Seems to me I was taught it was a win versus the British because the British didn’t beat us senseless and we established our navy with Canada being stretch that didn’t work out. But I’ve never heard it as a glorious win especially as win or loss to Canada which did not exist as Canada.
But we won by losing. Imagine adding those cities to our own.
I think I read that it was an odd victory, as our forces (I don’t remember which) were surrounded when the war was called off.
Many historians say nothing much changed after the War of 1812 but many things did change.
After the Revolutionary War, Loyalists from New York and New England moved up to around Cornwall and Toronto, Ontario and many settled in islands in the St. Lawrence River. After the 1812 War many of those islands went from Canada to the U.S. and vice versa. Loyalists on the islands went to bed one night thinking they were subjects of the Queen and awakened the next morning to find out they were Back in the USA