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The overlay of Canada on Europe is always a fun one. We moan so much here (perhaps rightfully so) about lack of public transit and reasonable infrastructure to

The overlay of Canada on Europe is always a fun one. We moan so much here (perhaps rightfully so) about lack of public transit and reasonable infrastructure to get around, but we're also comparing a population of (just recently hit!) 40,000 and ~700,000. Orders of magnitude larger, but roughly same land area. This is why I am hugely in support of increased immigration into Canada, housing crisis aside (it'll resolve over time)

mhb 3y ago
> This is why I am hugely in support of increased immigration into Canada I suspect the US has a few states that are willing to help.
NoRelToEmber 3y ago
> Orders of magnitude larger, but roughly same land area. You should compare the populated area, not the entire landmass. That there exist vast unpopulated frozen tundras nominally within Canadian borders does not hinder public transport any more than Siberia hindered building the Moscow metro.
- fknorangesite 3y ago
  Seriously. Half the population is in southern Ontario. There's no reason we can't have a serious high speed rail line Toronto<->Quebec City that would serve - without exaggeration - most Canadians. I forget where I read this phrase first, but: every flight in this corridor is a policy failure.
jtakkala 3y ago
The size of Canada really isn’t a valid excuse for Canada’s poor public transit, nor is Canada’s population. Notjustbikes posted a good video rebutting this argument a few days ago: https://youtu.be/REni8Oi1QJQ https://youtu.be/REni8Oi1QJQ
MalcolmDwyer 3y ago
90% of Canadians live in a "small" strip of land that is comparable in size to Europe. That area (along with several regions and city pairs in the US) could have excellent inter-city and intra-city transit. But we just don't. Canada and the US are lacking in good public transit because as a society we've made the choice to build for cars and not build for people. Almost everything about our built environment is optimized for cars and the result is sprawl. The cause is our public policies, building regulations, and zoning. It has nothing to do with the size of the country, because people don't try to commute across the country, just like people who live in Paris generally don't commute to Berlin every day. The vast majority of travel is local and occasionally regional.
randomdata 3y ago
> We moan so much here (perhaps rightfully so) about lack of public transit and reasonable infrastructure to get around Funny thing is that Canada used to have that public transit infrastructure, from big cities even into tiny little towns. The country was built on it! We eventually ripped it up because it turns out people liked driving cars more. And I posit that they still do. If the will was there, it could be rebuilt, but it turns out moaning is a lot easier.
tick_tock_tick 3y ago
> housing crisis aside (it'll resolve over time) And fuck all the suffering along the way? Honestly Canada needs to address that before it can even begin to start thinking about more immigration. Canada is not even vaguely equipped to handle more people as it stands now.
- luxurytent 3y ago
  Never said that there is no suffering along the way. It is terrible and we've made mistakes, but there's only so much scope I can fit into a comment!
lm28469 3y ago
Look at this map, it tells another story: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjeXxfbXkAg30EZ.png https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjeXxfbXkAg30EZ.png
dredmorbius 3y ago
NB: Canada is 40 millions, not thousands. Likewise Europe (variously defined) is 700 million.

mhb 3y ago

> This is why I am hugely in support of increased immigration into Canada I suspect the US has a few states that are willing to help.

NoRelToEmber 3y ago

> Orders of magnitude larger, but roughly same land area. You should compare the populated area, not the entire landmass. That there exist vast unpopulated frozen tundras nominally within Canadian borders does not hinder public transport any more than Siberia hindered building the Moscow metro.

fknorangesite 3y ago
Seriously. Half the population is in southern Ontario. There's no reason we can't have a serious high speed rail line Toronto<->Quebec City that would serve - without exaggeration - most Canadians. I forget where I read this phrase first, but: every flight in this corridor is a policy failure.

jtakkala 3y ago

The size of Canada really isn’t a valid excuse for Canada’s poor public transit, nor is Canada’s population. Notjustbikes posted a good video rebutting this argument a few days ago: https://youtu.be/REni8Oi1QJQ https://youtu.be/REni8Oi1QJQ

MalcolmDwyer 3y ago

90% of Canadians live in a "small" strip of land that is comparable in size to Europe. That area (along with several regions and city pairs in the US) could have excellent inter-city and intra-city transit. But we just don't. Canada and the US are lacking in good public transit because as a society we've made the choice to build for cars and not build for people. Almost everything about our built environment is optimized for cars and the result is sprawl. The cause is our public policies, building regulations, and zoning. It has nothing to do with the size of the country, because people don't try to commute across the country, just like people who live in Paris generally don't commute to Berlin every day. The vast majority of travel is local and occasionally regional.

randomdata 3y ago

> We moan so much here (perhaps rightfully so) about lack of public transit and reasonable infrastructure to get around Funny thing is that Canada used to have that public transit infrastructure, from big cities even into tiny little towns. The country was built on it! We eventually ripped it up because it turns out people liked driving cars more. And I posit that they still do. If the will was there, it could be rebuilt, but it turns out moaning is a lot easier.

tick_tock_tick 3y ago

> housing crisis aside (it'll resolve over time) And fuck all the suffering along the way? Honestly Canada needs to address that before it can even begin to start thinking about more immigration. Canada is not even vaguely equipped to handle more people as it stands now.

luxurytent 3y ago
Never said that there is no suffering along the way. It is terrible and we've made mistakes, but there's only so much scope I can fit into a comment!

lm28469 3y ago

Look at this map, it tells another story: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjeXxfbXkAg30EZ.png https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjeXxfbXkAg30EZ.png

dredmorbius 3y ago

NB: Canada is 40 millions, not thousands. Likewise Europe (variously defined) is 700 million.