I had no knowledge about the subject, either, until last fall. When I started looking into all of it, I realized that the reason we do not have the same types of things going on is because the founding fathers realized that they must put checks and balances into the government. Canada does not seem to have the same thing. Also, we have a Bill of Rights. These to things were intended to protect people from governmental abuse.
Canada appears to be a "soft dictatorship", in functionality, due to a lack of checks and balances. But, you add to this, special interests even in the US that can buy off their politicians. Then, it all gets worse.
Many people in Western Canada are saying that they want the same kind of rights that we have.
So, why is there a Canada? Why didn't the American Revolution fix all of this? Tragically, the founding fathers tried to get Canada on board. When the Continental Congress sent letters to the north inviting Nova Scotia our sister colony to join, one district actually signed up. But, they were under the thumb of the British. And, the letters that were printed in French and in English were never carried about and read, primarily because they had an extremely low literacy rate, with less than one in five hundred people being able to read. This must have been devastating to the Continental Congress, because they were trying to rally all British colonies this side of the Atlantic into a single confederation of states. They were even trying to rally Bermuda, and British colonies in the Caribbean.
The whole system of making money off of people on the land seems to have been inherited by eastern Canada from England. Thus, the people in Western Canada have been complaining about their lot, for close to a century. But, it has become worse in more recent years, especially since Alberta is made to pay socialism payments called "equalization" to prop up other provinces. Alberta has already paid $633 billion dollars to prop up other provinces that cannot make it on their own - at least on paper. Thus, people now want out.
Anyway, back to the original thirteen colonies. The thirteen colonies signed on to the Articles of Confederation. But, the fourteenth colony Novia Scotia did not sign on. As a result, the founding fathers put an article into the Articles of Confederation giving Canada the right to join the union and enjoy all such benefits of the union. It is Article 11:
"Article XI. Canada acceding to this confederation, and adjoining in the measures of the united States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States."