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The civilization and culture of the Loyalist centres in Ontario, brought in by the Loyalist Migrations, 1783-1786, and later by the settlements of British-born émigrés, chiefly discharged soldiers, officials, and mechanics, after the close of the Napoleonic wars, 1815, were essentially practical and materialistic. On the whole the literature produced in Ontario, particularly up to the triumph of Responsible Government was, as in Quebec Province, a literature of annals and chronicles and narratives. However, during this period and onwards to Confederation, particularly after the war of 1812 and during the rebellion of 1837, there appeared in the Canadas some genuinely aesthetic verse and prose, written by British-born sojourners or permanent émigrés and by native authors.

There were, in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, several other migrations of small groups of English-speaking people to Nova Scotia and the Canadas, notably a group of Scots. The English Migration in 1749, under Cornwallis, to Halifax was of no significance in the literary history of Canada; nor were the Swiss and German Migrations to Nova Scotia of literary significance. On the other hand, the Scots Migration to Pictou, Nova Scotia, 1773, had a most decided intellectual influence not only on Nova Scotia, but also on the whole of what is now known as Canada. It had, however, no influence on specific literary culture and literary creation, save Journalism, in Canada as a whole.