Arguments for Confederation Were Misleading

In reality, many of the arguments advanced for Confederation were exaggerated and even downright misleading. It was not necessary for the provinces to unite in order to build the Intercolonial railway, which was in any case a project of doubtful utility. Confederation had almost nothing to offer by way of improvement in local defence, and was equally irrelevant to--if not diversionary from--westward expansion. Arguments about interprovincial trade or appeals to an emerging British North American nationality were based on foundations too weak to provide credible historical explanations.

--Ged Martin, Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 1837-67 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1995), 5-6.