Australian bound convicts go to Canada

Suppose Australia was not available for settlement and the British convicts were all sent to Canada instead. What would be the effect on Canada as we know it?
 
I would also ask What would be the effect on Australia and New Zealand (if Australia is not available, what would happen with New Zealand?)
 
I would also ask What would be the effect on Australia and New Zealand (if Australia is not available, what would happen with New Zealand?)

That's impossible to answer without stating why Australia couldn't be used for penal colonies first...
 

Seldrin

Banned
It's possible that the convicts may have gone to a different area if the French weren't so powerful, because IIRC, the only reason a colony was established at that time was because the British didn't want the French to have a base in the pacific.
 
Suppose Australia was not available for settlement and the British convicts were all sent to Canada instead.

By 'not available' do you just mean that Cook didn't come back with a favourable view (or at all) or that Britain somehow lacks the ability to establish a colony so far away?
 
Seeing as how the shipping of convicts to the Americas was one of the pet peves of the American Rebels, do you think the British would really start dumping them in Canada right after the Revolution? Sounds kind of counter-productive....
 
Seeing as how the shipping of convicts to the Americas was one of the pet peves of the American Rebels, do you think the British would really start dumping them in Canada right after the Revolution? Sounds kind of counter-productive....
Well yes, but what are they going to do about it? They can't afford to fight a war, they could barely afford it in 1812 when Britain was into it with L'Emperur and New England still wouldn't be on board.

I guess Steve Irwin becomes known as the Moose Hunter.
 

mowque

Banned
Well yes, but what are they going to do about it? They can't afford to fight a war, they could barely afford it in 1812 when Britain was into it with L'Emperur and New England still wouldn't be on board.

I guess Steve Irwin becomes known as the Moose Hunter.

I think he is talking about Canada, not the USA.
 
Dutch or French gain Australia? After all, the first of the British settlements was a penal colony. If the British have no interests on the Continent, maybe someone else would gain it. Dutch more likely than French.
 
By 'not available' do you just mean that Cook didn't come back with a favourable view (or at all) or that Britain somehow lacks the ability to establish a colony so far away?
Basically Britain does not acquire the antipodals. For example if some other power claimed the region.
 
Suppose Australia was not available for settlement and the British convicts were all sent to Canada instead. What would be the effect on Canada as we know it?
shipping people halfway around the world has to have been VERY expensive. I could certainly see someone saying 'duh, we have BNA right here, let's ship them there'.

They could even use the convicts to populate chunks of Upper Canada that weren't very welcoming...

Which is worse punishment, Oz with its beaches and balmy weather, or e.g. a -40 Ottawa winter? :)
 
shipping people halfway around the world has to have been VERY expensive. I could certainly see someone saying 'duh, we have BNA right here, let's ship them there'.

They could even use the convicts to populate chunks of Upper Canada that weren't very welcoming...

Which is worse punishment, Oz with its beaches and balmy weather, or e.g. a -40 Ottawa winter? :)

You mean Canada with it's rediculously long border with the US or the Desert Island of Australia with more poisonous creatures than non poisonous ones? Australia makes a more natural prison, with it's poinson jelyfish, crocodile, poisonous snake, and shark infested waters all around.
 
You mean Canada with it's rediculously long border with the US or the Desert Island of Australia with more poisonous creatures than non poisonous ones? Australia makes a more natural prison, with it's poinson jelyfish, crocodile, poisonous snake, and shark infested waters all around.
Well, personally, I suspect that -40 weather might be more of ACTUAL hazard than poisonous critters that aren't THAT common. For the first year. By year 2 or so, they learn how to deal with the weather, while the snakes aren't going away. So, ja.

I will certainly admit that Canada would be a very leaky prison.

Mind you, think of the TWISTED halfbreed/Metis culture you'd end up with...
 
Shipping convicts to Quebec would eventually dilute the general, well, Frenchiness of the area, and so might be considered. I imaginine the Quebecois wouldn't be too happy with such a plan. Given the potential for rebellion innate to Quebec, it seems rather unlikely.

Newfoundland? It would at least be easier to prevent escapes.

Overall effects? Canadians wouldn't be too happy and by the early- to mid-19th century transportation would likely be halted in the face of their protests. Possibly convicts who had served their time, and their descendants, might well suffer from a greater social stigma amidst the other Canadians then would the Australian convicts, who had fewer free settlers to compare themselves to.

Doesn't LTTW have a major penal colony on the Great Lakes around 1800?
 
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