It is believed that The Bold Canadian was written by a private from the Third York Militia's First Flank Company named Cornelius Flummerfelt, who wrote the lines while marching in the Detroit campaign, or on the way back to York. The song was used to further increase the numbers of Canadian militia to fight during the war. Although unpublished, the song remained popular in Canada throughout the nineteenth century, while a comparable American song, The Hunters of Kentucky, lost its popularity by the end of the Jacksonian Era.