[Truenorth00]

The GTHA alone is 7 million. The NCR is 1.3 million. And there's something like half a million along the Lakeshore between Durham Region and Ottawa. Simply going strictly from Toronto to Ottawa via Peterborough as VIA is proposing to do has about 4.5 million in just the cities and towns that the stations fall in, for a line that is less than 400km. So yes, Ontario has a lot more.

That said Alberta absolutely has a good case for decent intercity rail service. You have 3 million residents along a 300 km corridor (350km to the furthest points). Even with regular speed rail (160 kph), Red Deer becomes little over 1 hr to both downtown Edmonton and downtown Calgary. The two major metros would be about 2.5 hrs apart from city centre to city centre with stops.

These are distances that become commutable with high speed rail. Red Deer, Airdrie, Leduc would absolutely would boom in population. Red Deer becomes a 50 min ride (with all the stops) from the city centres of Edmonton and Calgary. The journey between the two metros would get cut down to under two hours. As fast as air. There's no way you can get downtown to downtown by air in under two hours when you include travel to the airport and pre-boarding time.