Go North, Young Man: The Great Canada
- Thread starter TheMann
- Start date
- Status
OOC: I'm debating what to call the city on other side of the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. IOTL it's called Vancouver, Washington, but as here the Columbia is the border it makes no sense to have two Vancouvers in the same province. My first thought was to refer to it as Columbia (there isn't a Columbia in Canada), but I'm not sure of any other good names for it. Ideas?
Part 31 - The New West, Human Health, Space Minerals, the City of the First Nations and 100 Million Canadians
Part 31 - The New West, Human Health, Space Minerals, the City of the First Nations and 100 Million Canadians
If anything defined the world in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic it was that people sought more than perhaps ever before to live life for both the future and the moment. As the four-day workweek spread across the world starting in the 2020s, it was matched by enormous economic productivity increases in many nations, particularly as flexible schedules and working from home made it easier than ever before people to be comfortable when working and were able to do so at the times that best suited them. This was matched by the growth in the use of artificial intelligence and the slow reduction in many more menial jobs such as cashier positions. Despite fears of massive job losses in many fields, by 2030 it was clear that that wasn't going to happen as while self-service computers and artificial intelligence improved efficiency and reduced the number of people in such low-skilled jobs, the growth in small businesses, custom products and the growth in new fields that hadn't existed even in recent times sucked up all of the jobs lost and many more besides. Custom-made and tailored clothing, a growing business long before the pandemic, swelled rapidly afterwards and was helped by the development of body-scanning technology that could read through clothing (thus saving the potentially-problematic issue of one being naked before being scanned to get true body dimensions) and were accurate to the millimeter. Such technology soon swelled before custom clothing to also being used in the jewelry and accessories and shoes industries, making such made-to-measure products much more affordable and having a much better fit.
The mRNA vaccine technology developed in the 2000s and put to such remarkable use during the pandemic proved a boon to fights against numerous viruses, as the development of mRNA designs made it so that the development of such vaccines was soon followed by the development of DNA vaccines, which were becoming a reality by the end of the 2020s, and the massive growth in vaccine production ability resulting from the fight against COVID resulted in the desires to develop vaccines for other purposes, leading to the development first of vaccines meant to fight back against the diseases seen as those most easily eradicated, such as diptheria and poliomyelitis and then moving on to more difficult ones, including the HIV virus, which saw Moderna begin trials of a vaccine for in February 2028. Other developments of mRNA vaccines were aimed at various forms of cancer, particularly hard-to-cure ones related to viral causes related to herpesvirus types and hepatitis, by attacking the viruses that caused the growth in the cancers and diseases related to them. Poliomyelitis, Rubella, Diptheria, Cysticerosis and Guinea worm disease were wiped from the Earth in the 2020s and 2030s, and ever-improving developments in the fields of public health (rapidly accelerated by the COVID pandemic) began to bring about the possibility of eradicating diseases such as Lymphatic Filarisis, Measles and Malaria in the 21st Century.
The public health improvements were matched by diet improvements in much of the world, though this took different forms depends on where in the world it was - Japanese diet improvements, for example, focused on the reduction of sodium in diets, while in much of the West (particularly North America and Australia) much of the focus was on the reduction of saturated fats and sugars, particularly sugar replacements such as high-fructose corn syrup. Changes in packaging and better efficiency in transport and storage made for a steady reduction in the use of preservatives in foods, particularly potentially-dangerous ones like sodium benzoate. In a great many cases efforts by governments were unneccessary, as consumers both demanded healthier food choices and began to punish products and companies that engaged in misleading or simply false information. Vaccine hesitancy was all but eradicated in much of the developed world and a lot of the developing world as a result of COVID, and between this, the better diets, reduced consumption of products such as alcohol, tobacco and many forms of harder drugs and improving ways of fighting back against illnesses, the entire world's life expectancies rose considerably during the 2020s and 2030s. By 2040, many countries were willing to say that people living to a hundred years of age would be a very regular thing in the not-too-distant future, and the improving medical treatments also had the benefit of reducing the costs involved in treating many illnesses and medical problems - a major bonus to nations with publicly-funded health care systems, which covered over half of the world's population by the 2030s.
It also was helpful to life expectancy, in a way, that the world's satellite systems were improved dramatically as well. Russia's GLONASS system, restored to full operation in 2016 - then-President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev commented that the success of GLONASS's restoration was "The greatest gift to all of mankind that Russia could give them today", a comment that may have been a touch hyperbolic but wasn't entirely inaccurate - included the ability to work with Europe's Galileo satellite constellation to allow for highly-accurate search and rescue systems, a feature that the Americans quickly also worked into their own GPS satellites. The success of these developments allowed carriers of locator devices able to work with the satellite systems - and by the mid-2020s, just about every smartphone could do this - to be able to give their locations to would-be rescuers to within 50 metres, a huge benefit for search and rescue teams in large or sparsely populated countries where help would otherwise be difficult to find. The GPS-Galileo-GLONASS co-operation also improved the accuracy of commercial navigation systems to within centimetres, another vast benefit for those who used such systems.
Satellite improvements were also driven along by the Skylon, which had spawned rivals by the mid-2020s. While the Skylon hadn't always been taken seriously by other aerospace giants, it's rousing success and the subsequent ability to allow numerous Commonwealth and Commonwealth-allied nations to become space-faring nations had been noticed by all, and so a race to create its first rival was a drag-out fight between a American-Japanese consortium (made up of Boeing, Pratt and Whitney, Mitsubishi McDonnell Douglas, Hitachi, United Technologies, Bigelow Aerospace and Rockwell Collins) and a European group (led by Airbus and supported by Thales, Antonov, Ariane Group, Daimler-Benz, Safran and JSC Mikron), both sides aiming to make a rather-larger aircraft than the twin-engined Skylon and both using many similar design moves, including the use of blended wing body designs with integrated engines, with the European design using four engines instead of two like the Skylon and its American rival. The American-Japanese consortium's creation, the STSC-01 "Enterprise" spacecraft, flew first (beating the Europeans by three months) in May 2022, but problems with avionics and control systems meant that the European entry, the Airbus S110 Falcon X, undertook its first operational flight first, lifting it's first satellites into space in March 2024. By the time both were operating, however, the Skylon consortium in the Commonwealth was hard at work on the second generation of the Skylon, and were planning on far more audacious moves than that. Skylon made it possible to recover and re-use satellites, and the Commonwealth was more than willing to use this, aiming to reduce the growing problem of space junk making it increasingly difficult to launch spacecraft.
The 2020s saw the world's space agencies and a growing number of private and public corporations begind developing space plans of considerable size, with the idea of mining asteroids for precious metals and rare earths being one of the focuses of the corporate interests and the public agencies planning to being the task of sending humans to Mars. In both cases, the groundbreaking ion thruster work done in both the Commonwealth and the United States made it possible to replace chemical rockets for use in space, though their power is nothing like big enough to get off of the planet. Several major companies planned to harvest water to allow small asteroids to be used as refueling stations for hydrogen/oxygen spacecraft (which all of the SSTO spacecraft were) and one of the largest such firms, Planetary Resources, developed a plan to mine from a particular asteroid, 35396 XF11, after a research mission to it discovered that underneath a skin mostly made up of nickel-iron, underneath the shell the asteroid included massive amounts of platinum-group metals, gold and a number of rare earths, including neodymium and yttrium (which both have many commercial applications). Planetary Resources' plan was to capture the asteroid as it made a pass close to Earth in 2028, where it would pass within 930,000 km of Earth, with the objective of using ion thrusters to adjust its orbit to be kept outside of Earth's orbit. The use of Skylon, Enterprise and Falcon X spacecraft made the plan much more feasible, but the company was unable to get everything ready by then, but as the asteroid went around the Earth every 633 days, the company kept at it and in 2031 was able to land equipment on its surface to recover minerals by punching through the asteroid's skin and then mining out a sizable quantity of ore, which was then returned to Earth, the satellite recovered by a ESA Falcon X on March 22, 2032, and returned to Earth - bringing home some 2600 kg of neodymium, platinium, palladium and yttrium, a return worth $860 million. Within the month a second spacecraft had been delivered to GTO by a JAXA Enterprise, and the company was underway.
