Largest Canadian cities since 1921

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

A few successful cities (mostly Halifax, St. John's, and Moncton) showing fairly healthy growth and the others remaining stagnant or slow decline. Well, up until very recently (since the covid began) when growth has risen significantly, but it's unclear how long that will continue.

There were two inflection points. One was around 2015, which coincided with a drop in oil prices in Alberta as well as the federal government removing very low immigration caps specific to Nova Scotia. The growth rate was around 0.5-1% in Halifax before 2015, around 2% from 2016-2020, and these days is more like 5%.

Wikipedia has the following historical population figures for Halifax County:

1921: 97,228
1931: 100,204
1941: 122,656
1951: 162,217

The Halifax city limits were very small in the 1960's and earlier. That 1921 population is somewhat lowered by the Halifax Explosion that happened in 1917. The city has had a decent growth rate for most of its history with 1891-1931 (really 1891-1911 and then 1921-1931 with the explosion derailing the relatively successful 1910's) and 1991-2016 being slow periods. It grew a lot from the 1930's to the 1980's.

[Docere]

Yes a case can be made that Halifax and Windsor were bigger than Calgary and Edmonton in 1931.

[Doady]

Wow, Windsor is an old city. Might be a very interesting place to explore.

[someone123]

Here's the current CBRM (Sydney) boundaries:

1921 86,319
1931 92,502
1941 110,703
1951 120,306
1961 131,507
1971 129,075
1981 127,035
1991 117,403
2001 105,968
2011 97,398

In 1921, the #3 largest municipality in Canada didn't have 2x the population of part of Cape Breton ("Industrial Cape Breton"). And the population there has barely grow during the past 100 years.

[Doady]

Cape Breton Island is like the Rust Belt? That's interesting. Even Southern Ontario does not have a true Rust Belt with such population decline.

[Docere]

I'd say Cape Breton is Canada's closest analogue to West Virginia.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by Docere

I'd say Cape Breton is Canada's closest analogue to West Virginia.

I took a road trip to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland (well, ferry to Newfoundland) one summer when I was in college. I remember Cape Breton Island was stunningly beautiful. The scenery reminded me of California's Central Coast. I hope to make it back at some point.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Docere

1921

1. Montreal 618,506
2. Toronto 521,893
3. Winnipeg 179,807
4. Vancouver 163,220
5. Hamilton 114,151
6. Ottawa 107,843
7. Quebec 95,193
8. Calgary 63,305
9. London 60,959
10. Edmonton 58,821

In 2023, from our modern lens it's hard to believe Winnipeg was once the 3rd largest city a century ago. Not only larger than Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, but Vancouver as well!

I do kinda wish Winnipeg was Edmonton sized with a light rail system. The city has so many positive attributes including what may be Canada's steadiest economy.
At least it and QC are rapidly growing towards 1 million person Metropolitan areas.

[Docere]

Edmonton kinda feels like a Winnipeg but newer and closer to the oil patch (granted Edmonton has nearly twice the population of Winnipeg now).

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Wigs

In 2023, from our modern lens it's hard to believe Winnipeg was once the 3rd largest city a century ago. Not only larger than Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, but Vancouver as well!

I do kinda wish Winnipeg was Edmonton sized with a light rail system. The city has so many positive attributes including what may be Canada's steadiest economy.
At least it and QC are rapidly growing towards 1 million person Metropolitan areas.

My uncle (born in Winnipeg) says that, early on, Winnipeg was set up to be Canada's primary railroad nexus, like Chicago was for the US. I would imagine that Winnipeg's growth was tied to the prominence of the railroads in everyday life (rapid growth early on, but then everyone switched to trucks, cars, and airplanes and growth slowed). Does that make sense?

[Wigs]

Yes it does. The Exchange district (named after the Grain commodities Exchange) has a large collection of late 19th-early 20th century buildings (approximately 150 buildings) and one of the nicknames a century ago was "Chicago of the North". I've heard people say "little Chicago" as well but doesn't appear it was an official nickname.

