"According to his fancy"

In his 1829 publication, Three Years in Canada: An Account of the Actual State of the Country in 1826-7-8, John MacTaggart dedicates a whopping three (of his 347) pages to informing his readers on the domestic architectural landscape in the colony. He begins his description by warning the reader that “the orders of architecture baffle all description: everyone builds his cottage or house according to his fancy….” (308) MacTaggart is clearly not a fan of the vernacular. That’s OK, neither was Vitruvius.

It is to MacTaggart’s credit that he is able to discern between these various fancies; how else would he be able to tell if he were walking up to the plain dwelling of an honest English farmer or the showy, yet charmless abode of a former American with at least one loose daughter? (309)

Here are the six most popular types of homes (and their corresponding occupants) as described by MacTaggart. An initial on-line search of extant period homes revealed a number of close matches to his brief descriptions. My search also revealed that MacTaggart might have some seriously crippling author-bias. 

The house of an "honest English farmer" (308-309)

The house of a “wealthy Lowland Scotchman” (309)

The house of a United Empire Loyalist from the United States (American) (309-310)

The house of a “wild pushing Highland-man” (310)

The house of a French Canadian (310-311)

The homes of the Dutch (311)

Sources
John MacTaggart's 1829, Three Years in Canada: An Account of the Actual State of the Country in 1826-7-8
Many older buildings reside in relative safety within historic "villages": Westfield Heritage Village, Upper Canada Village, and Black Creek Pioneer Village.

Further Reading
John Mac Taggart (b.1791, d. 1830) was a Scottish engineer and author; you can learn more about him (and his prejudices) online at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
Do some house hunting of your own: Ontario Architecture, Ontario Heritage Properties Database,