AHC: Making New France equal in population to BNA

If my hastily Googled figures are correct, in 1745, the population of New France was around 45,000*, while British North America was nearing 1,000,000 people.

How can we bring the former up to parity with the latter? What changes would need to be made to compel more people to leave France and to settle in North America? How far back would the POD need to be?

* this apparently only refers to the St. Lawrence region, but even adding however many people lived along the Mississippi and elsewhere, it's still a tiny figure in comparison
 
Basically, you need to make the French government far more interested in having a settler colony in the US, and the French people themselves far more willing to immigrate.

This is a challenge. France was comparatively wealthier than Britain (as I recall) and had more access to trade and resources in Europe. This meant that both government and citizen had less of a desire to gain wealth in the New World.

One possibility (which would probably butterfly away New France as we know it) is to have a successful Huegonot colony set up in the New World. IOTL multiple attempts failed, but a successful attempt could have a lot of Huegonots choosing exile over war during the Wars of Religion and flooding a French colony with settlers. These colonists would probably end up loyal to the crown of France if only because they need to be loyal to someone to protect them from the Spanish and/or Portuguese in the New World.

The French government, meanwhile, could become very interested in supporting and developing it's colonies in a variety of ways. The Huguenots could go from a subsistence/piracy colony to producing money through ventures like tobacco farms, thus bringing money to France. They may develop their own navy to protect themselves from other European colonists, and so the French government could decide that they can subsidize a navy from the colonists. Finally, the French government might decide that a Protestant colony is a little too much at risk from rebellion and so work harder to ensure the success of other, Catholic colonies (though the latter would have to give the Huguenot colony a wide berth to prevent provoking said rebellion).
 
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