Perhaps more than the return of the minerals, the very sight of two and a half metric tons of minerals returned from space ended the feelings that such mining was impossible. The capital cost was gargantuan, but it was abundantly clear now that such mining was indeed possible and quite possibly profitable, and within two decades, Planetary Resources and its rivals - fellow Americans Deep Space Industries, the Canadian Aurora Minerals Corporation and Rushika Interstellar companies and the European Space Minerals corporation, as well as Anglo American and Mitsubishi McDonnell Douglas - were chasing the dream themselves, and doing remarkably well at it. Their plans included plans to push the celestial bodies away from Earth orbits if need be - most nations' laws required this - but the discovery of asteroids with minerals grew the world's supply of platinum-group metals, rare earths, gold and others considerably, providing a whole new source of materials for many industries on Earth.
Canada reached a milestone when they cleared the 100 million population benchmark, with the "official" 100 millionth Canadian being a young girl, Kali Lougan-Brousseau, who was born the second daughter of proud parents Alexandre Brousseau and Valerie Lougan at the Honoré Mercier Hospital in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, on June 26, 2032[1]. This milestone's reach showed how fast Canada's population was growing however, as that number had grown by some 16 million in just 15 years, but it wasn't as if there had been much issue with it - the economic and employment growth had far outstripped that, with the pandemic ultimately becoming a blip in Canada's economic growth. (A sizable blip, but little more than that in the greater scheme of things.) It also showed that, unlike for much of the second half of the 20th Century and parts of the early 21st where Canada's population and economic growth had been focused on its largest cities, now the population of smaller centres was rapidly growing, showing the benefits of Canada's warming climate and northward drift.
One of the most famous effects of this had been the growth in Arctic shipping out of Churchill, Manitoba, and the resusitation of the the idea of Port Nelson as a community. The former problem of the silt buildup of the Nelson River had been largely reduced through the Nelson River hydroelectric projects in the 1970s, and in 2002 the province of Manitoba had been convinced by multiple First Nations tribes of Manitoba to see if it was possible to revive the ghost town as an economic center for the local Cree, noting that the railroad right of way planned out in the early 20th Century was still feasible. By the end of the decade the economic nationalism of the local tribes was fully on display and speculators began to make their way back to the town to plan its revival. The massive bridge to the island for Port Nelson's wharves was unusable (nearly a century of no maintenance made this unsurprising) but the island and its piers were salvageable, the terrain in the area good and with the right-of-way between CN's Hudson Bay Division at Amery and Port Nelson entirely intact, a road along the Nelson River built in the mid-2000s was rapidly followed by the railway. The idea of the "City of the First Nations" became a powerful one, and by 2015 some 2700 people lived there, and the massive Port Nelson Island project, financed initially by the First Nations themselves and the Province of Manitoba but soon fully supported by Ottawa, created both the new city and built a roadway from Amery to Churchill mostly within sight of the railroad, even as CN dramatically expanded the railroad in the 2010s and 2020s, expecting the goods traffic headed to and iron ore out of Nunavut and grain to Churchill to combine with new markets and ever-better ice conditions on Hudson Bay to exceed what the railway could handle. Churchill and Port Nelson both rapidly grew into export ports in the 2020s, both taking advantage of climate change causing a considerable lengthening of the shipping season in Hudson Bay. By 2023 the Port Nelson Terminal was complete and the following year the first grain shipments departed from Port Nelson, destined for Northern Europe. The growth of Murmansk as a port in Russia helped grow the traffic at the Port of Churchill and ultimately the Port Nelson Terminal, and eventually even container traffic from some parts of Europe bound for Canada's Western Provinces began to go to Murmansk, Narvik and Baltic Sea ports and shipped to Canada's Hudson Bay gateways, loaded onto trains there. By 2030 year-round roads linked the two cities with the outside world, and these roads were steadily improved to serve growing economic needs and populations. CN electrified the Hudson Bay railroads in the 2010s as Churchill and Port Nelson, and by the same time as the good roads were complete so were the railroads and the port facilities, and the development of the "Arctic Bridge" led to the permanent stationing of icebreakers at Port Nelson and Churchill. By 2040, nearly 70,000 people lived in the region (34,220 in Churchill, 27,175 in Port Nelson, the rest in areas around it) and the region had become a hub of development for Western First Nations, with the massive ports and hydroelectric plants and railroads being joined by a large number of artists and designers, furniture manufacturers and specialist food makers focusing on First Nations culture and cuisine.
The shifting sands of the world in the early 21st Century and the relatively high costs of living combined with the continued efforts to expand Canada's population movement saw many newcomers and native-born Canadians alike moving west through the first half of the 21st Century, dramatically expanding the populations particularly of Manitoba and Saskatchewan as well as continuing the growth of Alberta and filling in many communities in the interior of British Columbia and further south along through the Chehalis Valley towards the Columbia River. This had a dramatic effect on the populations of numerous Saskatchewan communities (particularly the cities of Saskatoon, Regina, Lloydminster and Moose Jaw, but also several smaller ones such as Davidson, Prince Albert and North Battleford) and on many places in southern Manitoba as well as the already-big city of Winnipeg, in addition to the cities of Tacoma, Olympia and Chehalis south of the Salisha Sea and the interior cities of Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George, Penticton, Revelstoke, Prince Rupert and Terrace-Kitimat in the interior of BC. This new population both adapted to the local culture and changed it in various ways, bringing new economic life to many of these areas while at the same time also bringing changes in many ways, adapting to the bitter cold of Western Provinces while at the same time as bring many summer sports and past times. The Western provinces continued to provide more professional hockey players and curlers per capita than any other place in the world, but among the newcomers rugby was a big deal (and meshed well with the football traditions as well) and the newcomers also brought new food and event traditions that met with the locals well - the "block parties" that had been a staple of many neighborhoods in Ontario for decades made their way to the Prairies in force, for example.
Many of these new cultural additions and their combination with the long-established cultures of the province created something of a different experience for both long-time residents and newcomers alike, creating the style of living that Winnipeg Free Press arts and culture writer Ken Forrester referred to as "The Culture of the New West" in an article in 2021. In the aftermath of the pandemic and the growth of the "Work Anywhere" culture, this shift only grew, swelling these cities further as smaller and medium-sized organizations moved out to the Prairie provinces. The dramatic growth of the aerospace industry in Winnipeg added to this, as aluminum mills and refining facilities to make aerospace alloys came to support the industry, followed by carbonfiber production facilities for the same reason and high-quality machinists and makers of carbonfiber products not far behind that. In Saskatchewan, the development of cellulosic ethanol as a motor fuel, and using what would be waste products in the existing agricultural industries of the province, became a major industry, particularly as the resulting ethanol was of extremely high quality and was useful for internal combustion engines and gas turbines, and the development of a solid oxide fuel cell system by the Alliance Automakers (Renault, American Motors and Nissan), Westland-Reynard and SaskPower made it possible to use ethanol as fuel in a fuel cell car, the companies believing that it was cheaper and safer to do fuel cell vehicles in that way. The improvements in technology that followed so many of the new arrivals helped too, and quickly the provinces' infrastructure projects, from the fuel cell project to the Northern Highway and the "Electric Highway" along Saskatchewan Highways 11 and 16 from Regina to Lloydminster via Saskatoon, showed this looking forward. Across the windy plains of the West wind turbines began to appear to take advantage, while the development of geothermal energy began in the Northwest Territories in the 2010s as the population of the region swelled.
South of the border, climate change and the steady filling of the endoheric basins of the American West had opened up vast new opportunities and resulted in the United States having a sizable shift in its population Westward in the first half of the 21st Century, but with the new lands to fill and new opportunities seemingly being all over the place, the United States was only too happy to grow its population just as fast as they could manage with its prosperity, a situation that suited Canada just fine, particularly as cash-rich Canada was more than happy to be a part of this development and the additional rainfall did have an effect on southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, turning the former 'badlands' of these areas into much more productive regions. Canada and the United States' great relationship between each others' nations and societies only got stronger with these times, as Canada and its people quite happily assisted with the immense efforts to redevelop the Western United States to deal with the massive environmental changes and were amply rewarded for those efforts.
Perhaps the groups most effected by this were the First Nations - beyonde their immense efforts in Manitoba, the success of the tribes post-Treaty of Orillia had not gone unnoticed in the United States, and by the 1970s groups like the American Indian Movement were seeking similar treaties from Washington. It proved a long process, but the states led the way on this - and in 2014, they scored a giant victory when the Sioux tribes came to an agreement with the United States Government over the fate of all lands within the Black Hills National Forest, which was turned over to the tribes along with the massive compensatory amount agreed by a previous Supreme Court decision in 1980, which after the return of the National Forest - an area of over 5000 square kilometres and encompassing most of the sacred sites of the Black Hills - was agreed upon by the tribes, who promptly used a large portion of the nearly $2 Billion in compensation owed to the tribe to buy a vast portion of the land that had been sold back. The Sioux of the region here didn't even object to the presence of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills (some had in the past) and felt that the return of the sacred Black Hills meant that the presence of the monument was no particular problem and indeed a benefit from a tourism standpoint.
