the south, and hard to get to Ontario at all. Nova Scotia was effectively in between Quebec and the US (this is why there was so much fighting over areas like Louisbourg and Annapolis Royal -- the conquest of Quebec was just the end of a much longer struggle). Given the small populations and British navy there wouldn't have been a way for American troops to do much in either Nova Scotia or Canada.
By the end of the war a huge number of Loyalists had already migrated north, making it even less likely that those areas would join in on the Revolution. Again that's often presented as being mostly Ontario but it was mostly New Brunswick (which was created as a separate colony for the Loyalists) and to a lesser extent Nova Scotia. I believe Benedict Arnold's former house still exists in Saint John.