So, why does a country the physical size of Canada have only 33 million people? Climate?
Immigration policy? Other?
Immigration policy? Other?
Canada's population
- Thread starter mantlemaris
- Start date
How about for starters that about 2/3 of the land area is considered by most to be uninhabitable due to climate alone?
maybe it has to do with beer and women. Either not enough women or not enough beer or too many women and too many beer?
What kind of population do you think Canada should have? Similar to USA? Forget it.
The reason Canada has such a low population is immigration policies and history. People were immigrating to USA en masse, they really didn’t think of Canada. Canada was much colder than USA, it was easier to go to USA. Besides, USA encouraged immigration, Canada didn’t.
Until say 25 or 30 years ago, Canada did not recognize most of the qualifications from the third world countries, immigrants coming here had to have qualifications from USA or from European countries (the immigration policy was clearly discriminatory, it ended perhaps 25 or 30 years ago).
Historically, Canada has discouraged immigration. As to cold climate, I don’t think that argument holds water. Sure, a lot of Canada is considered too cold. However, Canada is a vast country. The 1/3rd of Canada that is considered temperate still is much bigger than most of the countries in the world and could easily support a much bigger population. Indeed, the tiny province of Newfoundland alone is three times the size of England.
I think mainly it was the immigration policy.
As to how big Canada really is, I remember reading an amusing anecdote a while ago.
In the 19th century, a young man from England immigrated to Canada. His parents knew a family in Victoria, BC. They wrote to that family saying
“Our son is coming to Canada. He is landing at some place called Halifax. Please meet him there.”
Back came the reply:
“Meet him yourself. You are closer to him than we are."
In the 19th century, a young man from England immigrated to Canada. His parents knew a family in Victoria, BC. They wrote to that family saying
“Our son is coming to Canada. He is landing at some place called Halifax. Please meet him there.”
Back came the reply:
“Meet him yourself. You are closer to him than we are."
what are you talking about china? I assume you mean birth control pills, if anything Canada has had the most natural increase in populatiion of all western nations lately.....
Actually Canada has almost always encouraged immigration, and has often gone begging for people.
As soon as the CPR was completed in 1886, the Macdonald government actively sought UK immigrants to settle the prairies. This was not successful largely due the world recession at that time, the short growing season and cyclical drought conditions.
Under Clifton Sifton of the Laurier ministry the emphasis shifted to central and eastern europe. With the end of the recession and drought and the introduction of the faster growing marquis strain of wheat, the boom times of 1901-1911 saw the population jump from 5 to 8 million.
There was very little immigration from 1914-1945, due to the wars, the depresssion and the government's heavy debt load from the first war and railway building/acquisition. The prairies were settled, immigrants were seen as a burden in the cities, and few people wanted to come here anyway.
In the 1950s the floodgates opened, at least to europeans. Under Diefenbaker the legialation was changed to allow non-europeans from commonwealth countries, and under Pearson and Trudeau it was changed to a points system regardless of antional origin, with allowance for refugees. Since 1961 (2 generations) the population has almost doubled from 18 to 34 million. For the past 20 years growth has been almost completely due to immigration.
How many people could the country support? Who knows? Arable and therefore settleable (?) land extends only a few hundred miles from the US border, and much of it is marginal. The cities could support more I suppose, but this would require a shift in our economy from its agricultural and resourse extraction base.