Methodist Church of Canada

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The Methodist Church of Canada was a united church formed in 1880 and comprising most former Methodist denominations in Canada. It soon responded to overtures for further denominational union from the recently also united and somewhat larger Presbyterian Church in Canada, formed in 1875. These discussions in due course led to the formation in 1925 of the United Church of Canada, which was and is the largest Protestant denomination in Canada. The Methodist Church with its notable benefactors the Eaton and Massey families was the sponsor of Victoria College at the University of Toronto, once and still a mainstay of intellectual rigour at that university and the alma mater of many of Canada's leaders and most famous thinkers.

Although Methodism in Canada has abandoned that label — many United Church people in Canada are entirely unaware of the term — the foremost Canadian Methodist, Egerton Ryerson, is amply commemorated and widely known through the many Canadian institutions which bear his name, including Ryerson University, the former Ryerson Press (the United Church publishing house, ultimately sold to McGraw-Hill) and numerous Ryerson United Churches across the country.