alternatehistory.com

Simcoe arrived to find a colony in a confused and demoralized state. The 'western townships', now officially Upper Canada, had been largely unsettled by Europeans before the war, with a few French around the narrows at Détroit and nearer the border with Lower Canada.
There were thousands of indigenous, of course, but they had been swamped by more than 15,000 Loyalists who had arrived since the Treaty of Paris, mostly settling around Lake Ontario, and they had begun the tedious process of clearing the land; but as yet no title had been given, as British legal structures were to be set up by the incoming Governor.
The largely forested colony had exactly one useful road, the King's Highway, which ringed Lake Ontario and which the new Lt Governor rode to the capital at Newark, on the Niagara river.
Simcoe had bold intentions to steer the colony away from the Republican path being adopted to the south, creating a system of governance designed to be the "very image" of British society, with an appointed Legislative Council (he considered creating a hereditary aristocracy), and an elected if powerless assembly, both based on principals of land ownership.
Elections were held, and the new colonial government began awarding title to land under the stipulations that British government had provided - 200 acres to common Loyalists, and from 500 up to 5,000 for officers taking up land.
The Loyalists contained some 2,000 slaves, which meant of course slave owners, some 2,000 decommissioned Hessian and Russian troops, as well as 3,000 Black Loyalists, primarily from the pioneers. As such, tensions arose over the nature of slavery in the new colony, and in the summer of 1793, a public spectacle occurred when a young slave woman, Chloe Cooley, was forced by her owner into a boat to be sold across the river. The resulting social consternation led to Governor Simcoe issuing a blistering address to the Assembly:

"The principles of the British Consitution do not admit of that slavery which Christianity condemns; under no modification will I assent to a law that discriminates by dishonest policy between natives of Africa, America, or Europe."

His ensuing Act Against Slavery was the first in the British Empire, declaring all children born free, freedom for all slaves over the age of 21, ensuring freedom to any slaves brought into Upper Canada, and requiring all existing slaves to be manumitted upon turning 21. By 1810 there were no slaves left in Upper Canada.
It caused grief at first, but in time the Upper Canadians came to delight in their civilized distinction, to both the Americans and the Lower Canadians. The act also ensured that people would be treated equal regardless of race, allowing the Black Loyalists who had settled along the Niagara river to receive title to their land. To dissuade ethnic tensions and shore up the border, those of African descent were all given lots in the Western District of the colony.

Realizing the defensive limitations of the settlement on the Niagara river, Simcoe proposed to move the capital to position located between Lakes Huron & Erie, at spot he named "London" on a river he renamed the "Thames" in anticipation.
The GG, however, balked at its remote and inaccessible location. Simcoe's second choice, Ft Rouiville in the Central District on Lake Ontario, was approved. Simcoe renamed the underdeveloped outpost "York".
Simcoe established the principles of racial tolerance within the framework of an explicitly aristocratic costitution; he also established legal order in the remote wilderness, and used idle labour to constructs forts and two new roads, one, called Yonge Street, from York due north to Lake Simcoe (and eventually reaching to Winnipeg), and another, Dundas street, heading due west from York to London. He was forced to return to Britain due to ill health in 1796, but his legacy had a lasting impact on Canadian society.

-Gzowski, Our Cultural Mosaic