Why America's North is Emptier Than Canada's South

It’s great to finally have a clip about geography

As European who never even thought about Montana, I can confidently say that this information will be very useful to me.

I lived in Montana for about 4 months, we drove from the east coast it was about 39 hours of driving and when we hit Montana at one point we drove for about 5 HOURS without seeing a single car and when night fell it felt like we where driving into a endless void because it was so pitch black. I was terrified of dear I kept falling asleep and jumping up. With all that said, Montana is by far THE most beautiful state I've ever been to, and we didn't even go to yellow stone or glacier. I was in constant awe of the grandeur and beauty of the vast mountains and endless fields.

Here in Winnipeg the closest major city to our south is Minneapolis which is a nearly 8 hour drive. It really feels like you're on an island of civilisation in the middle of an ocean of farmland out here. It always confused me why this is the case but now it makes a lot more sense.

I live in a city with a population of over 250,000 people in Japan. People often ask me how I feel about living in the “countryside.” I always pull out Google maps and ask them to pick any spot in the middle of the US and zoom in so I can show them what “countryside” actually means. It’s hard for them to imagine how empty that area is when they are just used to images from movies.

A year ago, I never thought I spend 30 mins glued to my screen learning about why Montana is empty...

Thanks for finally producing the only detailed video about this area of North America on YouTube. It's probably one of the most overlooked areas of North America by most people (outside of maybe the Canadian Maritimes of the Far North). You even went the extra mile and discussed the Aspen Parkland Region and Palliser's Triangle, which are largely unknown to most Americans. The 49th parallel being drawn to the south of this area and the fact that most Americans don't think much about it really made this question baffling to many. The Edmonton-Calgary corridor probably has to be the most populated region in North America that's not talked about much in geography circles. Due to the border, there isn't much cross-border contact in this area. From what I've seen, most social groups don't extend across the border like they do in other border regions. Cross-border contact only seems to be mostly between farmers and ranchers in this area (save for a little bit of industrial trade). Unlike in other border states, Hockey has only recently become a thing in Montana and its popularity isn't nearly as big as in Alberta or Saskatchewan. It's mainly only popular among younger generations. Montana has only ever produced 2 NHL Players. South Dakota has only produced 1. North Dakota has done well with 18, but 7 of them are from Grand Forks. All pale in comparison to the 500+ players that come from Alberta and Saskatchewan, each. When it comes to restaurants, there are no Tim Hortons locations in MT or SD and the locations in ND closed a few years ago. Like many other border regions, it seems like more Canadians head south to these states than vice versa. Also, you can't even get a direct flight from Alberta to Montana or from Saskatchewan/Manitoba to North Dakota.

As someone who lives on a island in the south pacific this information is useless to me but yet here i am

Albertan here - I cant believe how much I'm learning here. I've heard of things like Aspen-Parkland and Pallisers Triangle, but I'd never put together what it all means and how it impacts settlement, land use, and our economy. I did always wonder why Alberta supported two cities over a million while Montana had nothing. Thank you for this!

It’s quite shocking to discover that my whole life was basically summed up by this video: a migrant to Alberta, whose family are ethic Ukrainians settled in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, who moved to Edmonton Alberta for a job in the energy sector. And here I’ve always thought I was a special snowflake 😂

A couple of months ago I flew back and forth between Seattle and St. Louis. I had a window seat both ways and the sky was cloudless for 80% of the trips. I looked out the window almost the entire time. Once I left the two anchor cities, I literally did not see one town with more than a dozen or two houses in it. I was wondering how this could be the case in a country with 330,000,000 people in it. Now I know why.

I really appreciate watching this video as somebody from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Very few people are really aware of the unique geography we have here, and because it in large part lacks the flashy and romanticized terrain of BC and Alberta to our west, it is often disregarded as plain and boring to people. I also appreciate the depth you went into regarding where many of the inhabitants of this area came from. Like you touched on in the video, my ancestors fled here from Ukraine during the Bolshevik revolution essentially because of a genocide being committed against them. Unfortunately, as a result of that, as well as Canada's own cultural genocide against Indigenous people here (the prairies have some of the largest proportions of Indigenous people in Canada), there is a lot of generational trauma and subsequent mental health and addiction issues around here.

As an Albertan, I’ve always wondered why this is the case. Needless to say, I appreciate your coverage of the topic

As a Canadian living in the corridor we're taught that even with all the factors you mentioned, Alberta is still pretty empty. I had no idea the north midwestern states are even EMPTIER than that.

It's also fun to mention that since the Calgary-Edmonton corridor is so densely populated, interconnected and wealthy, there are serious considerations to build high-speed rail there. Imagine driving up from Montana and seeing that!

I'm a long time fan of your videos and I was so impressed and happy that you made a video about my home! I'm from Edmonton, Alberta and I can say that yes, it is a great place to live. Despite the colder months, we have nice and long days during the summer and some of the best festivals in the world. Thanks for making this great video!

It's also worth noting that the Canadian region in this video is dramatically growing in population too. Both in big cities and rural cities. Mostly through immigration.

I lived in North Dakota for 5 years and most of the time I lived there I just assumed that there was nothing but barren wasteland north of me because that was what I was surrounded by. I was quite surprised to notice that there were large cities north of me and always wondered what the cause of that was. This video definitely satisfied the curiosity I've carried for years.

As an Albertan it was heartwarming to hear someone say something positive about us for once. Thankee 😊

As a Canadian here, Alberta is continuing to grow so fast bc Vancouver and Toronto are so expensive to live in. People who move out of Alberta to live in BC or ON, end up moving back bc it's just not affordable sadly