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I suspect what Northrop Frye said about his Canadian/USAmerican students being 90% the same, but that the 10% that differed was highly significant probably applies to Canadian/USAmerican approaches to composition as well. But I believe there has been some study of that 10%. My impression is that the belletristic "Literature and Composition" course was more prominent longer in Canada (and, in fact, was alive and well at UBC when I was there in the late-70s). Perhaps because industrializiation was more prominent earlier in the USA. The writings of Henry Hubert, Nan Johnson, and Roger Graves seem to me highly relevant to this question. Among them: Johnson, Nan. "Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the Canadian Academy: An Historical Analysis." College English 50.8 (December 1988): 861-73. Graves, Roger. Writing Instruction in Canadian Universities. Winnipeg: Inkshed, 1994. Hubert, Henry A. Harmonious Perfection: The Development of English Studies in Nineteenth Century Canadian Colleges. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State UP, 1994.