While the Treaty of Orillia had largely gone unnoticed in America for a long time, by the 2000s it was being seen by tribal authorities, Washington and the state governments all as a brilliant move and many sought to emulate it. Numerous acts and court decisions stood in the way of this, but that didn't phase many of the tribes and many governments saw sorting out this issue as righting a past wrong. It didn't hurt that in much of the Western United States at the beginning of the 21st Century over 50% of the land west of Kansas was owned by the American federal government, which made both the settlement of new arrivals and deals with native tribes far easier. The Treaty of Orillia's rights with regard to responsibilities of the tribal governments didn't go unnoticed either, and said responsibility and developments were seen as a positive by many of the tribes. By 2025 over two-thirds of the tribes of the United States had sorted out similar arrangements to the Treaty of Orillia, and the United States' Bureau of Indian Affairs became the Department of Native American Relations in 2017, and the steady growth in their rights and responsibilities was proudly supported by their Canadian counterparts, seeking to use self-determination to help deal with many of the lingering social problems that remained for Native Americans.
[1] There was invariably some dispute over this (even if Canada's official records state Kali Logan-Brousseau's position as Canadian number 100,000,000) and three other pairs of proud parents claimed the same status for their children being born so close together on the same day - one young boy born at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, a young girl born in Lethbridge, Alberta and twins born eleven weeks premature to parents in Moncton, New Brunswick. In the end Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a point on congratulating all of the families involved personally, and in later years all five children, whose lives would invariably be intertwined owing to the circumstances of their birth, would grow up to firm friends.
If anything defined the world in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic it was that people sought more than perhaps ever before to live life for both the future and the moment. As the four-day workweek spread across the world starting in the 2020s, it was matched by enormous economic productivity increases in many nations, particularly as flexible schedules and working from home made it easier than ever before people to be comfortable when working and were able to do so at the times that best suited them. This was matched by the growth in the use of artificial intelligence and the slow reduction in many more menial jobs such as cashier positions. Despite fears of massive job losses in many fields, by 2030 it was clear that that wasn't going to happen as while self-service computers and artificial intelligence improved efficiency and reduced the number of people in such low-skilled jobs, the growth in small businesses, custom products and the growth in new fields that hadn't existed even in recent times sucked up all of the jobs lost and many more besides. Custom-made and tailored clothing, a growing business long before the pandemic, swelled rapidly afterwards and was helped by the development of body-scanning technology that could read through clothing (thus saving the potentially-problematic issue of one being naked before being scanned to get true body dimensions) and were accurate to the millimeter. Such technology soon swelled before custom clothing to also being used in the jewelry and accessories and shoes industries, making such made-to-measure products much more affordable and having a much better fit.
The mRNA vaccine technology developed in the 2000s and put to such remarkable use during the pandemic proved a boon to fights against numerous viruses, as the development of mRNA designs made it so that the development of such vaccines was soon followed by the development of DNA vaccines, which were becoming a reality by the end of the 2020s, and the massive growth in vaccine production ability resulting from the fight against COVID resulted in the desires to develop vaccines for other purposes, leading to the development first of vaccines meant to fight back against the diseases seen as those most easily eradicated, such as diptheria and poliomyelitis and then moving on to more difficult ones, including the HIV virus, which saw Moderna begin trials of a vaccine for in February 2028. Other developments of mRNA vaccines were aimed at various forms of cancer, particularly hard-to-cure ones related to viral causes related to herpesvirus types and hepatitis, by attacking the viruses that caused the growth in the cancers and diseases related to them. Poliomyelitis, Rubella, Diptheria, Cysticerosis and Guinea worm disease were wiped from the Earth in the 2020s and 2030s, and ever-improving developments in the fields of public health (rapidly accelerated by the COVID pandemic) began to bring about the possibility of eradicating diseases such as Lymphatic Filarisis, Measles and Malaria in the 21st Century.
The public health improvements were matched by diet improvements in much of the world, though this took different forms depends on where in the world it was - Japanese diet improvements, for example, focused on the reduction of sodium in diets, while in much of the West (particularly North America and Australia) much of the focus was on the reduction of saturated fats and sugars, particularly sugar replacements such as high-fructose corn syrup. Changes in packaging and better efficiency in transport and storage made for a steady reduction in the use of preservatives in foods, particularly potentially-dangerous ones like sodium benzoate. In a great many cases efforts by governments were unneccessary, as consumers both demanded healthier food choices and began to punish products and companies that engaged in misleading or simply false information. Vaccine hesitancy was all but eradicated in much of the developed world and a lot of the developing world as a result of COVID, and between this, the better diets, reduced consumption of products such as alcohol, tobacco and many forms of harder drugs and improving ways of fighting back against illnesses, the entire world's life expectancies rose considerably during the 2020s and 2030s. By 2040, many countries were willing to say that people living to a hundred years of age would be a very regular thing in the not-too-distant future, and the improving medical treatments also had the benefit of reducing the costs involved in treating many illnesses and medical problems - a major bonus to nations with publicly-funded health care systems, which covered over half of the world's population by the 2030s.
It also was helpful to life expectancy, in a way, that the world's satellite systems were improved dramatically as well. Russia's GLONASS system, restored to full operation in 2016 - then-President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev commented that the success of GLONASS's restoration was "The greatest gift to all of mankind that Russia could give them today", a comment that may have been a touch hyperbolic but wasn't entirely inaccurate - included the ability to work with Europe's Galileo satellite constellation to allow for highly-accurate search and rescue systems, a feature that the Americans quickly also worked into their own GPS satellites. The success of these developments allowed carriers of locator devices able to work with the satellite systems - and by the mid-2020s, just about every smartphone could do this - to be able to give their locations to would-be rescuers to within 50 metres, a huge benefit for search and rescue teams in large or sparsely populated countries where help would otherwise be difficult to find. The GPS-Galileo-GLONASS co-operation also improved the accuracy of commercial navigation systems to within centimetres, another vast benefit for those who used such systems.
Satellite improvements were also driven along by the Skylon, which had spawned rivals by the mid-2020s. While the Skylon hadn't always been taken seriously by other aerospace giants, it's rousing success and the subsequent ability to allow numerous Commonwealth and Commonwealth-allied nations to become space-faring nations had been noticed by all, and so a race to create its first rival was a drag-out fight between a American-Japanese consortium (made up of Boeing, Pratt and Whitney, Mitsubishi McDonnell Douglas, Hitachi, United Technologies, Bigelow Aerospace and Rockwell Collins) and a European group (led by Airbus and supported by Thales, Antonov, Ariane Group, Daimler-Benz, Safran and JSC Mikron), both sides aiming to make a rather-larger aircraft than the twin-engined Skylon and both using many similar design moves, including the use of blended wing body designs with integrated engines, with the European design using four engines instead of two like the Skylon and its American rival. The American-Japanese consortium's creation, the STSC-01 "Enterprise" spacecraft, flew first (beating the Europeans by three months) in May 2022, but problems with avionics and control systems meant that the European entry, the Airbus S110 Falcon X, undertook its first operational flight first, lifting it's first satellites into space in March 2024. By the time both were operating, however, the Skylon consortium in the Commonwealth was hard at work on the second generation of the Skylon, and were planning on far more audacious moves than that. Skylon made it possible to recover and re-use satellites, and the Commonwealth was more than willing to use this, aiming to reduce the growing problem of space junk making it increasingly difficult to launch spacecraft.
The 2020s saw the world's space agencies and a growing number of private and public corporations begind developing space plans of considerable size, with the idea of mining asteroids for precious metals and rare earths being one of the focuses of the corporate interests and the public agencies planning to being the task of sending humans to Mars. In both cases, the groundbreaking ion thruster work done in both the Commonwealth and the United States made it possible to replace chemical rockets for use in space, though their power is nothing like big enough to get off of the planet. Several major companies planned to harvest water to allow small asteroids to be used as refueling stations for hydrogen/oxygen spacecraft (which all of the SSTO spacecraft were) and one of the largest such firms, Planetary Resources, developed a plan to mine from a particular asteroid, 35396 XF11, after a research mission to it discovered that underneath a skin mostly made up of nickel-iron, underneath the shell the asteroid included massive amounts of platinum-group metals, gold and a number of rare earths, including neodymium and yttrium (which both have many commercial applications). Planetary Resources' plan was to capture the asteroid as it made a pass close to Earth in 2028, where it would pass within 930,000 km of Earth, with the objective of using ion thrusters to adjust its orbit to be kept outside of Earth's orbit. The use of Skylon, Enterprise and Falcon X spacecraft made the plan much more feasible, but the company was unable to get everything ready by then, but as the asteroid went around the Earth every 633 days, the company kept at it and in 2031 was able to land equipment on its surface to recover minerals by punching through the asteroid's skin and then mining out a sizable quantity of ore, which was then returned to Earth, the satellite recovered by a ESA Falcon X on March 22, 2032, and returned to Earth - bringing home some 2600 kg of neodymium, platinium, palladium and yttrium, a return worth $860 million. Within the month a second spacecraft had been delivered to GTO by a JAXA Enterprise, and the company was underway.