12 year old video but informative and under 2 minutes
• Video Link

Here's Albert St. and McDermott Ave
in Winnipeg that the video tour guide mentions
83 Albert St
https://maps.app.goo.gl/a6DXNepcs4Q48eaW9

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

It's because the US is so wealthy and so efficient that we can afford to have a huge chunk of the population live inefficiently for vanity purposes (the entire retired population of Florida, Arizona, etc., plus trust funders).

Just this week I've been reading about U.S. retirees living more and more in poverty because of their fixed income status. There are many who do have tons of affluence, but certainly not all, and probably not most. Even The Villages in Florida is largely middle class, with a only a few clusters of ostentatious lifestyles. When I visited The Villages I was surprised that there is even a section consisting of manufactured homes. Most of the rest was nice looking middle class neighborhoods. The stereotype of wealthy Florida retirees is based somewhat on fact, but is not as representative to the degree that many of us would expect.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Docere

I'd say Cape Breton is Canada's closest analogue to West Virginia.

It's similar in that it was dominated by a coal and steel economy in the 20th century (also like say Wallonia) and didn't have much else to turn to when those industries died. It has a different history, culture, location, natural environment, etc. compared to West Virginia. For example it's an island while WV is landlocked.

[Docere]

Winnipeg has an interesting history. It was a hotbed of political radicalism a century ago. And it was the Canadian city most proportionately impacted by the continental European immigration of the early 20th century. In particular Ukrainians and Poles. It also had a very sizeable Jewish community.

Winnipeg today I believe has the largest Indigenous population of any North American city. Recently, history was made with the election of Wab Kinew as Premier of Manitoba.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Docere

Winnipeg has an interesting history. It was a hotbed of political radicalism a century ago. And it was the Canadian city most proportionately impacted by the continental European immigration of the early 20th century. In particular Ukrainians and Poles. It also had a very sizeable Jewish community.

Winnipeg today I believe has the largest Indigenous population of any North American city. Recently, history was made with the election of Wab Kinew as Premier of Manitoba.

In terms of population share I assume. (It's around 15% in Winnipeg I think.)

Also I think you mean USA+Canada when you say "North America".

(Think of San Cristobal de las Casas, as just one example.)

[Docere]

It's interesting to note that L.A. surpassed Chicago for #2 in the US around the same time that Toronto pulled ahead of Montreal for #1 in Canada.

[Wigs]

Docere, I never realized that. Neat!

[Docere]

For historical consistency, I'm using CMAs even though a this point Toronto and Hamilton are really one metro area. And add another 400,000 for Oshawa which really has no business being a CMA at all. Hamilton kind of makes it because Burlington is sort of a shared suburb of Toronto and Hamilton. Burlington is a big job center and most of Hamilton's commuting into the "GTA" is actually neighboring Burlington. In contrast Whitby, Oshawa's "suburb", is a full-fledged bedroom community for Toronto.

Toronto and Montreal are pretty much even in 1971 (i.e before the election of the Parti Quebecois in 1976 and the Montreal anglo/Jewish exodus - the trajectory was already in place).

Oshawa first became a CMA in 1971 and if you add that to Toronto it's already a bit bigger (not sure if that's justifiable then though, probably not). I think a fairly astute observer in 1960 could see Toronto was going to pull ahead of Montreal.

[Docere]

Officially the Census Bureau declared Los Angeles #2 in 1982, so 1980 census was the last time Chicago was #2. But that's city propers. The metros were pretty even in 1960 and L.A. pulled ahead in 1970.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Docere

Officially the Census Bureau declared Los Angeles #2 in 1982, so 1980 census was the last time Chicago was #2. But that's city propers. The metros were pretty even in 1960 and L.A. pulled ahead in 1970.

Proper cities. Cities proper.