As the story goes, on this day in 1868, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, later to become one of Canada's most beloved Prime Ministers, survived an assassination attempt at the hands of Patrick Whelan, a radical Irish Republican(who later spent 10 years in prison for attempted murder before being deported to the U.S.). But what if he hadn't? Would Catholic Canadian support for Irish independence have waned, or even largely cease? And would Canada's New Republican movement of the 1890s have been butterflied, thanks to this(do remember that, later in his life, former P.M. McGee had come around to supporting making the Crown obsolete in Canada)?
And how would this affect Canada's relations with the U.S.? Would we still be friendly, by and large, or might tensions develop, perhaps over Fenianism in the States, should it continue?