Perhaps more than the return of the minerals, the very sight of two and a half metric tons of minerals returned from space ended the feelings that such mining was impossible. The capital cost was gargantuan, but it was abundantly clear now that such mining was indeed possible and quite possibly profitable, and within two decades, Planetary Resources and its rivals - fellow Americans Deep Space Industries, the Canadian Aurora Minerals Corporation and Rushika Interstellar companies and the European Space Minerals corporation, as well as Anglo American and Mitsubishi McDonnell Douglas - were chasing the dream themselves, and doing remarkably well at it. Their plans included plans to push the celestial bodies away from Earth orbits if need be - most nations' laws required this - but the discovery of asteroids with minerals grew the world's supply of platinum-group metals, rare earths, gold and others considerably, providing a whole new source of materials for many industries on Earth.
Canada reached a milestone when they cleared the 100 million population benchmark, with the "official" 100 millionth Canadian being a young girl, Kali Lougan-Brousseau, who was born the second daughter of proud parents Alexandre Brousseau and Valerie Lougan at the Honoré Mercier Hospital in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, on June 26, 2032[1]. This milestone's reach showed how fast Canada's population was growing however, as that number had grown by some 16 million in just 15 years, but it wasn't as if there had been much issue with it - the economic and employment growth had far outstripped that, with the pandemic ultimately becoming a blip in Canada's economic growth. (A sizable blip, but little more than that in the greater scheme of things.) It also showed that, unlike for much of the second half of the 20th Century and parts of the early 21st where Canada's population and economic growth had been focused on its largest cities, now the population of smaller centres was rapidly growing, showing the benefits of Canada's warming climate and northward drift.
One of the most famous effects of this had been the growth in Arctic shipping out of Churchill, Manitoba, and the resusitation of the the idea of Port Nelson as a community. The former problem of the silt buildup of the Nelson River had been largely reduced through the Nelson River hydroelectric projects in the 1970s, and in 2002 the province of Manitoba had been convinced by multiple First Nations tribes of Manitoba to see if it was possible to revive the ghost town as an economic center for the local Cree, noting that the railroad right of way planned out in the early 20th Century was still feasible. By the end of the decade the economic nationalism of the local tribes was fully on display and speculators began to make their way back to the town to plan its revival. The massive bridge to the island for Port Nelson's wharves was unusable (nearly a century of no maintenance made this unsurprising) but the island and its piers were salvageable, the terrain in the area good and with the right-of-way between CN's Hudson Bay Division at Amery and Port Nelson entirely intact, a road along the Nelson River built in the mid-2000s was rapidly followed by the railway. The idea of the "City of the First Nations" became a powerful one, and by 2015 some 2700 people lived there, and the massive Port Nelson Island project, financed initially by the First Nations themselves and the Province of Manitoba but soon fully supported by Ottawa, created both the new city and built a roadway from Amery to Churchill mostly within sight of the railroad, even as CN dramatically expanded the railroad in the 2010s and 2020s, expecting the goods traffic headed to and iron ore out of Nunavut and grain to Churchill to combine with new markets and ever-better ice conditions on Hudson Bay to exceed what the railway could handle. Churchill and Port Nelson both rapidly grew into export ports in the 2020s, both taking advantage of climate change causing a considerable lengthening of the shipping season in Hudson Bay. By 2023 the Port Nelson Terminal was complete and the following year the first grain shipments departed from Port Nelson, destined for Northern Europe. The growth of Murmansk as a port in Russia helped grow the traffic at the Port of Churchill and ultimately the Port Nelson Terminal, and eventually even container traffic from some parts of Europe bound for Canada's Western Provinces began to go to Murmansk, Narvik and Baltic Sea ports and shipped to Canada's Hudson Bay gateways, loaded onto trains there. By 2030 year-round roads linked the two cities with the outside world, and these roads were steadily improved to serve growing economic needs and populations. CN electrified the Hudson Bay railroads in the 2010s as Churchill and Port Nelson, and by the same time as the good roads were complete so were the railroads and the port facilities, and the development of the "Arctic Bridge" led to the permanent stationing of icebreakers at Port Nelson and Churchill. By 2040, nearly 70,000 people lived in the region (34,220 in Churchill, 27,175 in Port Nelson, the rest in areas around it) and the region had become a hub of development for Western First Nations, with the massive ports and hydroelectric plants and railroads being joined by a large number of artists and designers, furniture manufacturers and specialist food makers focusing on First Nations culture and cuisine.
The shifting sands of the world in the early 21st Century and the relatively high costs of living combined with the continued efforts to expand Canada's population movement saw many newcomers and native-born Canadians alike moving west through the first half of the 21st Century, dramatically expanding the populations particularly of Manitoba and Saskatchewan as well as continuing the growth of Alberta and filling in many communities in the interior of British Columbia and further south along through the Chehalis Valley towards the Columbia River. This had a dramatic effect on the populations of numerous Saskatchewan communities (particularly the cities of Saskatoon, Regina, Lloydminster and Moose Jaw, but also several smaller ones such as Davidson, Prince Albert and North Battleford) and on many places in southern Manitoba as well as the already-big city of Winnipeg, in addition to the cities of Tacoma, Olympia and Chehalis south of the Salisha Sea and the interior cities of Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George, Penticton, Revelstoke, Prince Rupert and Terrace-Kitimat in the interior of BC. This new population both adapted to the local culture and changed it in various ways, bringing new economic life to many of these areas while at the same time also bringing changes in many ways, adapting to the bitter cold of Western Provinces while at the same time as bring many summer sports and past times. The Western provinces continued to provide more professional hockey players and curlers per capita than any other place in the world, but among the newcomers rugby was a big deal (and meshed well with the football traditions as well) and the newcomers also brought new food and event traditions that met with the locals well - the "block parties" that had been a staple of many neighborhoods in Ontario for decades made their way to the Prairies in force, for example.
Many of these new cultural additions and their combination with the long-established cultures of the province created something of a different experience for both long-time residents and newcomers alike, creating the style of living that Winnipeg Free Press arts and culture writer Ken Forrester referred to as "The Culture of the New West" in an article in 2021. In the aftermath of the pandemic and the growth of the "Work Anywhere" culture, this shift only grew, swelling these cities further as smaller and medium-sized organizations moved out to the Prairie provinces. The dramatic growth of the aerospace industry in Winnipeg added to this, as aluminum mills and refining facilities to make aerospace alloys came to support the industry, followed by carbonfiber production facilities for the same reason and high-quality machinists and makers of carbonfiber products not far behind that. In Saskatchewan, the development of cellulosic ethanol as a motor fuel, and using what would be waste products in the existing agricultural industries of the province, became a major industry, particularly as the resulting ethanol was of extremely high quality and was useful for internal combustion engines and gas turbines, and the development of a solid oxide fuel cell system by the Alliance Automakers (Renault, American Motors and Nissan), Westland-Reynard and SaskPower made it possible to use ethanol as fuel in a fuel cell car, the companies believing that it was cheaper and safer to do fuel cell vehicles in that way. The improvements in technology that followed so many of the new arrivals helped too, and quickly the provinces' infrastructure projects, from the fuel cell project to the Northern Highway and the "Electric Highway" along Saskatchewan Highways 11 and 16 from Regina to Lloydminster via Saskatoon, showed this looking forward. Across the windy plains of the West wind turbines began to appear to take advantage, while the development of geothermal energy began in the Northwest Territories in the 2010s as the population of the region swelled.
