Was Confederation A Good Thing?

When the four initial colonies of Canada, being: Ontario,Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick confederation in 1867 ; there was still much debate for the remaining colonies on whether to join. There is definitely an argument for both sides, but in my opinion --- I believe confederation was a good thing. One advantage of confederation was that when the colonies were united as a country, we would be able to fend off attacks from the South. Also it would act as a symbol to intimidate the Americans into submission and prevent manifest destiny. Another would be that with confederation the provinces would have to pitch in to build a intercolonial railway; this in turn would increase trade and would connect the country. It would also eliminate the
Lastly, before confederation; there were high tariffs in place between the colonies--- if they were to confederate, these taxes would no longer exist. This would indefinitely boost trade and business; also businesses from parts like PEI would have access to the ice free ports of Halifax. Now even though I, a student from modern times, think that confederation is great; people from those times did have reasonable uncertainties about confederation. One of many was that because of confederation; Britain would no longer be responsible for defending Canada with its navy and thus Canada would be exposed to American Invasion. It was a viable threat; but with confederation Canada would definitely be better able to defend itself [see advantage 1]. Another major disadvantage was that if Canada was to unite, it increase the growing concern of French-Canadians that their culture and language was at risk. Their fear was indeed valid; for after confederation, the French faced discrimination and were unrepresented in