Although not regulated by government, most religious worship in Canada continues to have an institutional affiliation with one or another national or international religious organization. Examples include the United Church of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada.

This long tradition among Christian denominations in Canada points up the fact that the strongly institutionalized character of Canada is not a recent development. The fur trade period (1600-1900) in Canada was dominated by the Hudson's Bay Company, a large corporation chartered by the British monarch and later by the British parliament. At one time, the Hudson's Bay Company controlled trade across more of the Earth's geography than any corporation in any century.

Earlier than the Hudson's Bay Company, a corporation called La Compagnie des Cent-Associés was given control of the then vast French empire in North America (called New France) by the French monarch, King Louis XIII. The company did not survive more than forty years, but it initiated the tradition of institutions in Canada. Like the Hudson's Bay Company after it, La Compagnie des Cent-Associés both conducted business and governed territory.