South of the border, climate change and the steady filling of the endoheric basins of the American West had opened up vast new opportunities and resulted in the United States having a sizable shift in its population Westward in the first half of the 21st Century, but with the new lands to fill and new opportunities seemingly being all over the place, the United States was only too happy to grow its population just as fast as they could manage with its prosperity, a situation that suited Canada just fine, particularly as cash-rich Canada was more than happy to be a part of this development and the additional rainfall did have an effect on southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, turning the former 'badlands' of these areas into much more productive regions. Canada and the United States' great relationship between each others' nations and societies only got stronger with these times, as Canada and its people quite happily assisted with the immense efforts to redevelop the Western United States to deal with the massive environmental changes and were amply rewarded for those efforts.
Perhaps the groups most effected by this were the First Nations - beyonde their immense efforts in Manitoba, the success of the tribes post-Treaty of Orillia had not gone unnoticed in the United States, and by the 1970s groups like the American Indian Movement were seeking similar treaties from Washington. It proved a long process, but the states led the way on this - and in 2014, they scored a giant victory when the Sioux tribes came to an agreement with the United States Government over the fate of all lands within the Black Hills National Forest, which was turned over to the tribes along with the massive compensatory amount agreed by a previous Supreme Court decision in 1980, which after the return of the National Forest - an area of over 5000 square kilometres and encompassing most of the sacred sites of the Black Hills - was agreed upon by the tribes, who promptly used a large portion of the nearly $2 Billion in compensation owed to the tribe to buy a vast portion of the land that had been sold back. The Sioux of the region here didn't even object to the presence of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills (some had in the past) and felt that the return of the sacred Black Hills meant that the presence of the monument was no particular problem and indeed a benefit from a tourism standpoint.
While the Treaty of Orillia had largely gone unnoticed in America for a long time, by the 2000s it was being seen by tribal authorities, Washington and the state governments all as a brilliant move and many sought to emulate it. Numerous acts and court decisions stood in the way of this, but that didn't phase many of the tribes and many governments saw sorting out this issue as righting a past wrong. It didn't hurt that in much of the Western United States at the beginning of the 21st Century over 50% of the land west of Kansas was owned by the American federal government, which made both the settlement of new arrivals and deals with native tribes far easier. The Treaty of Orillia's rights with regard to responsibilities of the tribal governments didn't go unnoticed either, and said responsibility and developments were seen as a positive by many of the tribes. By 2025 over two-thirds of the tribes of the United States had sorted out similar arrangements to the Treaty of Orillia, and the United States' Bureau of Indian Affairs became the Department of Native American Relations in 2017, and the steady growth in their rights and responsibilities was proudly supported by their Canadian counterparts, seeking to use self-determination to help deal with many of the lingering social problems that remained for Native Americans.
[1] There was invariably some dispute over this (even if Canada's official records state Kali Logan-Brousseau's position as Canadian number 100,000,000) and three other pairs of proud parents claimed the same status for their children being born so close together on the same day - one young boy born at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, a young girl born in Lethbridge, Alberta and twins born eleven weeks premature to parents in Moncton, New Brunswick. In the end Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a point on congratulating all of the families involved personally, and in later years all five children, whose lives would invariably be intertwined owing to the circumstances of their birth, would grow up to firm friends.
I thought that I should note that geography will limit the population growth of the Okanagan Valley because it is very narrow, especially Penticton because it sits on a strip of land between Okanagan and Skaha Lakes. Thus I imagine real estate there would be at a premium--I have seen houses and plots of land with an asking price of over one million when I last visited in 2018. Kelowna has a little more room to grow in the north and on the West Bank though.
Both Penticton and Kelowna have long ago carved out much larger areas out of surrounding regions and both are quite tall cities (by Canadian standards that is) by the middle of the Century, for exactly these reasons. Penticton by that point surrounds much of the north half of Shaka Lake and has pushed right up against the mountains, and Kelowna has spread against the mountains on both sides of Lake Okanagan. Kelowna is limited by geography to a population of about 600,000 and Penticton to 160,000 at most.
Canadian Census 2036 Part 1
Canadian Census, 2036 - Part 1
Canada Total
103,853,110
By Province/Territory:
Ontario
28,611,548
- Toronto: 12,616,755 [1]
- Ottawa: 3,825,248 [2]
- Hamilton: 2,880,178
- London: 2,541,576
- Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge: 1,598,164
- Windsor: 1,076,444
- Sudbury: 741,238
- North Bay: 608,937
- Kingston: 470,383
- Guelph: 404.530
- Thunder Bay: 322,727
- Peterborough: 250,871
- Sault Ste. Marie: 203,522
Quebec
19,804,296
- Montreal: 10,132,465 [3]
- Quebec City: 3,384,826
- Gatineau: 1,984,650 [2]
- Sherbrooke: 1,059,238
- Saguenay: 746,337
- Trois-Rivieres: 590,224
British Columbia
18,615,071
- Vancouver: 6,916,803 [4]
- Seattle: 5,227,668 [5]
- Victoria: 1,516,154
- Columbia: 706,382 [6]
- Tacoma: 650,831
- Kelowna: 569,512
- Namaimo-Courtenay-Comox: 397,607
- Prince George: 288,156
- Kamloops: 269,426
- Prince Rupert: 205,375
- Olympia: 193,144
- Penticton: 159,488
- Bremerton: 116,430
- Chehalis: 89,286
- Revelstoke: 55,773
Alberta
14,078,165
- Calgary: 5,707,651
- Edmonton: 5,295,917
- Lethbridge: 775,428
- Fort McMurray: 594,156
- Red Deer: 486,904
- Medicine Hat: 285,743
- Grande Prairie: 175,286
Jamaica
5,580,375
- Kingston: 3,264,302 [7]
- Montego Bay: 580,768
- Belize City: 327,146
- Negril: 306,584
- Mandeville: 210,228
- Ocho Rios: 157,614
Manitoba
3,874,810
- Winnipeg: 3,014,185
- Brandon: 195,788
- Selkirk: 172,652
- Gimli: 107,286
- Steinbach: 82,494
- Thompson: 45,927
- Portage La Prairie: 38,459
- Churchill: 33,448
- Port Nelson: 25,989
Nova Scotia
3,027,194
- Halifax: 1,854,706
- Sydney: 276,189
- Truro: 72,764
- New Glasgow: 57,823
- Yarmouth: 41,190
- Kentville: 38,229
Saskatchewan
2,992,641
- Saskatoon: 877,285
- Regina: 858,267
- Lloydminster: 412,201[8]
- Moose Jaw: 202,116
- Prince Albert: 150,128
- North Battleford: 88,821
- Uranium City: 46,179
Trinidad and Tobago
2,415,762
- Port of Spain: 518,455
- Chagaunas: 379,253
- San Fernando: 368,029
- Arima: 260,754
- Scarborough: 68,634
Caribbean Islands
1,644,825
- St. George's: 118,650
- Basseterre: 102,578
- Castries: 91,917
- St. John's: 70,544
- Roseau: 57,316
- Kingstown: 42,075
- Road Town: 28,457
New Brunswick
1,607,926
- Moncton: 421,593
- Saint John: 416,740
- Fredericton: 240,285
- Miramichi: 121,760
- Bathurst: 85,146
Newfoundland and Labrador
1,116,128
- St. John's: 525,864
- Corner Brook: 48,278
Bahamas
684,826
- Nassau: 409,575
Barbados
331,584
- Bridgetown: 225,179
Prince Edward Island
210,856
- Charlottetown: 105,798
Northwest Territories
104,185
- Yellowknife: 59,644
Nunavut
85,722
- Iqaluit: 28,286
Yukon
67,196
- Whitehorse: 49,227
[1] Toronto includes the Greater Toronto Area out to Oakville, Clarington and Barrie, including Mississauga, Markham, Vaughan, Brampton, Pickering and Oshawa
[2] Ottawa-Gatineau includes the entire National Capital Region, including Gatineau, Kanata, Nepean, Stittsville, Orleans, Richmond, Metcalfe, Munster, Carleton Place, Rockland and the Outaouais Regions, though technically roughly 33% of the population of the region is in Quebec as a result
[3] Includes Laval, Longueuil and the North Shore and South Shore regions, though over three-quarters of this population lives on the Island of Montreal, Jesus, Bizard and Perrot
[4] Includes the City of Vancouver as well as Richmond, Burnaby, North and West Vancouver, Coquitlam, Surrey, Delta, New Westminster and regions out to Maple Ridge, Langley, Point Roberts, Lions Bay and Bowen Island
