Canada's population only appears low if you're not looking at its geographical distribution. Toronto is as big as Chicago, and the population density in souther

Canada's population only appears low if you're not looking at its geographical distribution. Toronto is as big as Chicago, and the population density in southern Ontario is as high as any of the US eastern states, and mostly contiguous with them and part of the same shipping routes, etc. etc.. It's a population clustered near the border and really should be seen as one that is culturally and economically contiguous with the US, just not politically. In terms of metropolitan regions, much of Canada is really much the same as the US. On healthcare / public services, I will give you examples of where the US liberal biases about Canada just don't line up. At the tail end of the COVID-19 crisis, spring 2021 I went across to go skiing with a friend from Albany. I needed a test to get back across the border to get home. I was able to just go to a US pharmacy and get a molecular test for free, with almost instant results. I was told that if I tested positive I could get anti-virals, for free, immediately, without even showing citizenship. Meanwhile in Ontario all public testing for COVID-19 was cancelled before the end of 2020. My elderly parents in Alberta just tested positive but had to fight to get anti-virals because despite being 1 year shy of 80 they didn't qualify unless they had pronounced comorbidities. So... a country without a universal public health care system was able to offer much better universal coverage (where it mattered) than here. Another example: say you wanted a blood test for your kid to test blood lead levels. No doctor will offer that here, really. You'd have to really lobby for it and have a serious acute reason for it-- despite all the older cities here being full of lead pipes. I was down in the Finger Lakes a few years ago and there were signs for public clinics all over offering this as a free service. It is by no means a black and white situation. There are many aspects in which many liberal US states outdo Canadian provinces on certain social programs.