Influences: Sir David Allen RIP
Similar To: Dave Allen for a new improved God ----- God bless atheism!!!!

The Fenians were a serious threat to Canada, being veterans of the Union Army they were well armed. They made three attacks in 1866: one on Campobello Island in New Brunswick in April, and the others in the Niagara and the St Lawrence Valley regions in July. The Campobello and St. Lawrence valley attacks failed. The Fenians won the Battle of Ridgeway when troops, mostly University of Toronto students and young men from Hamilton, were led into a bungled attack and a sloppy retreat, but the Fenians quickly withdrew, fearing a British counter-attack. In New Brunswick, their failure was due to the presence of a strong force of British regulars and the confiscation of Fenian weapons by the American navy. Two later attacks along the Quebec-Vermont frontier in 1870 and Manitoba in 1871 proved similarly fruitless.

Despite these failures, the raids had some impact on Canadian politicians who were then locked in negotiations leading up to the Confederation agreement of 1867. The raids reinforced a sense of military vulnerability, especially because the British were known to be seriously considering the downsizing of their garrison, if not its outright withdrawal. The Confederation debates were to some degree held in an atmosphere of military crisis, and the greater military security that would be gained through the pooling of colonial resources was one of the factors that weighed heavily in Confederation's favour.