[5] Includes the City of Seattle as well as Everett, Bellevue, Redmond, Renton, Bremerton, Kent, Auburn, Edmonds, Port Orchard and Silverdale
[6] OTL's Vancouver, Washington
[7] Includes the cities of Kingston and New Kingston as well as Spanish Town, Portmore, Stony Hill, Bull Bay and Gordon Town, easily the largest city of the Canadian Carribbean
[8] Parts of Lloydminster's urban area are in Alberta and count towards Alberta's population total
Canada Total
103,853,110
By Province/Territory:
Ontario
28,611,548
- Toronto: 12,616,755 [1]
- Ottawa: 3,825,248 [2]
- Hamilton: 2,880,178
- London: 2,541,576
- Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge: 1,598,164
- Windsor: 1,076,444
- Sudbury: 741,238
- North Bay: 608,937
- Kingston: 470,383
- Guelph: 404.530
- Thunder Bay: 322,727
- Peterborough: 250,871
- Sault Ste. Marie: 203,522
Quebec
19,804,296
- Montreal: 10,132,465 [3]
- Quebec City: 3,384,826
- Gatineau: 1,984,650 [2]
- Sherbrooke: 1,059,238
- Saguenay: 746,337
- Trois-Rivieres: 590,224
British Columbia
18,615,071
- Vancouver: 6,916,803 [4]
- Seattle: 5,227,668 [5]
- Victoria: 1,516,154
- Columbia: 706,382 [6]
- Tacoma: 650,831
- Kelowna: 569,512
- Namaimo-Courtenay-Comox: 397,607
- Prince George: 288,156
- Kamloops: 269,426
- Prince Rupert: 205,375
- Olympia: 193,144
- Penticton: 159,488
- Bremerton: 116,430
- Chehalis: 89,286
- Revelstoke: 55,773
Alberta
14,078,165
- Calgary: 5,707,651
- Edmonton: 5,295,917
- Lethbridge: 775,428
- Fort McMurray: 594,156
- Red Deer: 486,904
- Medicine Hat: 285,743
- Grande Prairie: 175,286
Jamaica
5,580,375
- Kingston: 3,264,302 [7]
- Montego Bay: 580,768
- Belize City: 327,146
- Negril: 306,584
- Mandeville: 210,228
- Ocho Rios: 157,614
Manitoba
3,874,810
- Winnipeg: 3,014,185
- Brandon: 195,788
- Selkirk: 172,652
- Gimli: 107,286
- Steinbach: 82,494
- Thompson: 45,927
- Portage La Prairie: 38,459
- Churchill: 33,448
- Port Nelson: 25,989
Nova Scotia
3,027,194
- Halifax: 1,854,706
- Sydney: 276,189
- Truro: 72,764
- New Glasgow: 57,823
- Yarmouth: 41,190
- Kentville: 38,229
Saskatchewan
2,992,641
- Saskatoon: 877,285
- Regina: 858,267
- Lloydminster: 412,201[8]
- Moose Jaw: 202,116
- Prince Albert: 150,128
- North Battleford: 88,821
- Uranium City: 46,179
Trinidad and Tobago
2,415,762
- Port of Spain: 518,455
- Chagaunas: 379,253
- San Fernando: 368,029
- Arima: 260,754
- Scarborough: 68,634
Caribbean Islands
1,644,825
- St. George's: 118,650
- Basseterre: 102,578
- Castries: 91,917
- St. John's: 70,544
- Roseau: 57,316
- Kingstown: 42,075
- Road Town: 28,457
New Brunswick
1,607,926
- Moncton: 421,593
- Saint John: 416,740
- Fredericton: 240,285
- Miramichi: 121,760
- Bathurst: 85,146
Newfoundland and Labrador
1,116,128
- St. John's: 525,864
- Corner Brook: 48,278
Bahamas
684,826
- Nassau: 409,575
Barbados
331,584
- Bridgetown: 225,179
Prince Edward Island
210,856
- Charlottetown: 105,798
Northwest Territories
104,185
- Yellowknife: 59,644
Nunavut
85,722
- Iqaluit: 28,286
Yukon
67,196
- Whitehorse: 49,227
[1] Toronto includes the Greater Toronto Area out to Oakville, Clarington and Barrie, including Mississauga, Markham, Vaughan, Brampton, Pickering and Oshawa
[2] Ottawa-Gatineau includes the entire National Capital Region, including Gatineau, Kanata, Nepean, Stittsville, Orleans, Richmond, Metcalfe, Munster, Carleton Place, Rockland and the Outaouais Regions, though technically roughly 33% of the population of the region is in Quebec as a result
[3] Includes Laval, Longueuil and the North Shore and South Shore regions, though over three-quarters of this population lives on the Island of Montreal, Jesus, Bizard and Perrot
[4] Includes the City of Vancouver as well as Richmond, Burnaby, North and West Vancouver, Coquitlam, Surrey, Delta, New Westminster and regions out to Maple Ridge, Langley, Point Roberts, Lions Bay and Bowen Island
[5] Includes the City of Seattle as well as Everett, Bellevue, Redmond, Renton, Bremerton, Kent, Auburn, Edmonds, Port Orchard and Silverdale
[6] OTL's Vancouver, Washington
[7] Includes the cities of Kingston and New Kingston as well as Spanish Town, Portmore, Stony Hill, Bull Bay and Gordon Town, easily the largest city of the Canadian Carribbean
[8] Parts of Lloydminster's urban area are in Alberta and count towards Alberta's population total
Last edited:
What happened to Guelph? Did it fail to grow for some reason, merge into the GTA or did you forget it?
One thought I had was that Penticton could have merged with Okanagan Falls on the south shore of Shaka Lake to give it some more room to expand. I imagine the Okanagan Valley is still quite a tourist hotspot.
Here's hoping Lethbridge hits the one million mark. I'm picturing what the city would look like ITTL because it sounds that it would appear very different from the one I grew up in. By that I mean there would be more skyscrapers downtown, and the city itself probably expanded further north and south. Did the University of Lethbridge still build its campus on the west side of the Oldman River? It's quite a beautiful piece of architecture.
And wow, southern Ontario looks pretty densely packed as well.
I was including it in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge area because Kitchener to Guelph is about 30 km, but in retrospect I'm gonna change that.
The population does stretch down the west shore of Shaka Lake, so you're not incorrect, but Penticton (which is still on a CPR line, which is a big tourism helper) also has pushed out into the mountains around it. Both Kelowna and Penticton (and many other communities located in picturesque places in the BC interior) have pushed up along the edges of the mountains, with expensive homes along winding roads with eye-popping views being a feature of all of them to some extent or another.One thought I had was that Penticton could have merged with Okanagan Falls on the south shore of Shaka Lake to give it some more room to expand. I imagine the Okanagan Valley is still quite a tourist hotspot.
And you are indeed correct about the Okanagan Valley being a major tourist hot spot. Admittedly, that applies to most of British Columbia to one level of another. 🙂
Lethbridge will eventually reach a million residents - it's one of the places that is feeling the 'New West' growth the most. It's a major rail junction ITTL and the proud home of Vektris Engineering, one of the world's best specialty and precision manufacturing companies and is a major employer there. Lethbridge's university is indeed where it is IOTL. The city is pretty much destined to be the south end of the chain of Alberta cities, with Calgary and Edmonton as the big anchors and Lethbridge, Red Deer, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie and lots of other smaller ones in the province as well.
It is, which is part of the reason post-pandemic you're getting some growth in Atlantic Canada and a lot of it in the Prairie provinces - Southern Ontario, the Tech Deck Triangle (Kitchener to Hamilton to Mississauga), London and Metro Montreal are all really, really expensive. They are where the money is, but post-pandemic many simply want a cheaper cost of living with most the amenities and the Prairies' cities and towns offer that. There is places outside of the major cities that offer better costs of living too, but many just like the Prairies, even if the winters are absolutely brutal. 🙂
Winnipeg with three million people? As a born and raised one; that just might enough tax revenue to do something about our streets! Incredible sprawl probably though; and the concerts that I work would be amazing with the crowd sizes. Thanks for the Dreams!
Actually, Winnipeg actually doesn't sprawl as much as one might think owing to the presence of the Red River Spillway (almost all of the city is to the west of it) and because the city here takes advantage of its rail lines. After the Mississauga disaster in 1979, CPR (after completing the moving of its tracks in Toronto) followed suit in other cities where possible and CN was pretty quick to follow. Today the rail yards are all well to the east of the Spillway and to the West of the Perimeter highway, and most of the industry has followed, leaving a web of rail lines inside the city center that today are used by commuter trains, operating out of a dedicated commuter station on the east side of the old Logan Yards. These lines are as busy as commuter lines get in Canada - four or five times an hour service - and around many of the stations neighbourhoods went up in a big way as well. The CNR Transcona Shops and CPR Logan Maintenance Depot remain, but that's about it and all of the other freight lines and depots are on the city's outskirts. The airport was moved to southeast of Oak Bluff in the 1990s as the old one was surrounded by development and the Forces base moved up to OTL's St. Andrews Airport, which is also a major base for the aerospace industry in Winnipeg.
