This chapter examines how architectural forms were used to address the question of Canadian identity during the nineteenth century. At every stage, architecture participated in the process of nation building by proposing cultural references, by adapting European and American models, and by elaborating critical responses to existing situations, quite varied from east to west. The chapter is divided into three historical periods, corresponding to the political development of the country: first the “colonial” times and the separation between Upper Canada and Lower Canada; then the “Union era” inaugurated by the Act of Union of 1841; and, finally, the beginnings of the nation‐state “Canada,” grounded in the British North America Act of 1867. In each of these periods, architectural forms can be interpreted as “identity” projects, emphasizing cultural affiliations, regional traits, or hypothetical common denominators. In this manner, the chapter demonstrates that a focus on the question of identity, and on the tensions it implies, promotes a clearer understanding of the specificity and the originality of architectural forms appropriated by architects in Canada. Moreover, it reveals how the identity paradox became a defining problem of nineteenth‐century architecture in Canada.