Winnipeg began going up in a big way in the 1990s and never really stopped. The downtown today has swelled to take up most of Point Douglas and stretches west along Portage and Norte Dame Avenues and north up Main Street, The former Logan Yards and Dufferin Street to the north is one of the major centers for First Nations cultural facilities (and thus many of its residents) in Manitoba overall, and like most Canadian cities the downtown core has several high-density residential neighborhoods around it.
For Lethbridge, I'm thinking at the core the Oldman River is entirely used for parkland, and with two highways going west-east (the Crowsnest Highway and OTL's Whoop-Up Drive) and University Drive also being a major boundary. The city sprawls out across the entirety of the bend in the River (and has University Drive cross the river on a bridge to the south end of the bend) and around it on all sides. Downtown is roughly where OTL's is, though there is plenty on the other side of the river along University Drive. The OTL railroad bridge is used only for passenger trains as freight trains are routed around the city for the same reasons as in other cities - one has to go slow through dense urban areas, accidents have greater consequences and selling land in the middle of cities can offset a lot of the cost of new infrastructure.
Last edited:
I love your description of what my city could have been, thank you.
How did the Forks Market project turn out? Did they make it a World class destination, or is it more of a shopping experience for Artisanal goods like OTL?
How did the Forks Market project turn out? Did they make it a World class destination, or is it more of a shopping experience for Artisanal goods like OTL?
Both, for the most part. Winnipeg Union Station is bigger than OTL because of greater demand for intercity passenger travel so it takes up more room, but the human rights museum is on the other side of the Red River so there is plenty of room. The Forks Market area includes all of the usual attractions, but is far bigger than it is now both for the additional room, more people in Winnipeg and the adjacent station.
Canadian Census 2036 Part 2
Demographics of Canada - Part 2
Canada Total: 103,853,110
Ethnic Background (European Descent)
Total: 64,741,818 (62.34% of total Canadian Population)
By Background: [1]
Canadian: 40,274,241 (38.78%) [2]
English: 17,914,662 (17.25%)
French: 16,128,388 (15.53%)
Irish: 14,767,916 (14.22%)
Scottish: 10,836,035 (10.46%)
German: 9,523,329 (9.17%)
Italian: 6,843,922 (6.59%)
Ukrainian: 4,663,008 (4.49%)
Dutch: 4,216,437 (4.06%)
Polish: 3,427,153 (3.30%)
Welsh: 2,866,347 (2.76%)
Spanish: 2,409,394 (2.32%)
Portuguese: 2,243,226 (2.16%)
Norwegian: 2,170,532 (2.09%)
Russian: 2,149,760 (2.07%)
Swedish: 1,952,436 (1.88%)
Greek: 1,267,008 (1.22%)
American: 1,090,460 (1.05%)
Hungarian: 1,059,306 (1.02%)
Ethnic Background (Visible Minority) [3]
Total: 39,111,292 (37.66% of total Canadian Population)
By Background:
Black / African: 9,116,587 (8.78%) [4]
South Asian: 8,876,621 (8.55%) [5]
First Nations: 8,747,262 (8.42%) [6]
Chinese: 3,682,479 (3.55%) [7]
Latin American: 3,326,275 (2.92%) [8]
Filipino: 1,365,423 (1.31%)
Arab: 892,638 (0.86%)
Metis: 782,240 (0.75%)
Southeast Asia: 624,951 (0.60%) [9]
Iranian: 485,182 (0.47%) [10]
Korean: 350,406 (0.34%)
Japanese: 304,873 (0.29%)
Pashtun: 227,804 (0.22%)
Mayan and Indigenous Caribbean: 47,811 (0.05%)
Visible Minority, Not Included Elsewhere: 280,740 (0.27%)
Total Fertility Rate: 2.05 children/woman [11]
Mother's Mean Age at First Birth: 25.6 years (2035)
Birth Rate: 12.77 per 1000 population
Death Rate: 9.43 per 1000 population
Net Migration Rate: 6.84 per 1000 population
Infant Mortality Rate: 2.86 deaths per 1000 live births
Population Movement (2035): + 1,257,606
- Births (2035): 1,526,254
- Deaths (2035): 978,820
- Net Migration (2035): + 710,172
Population Growth Rate: 1.21% per year (2035)
Religion
- Catholicism: 31.1%
- Protestantism 18.3% (5.5% United Church, 4.7% Anglican, Baptist 2.0%, Lutheran 1.2%, Pentecostal 1.1%, Presbyterian 1.1%, other Protestant 2.5%)
- Orthodox Christianity 1.4%
- Mormonism 0.7%
- Other Christian 3.0%
- Islam 4.9%
- Judaism 2.9%
- Hinduism 2.3%
- Sikhism 1.3%
- Buddhism 1.1%
- Others: 0.6%
- No Religious Affiliation: 32.4%
Life Expectancy at Birth
- Total Population: 89.2 Years (2035)
- Male: 85.1 Years
- Female: 93.4 Years
School Life Expectancy (primary to tertiary education): 18 years
Percentage of population having completed secondary education: 95.9%
Percentage of population having completed some form of post-secondary education: 71.6%
Number of Public Universities: 157
Number of Colleges: 264
Number of Degree-Granting Technical Schools: 10
Bilingualism (both official languages): 78.8% of the total population
First Nations Language Speakers: 5,516,853 (63.07% of First Nations Canadians)
- Mohawk: 849,892
- Algonquin: 775,058
- Ojibway: 576,706
- Mi'kmaq: 449,228
- Chipeywan: 397,923
- Oji-Cree: 266,284
- Atikamekw: 265,247
- Inuktitut: 110,749
- Cayuga: 35,354
- Wyandot: 33,166
- Montagnais: 27,815
- Stoney: 18,429
- Dakelh: 15,390
Other Languages Spoken (number of speakers):
- Hindustani: 2,208,229
- Punjabi: 2,026,516
- Spanish: 1,828,174
- Cantonese: 1,516,287
- Mandarin Chinese: 1,227,158
- Italian: 1,076,228
- Creoles: 995,832
- Tagalog: 842,764
- German: 760,844
- Dutch: 727,526
- Arabic: 703,390
- Modern Hebrew: 557,589
- Dravidian Languages: 470,983
- Gujarati: 425,826
- Russian: 352,129
- Farsi: 315,287
- Portuguese: 301,722
- Polish: 296,308
- Greek: 292,890
- Korean: 281,655
- Tamil: 262,078
- Vietnamese: 229,165
- Japanese: 205,721
Canadians who Identify as LGBT: 3,281,765 (3.16% of population)
[1] Respondents are able to choose two nationalities, all percentages are of the total Canadian population
[2] This is usually defined by people who are not aware of their ethnic background, or is used as a catchall for being a Canadian, commonly used by those of mixed ancestry between European and visible minority backgrounds
[3] All Canadians who answered as having one parent or both of a visible minority are counted as a member of it
[4] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to Africa, including all Africans brought to the Caribbean during colonial times
[5] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, directly or through another country
[6] This includes all Metropolitan First Nations aside from Metis (considered First Nations by Canada), Mayans (who are considered a First Nation by Canada owing to their heritage in Belize) and Indigenous Caribbeans
[7] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to China, directly or through another nation (particularly Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore)
[8] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to anywhere in Latin America, directly or through another nation
[9] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to all of Southeast Asia aside from Filipinos, including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, directly or through another nation
[10] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to Persian-speaking peoples, but does not include Pashtuns
[11] Canada's fertility rate is enormously different depending on the ethnicity, location and economic status. The largest cities of Metropolitan Canada - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle, Ottawa, Quebec City, Halifax, Hamilton, Winnipeg - have somewhat higher birth rates than some other areas, with prosperity and access to quality public services being the likely driver of this. The average birth rate of First Nations is highest among ethnic backgrounds, with South Asian, Filipino and Latin American families tending to be larger than the average as well. Among provinces, the Caribbean provinces and the Prairies rank highest.
Canada Total: 103,853,110
Ethnic Background (European Descent)
Total: 64,741,818 (62.34% of total Canadian Population)
By Background: [1]
Canadian: 40,274,241 (38.78%) [2]
English: 17,914,662 (17.25%)
French: 16,128,388 (15.53%)
Irish: 14,767,916 (14.22%)
Scottish: 10,836,035 (10.46%)
German: 9,523,329 (9.17%)
Italian: 6,843,922 (6.59%)
Ukrainian: 4,663,008 (4.49%)
Dutch: 4,216,437 (4.06%)
Polish: 3,427,153 (3.30%)
Welsh: 2,866,347 (2.76%)
Spanish: 2,409,394 (2.32%)
Portuguese: 2,243,226 (2.16%)
Norwegian: 2,170,532 (2.09%)
Russian: 2,149,760 (2.07%)
Swedish: 1,952,436 (1.88%)
Greek: 1,267,008 (1.22%)
American: 1,090,460 (1.05%)
Hungarian: 1,059,306 (1.02%)
Ethnic Background (Visible Minority) [3]
Total: 39,111,292 (37.66% of total Canadian Population)
By Background:
Black / African: 9,116,587 (8.78%) [4]
South Asian: 8,876,621 (8.55%) [5]
First Nations: 8,747,262 (8.42%) [6]
Chinese: 3,682,479 (3.55%) [7]
Latin American: 3,326,275 (2.92%) [8]
Filipino: 1,365,423 (1.31%)
Arab: 892,638 (0.86%)
Metis: 782,240 (0.75%)
Southeast Asia: 624,951 (0.60%) [9]
Iranian: 485,182 (0.47%) [10]
Korean: 350,406 (0.34%)
Japanese: 304,873 (0.29%)
Pashtun: 227,804 (0.22%)
Mayan and Indigenous Caribbean: 47,811 (0.05%)
Visible Minority, Not Included Elsewhere: 280,740 (0.27%)
Total Fertility Rate: 2.05 children/woman [11]
Mother's Mean Age at First Birth: 25.6 years (2035)
Birth Rate: 12.77 per 1000 population
Death Rate: 9.43 per 1000 population
Net Migration Rate: 6.84 per 1000 population
Infant Mortality Rate: 2.86 deaths per 1000 live births
Population Movement (2035): + 1,257,606
- Births (2035): 1,526,254
- Deaths (2035): 978,820
- Net Migration (2035): + 710,172
Population Growth Rate: 1.21% per year (2035)
Religion
- Catholicism: 31.1%
- Protestantism 18.3% (5.5% United Church, 4.7% Anglican, Baptist 2.0%, Lutheran 1.2%, Pentecostal 1.1%, Presbyterian 1.1%, other Protestant 2.5%)
- Orthodox Christianity 1.4%
- Mormonism 0.7%
- Other Christian 3.0%
- Islam 4.9%
- Judaism 2.9%
- Hinduism 2.3%
- Sikhism 1.3%
- Buddhism 1.1%
- Others: 0.6%
- No Religious Affiliation: 32.4%
Life Expectancy at Birth
- Total Population: 89.2 Years (2035)
- Male: 85.1 Years
- Female: 93.4 Years
School Life Expectancy (primary to tertiary education): 18 years
Percentage of population having completed secondary education: 95.9%
Percentage of population having completed some form of post-secondary education: 71.6%
Number of Public Universities: 157
Number of Colleges: 264
Number of Degree-Granting Technical Schools: 10
Bilingualism (both official languages): 78.8% of the total population
First Nations Language Speakers: 5,516,853 (63.07% of First Nations Canadians)
- Mohawk: 849,892
- Algonquin: 775,058
- Ojibway: 576,706
- Mi'kmaq: 449,228
- Chipeywan: 397,923
- Oji-Cree: 266,284
- Atikamekw: 265,247
- Inuktitut: 110,749
- Cayuga: 35,354
- Wyandot: 33,166
- Montagnais: 27,815
- Stoney: 18,429
- Dakelh: 15,390
Other Languages Spoken (number of speakers):
- Hindustani: 2,208,229
- Punjabi: 2,026,516
- Spanish: 1,828,174
- Cantonese: 1,516,287
- Mandarin Chinese: 1,227,158
- Italian: 1,076,228
- Creoles: 995,832
- Tagalog: 842,764
- German: 760,844
- Dutch: 727,526
- Arabic: 703,390
- Modern Hebrew: 557,589
- Dravidian Languages: 470,983
- Gujarati: 425,826
- Russian: 352,129
- Farsi: 315,287
- Portuguese: 301,722
- Polish: 296,308
- Greek: 292,890
- Korean: 281,655
- Tamil: 262,078
- Vietnamese: 229,165
- Japanese: 205,721
Canadians who Identify as LGBT: 3,281,765 (3.16% of population)
[1] Respondents are able to choose two nationalities, all percentages are of the total Canadian population
[2] This is usually defined by people who are not aware of their ethnic background, or is used as a catchall for being a Canadian, commonly used by those of mixed ancestry between European and visible minority backgrounds
[3] All Canadians who answered as having one parent or both of a visible minority are counted as a member of it
[4] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to Africa, including all Africans brought to the Caribbean during colonial times
[5] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, directly or through another country
[6] This includes all Metropolitan First Nations aside from Metis (considered First Nations by Canada), Mayans (who are considered a First Nation by Canada owing to their heritage in Belize) and Indigenous Caribbeans
[7] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to China, directly or through another nation (particularly Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore)
[8] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to anywhere in Latin America, directly or through another nation
[9] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to all of Southeast Asia aside from Filipinos, including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, directly or through another nation
[10] Defined as Canadians from or whose ancestry is traced back to Persian-speaking peoples, but does not include Pashtuns
[11] Canada's fertility rate is enormously different depending on the ethnicity, location and economic status. The largest cities of Metropolitan Canada - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle, Ottawa, Quebec City, Halifax, Hamilton, Winnipeg - have somewhat higher birth rates than some other areas, with prosperity and access to quality public services being the likely driver of this. The average birth rate of First Nations is highest among ethnic backgrounds, with South Asian, Filipino and Latin American families tending to be larger than the average as well. Among provinces, the Caribbean provinces and the Prairies rank highest.
In my mind, I can imagine downtown Lethbridge looking like OTL Calgary's downtown core with a strip of historical buildings similar to Stephen Ave. The view of the river valley from the High Level Viaduct would be quite impressive too.
I agree, and I was thinking that for Lethbridge 4 Avenue South would be the road for that. Lethbridge's downtown is basically between the Crowsnest Highway and Whoop-Up Drive. Lethbridge was one of the cities that the railways chose to build around, so the High Level Viaduct ITTL (which is double track here) is part of the approach to Lethbridge Terminal, the south end of the Wildrose Express High-Speed line. That route started as a diesel-powered fast (200 km/h) train in time for the Calgary Olympics, but the system worked so well that it was built into a complete HSR route, beginning fast operations in 2004. (The Wildrose Express is one of the fastest HSRs in the world, regularly operating at 320 km/h speeds in regular service.) The station is on the site of OTL's Centre Village Mall, and in Lethbridge here transit from the station, around the downtown core and out to the University to the West and south to the airport is done by the use of a rapid-transit system identical to the Vancouver Skytrain of OTL. Here, since the cities where the ICTS system of OTL was built all have proper subway systems (Vancouver, Toronto) or other forms of mass transit instead (Detroit), the ICTS system was used in cities that desperately needed better transit systems but didn't have the population to justify full subways, the system used instead of light rail where possible. Lethbridge was one of those places, of course, and the system began operations in the late 1980s. Industry primarily is on the edges of the city (similar to most Canadian cities, especially Prairie Province ones) because development resulted in land price rises to such a degree that many companies would make profits selling land to developers and building new facilities further away.In my mind, I can imagine downtown Lethbridge looking like OTL Calgary's downtown core with a strip of historical buildings similar to Stephen Ave. The view of the river valley from the High Level Viaduct would be quite impressive too.
And yes, the view from the Viaduct is very impressive from both sides. After all, you're the best part of 300 feet up, and either side is the vast river valley with very pretty city on either side of it. And because you're approaching the station, you're not zooming across it, so you have proper time to enjoy the view. 🙂
Last edited:
You really are an optimist re: the TTL handling of COVID-19 (well, 20) and the subsequent Chinese reaction. Also, damn, Justin sure had a looooooooooooong career as PM.
Marc A
Marc A
Changing the membrane isn't going to make that much difference. OTL desalination costs as little as 3kWh/tonne of water, and the theoretical limit is 1kWh/tonne. So cutting costs by half should be possible, in theory, but that doesn't get anywhere close to cheap enough for many uses (e.g. irrigation). Current processes are already fine for drinking water, and several industrial uses, so the new membranes don't help much there, either.
- Status