I just grabbed the numbers the numbers from Statscan's Q2 provincial population estimates (Spoiler Canada Breaks 37M population for the first time!):
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Alberta only grew 0.05% faster than BC did year over year, so I have to assume it'll be a heck of a long while before we catch them at this rate. However, we grew considerably faster than they did in Qs 1 and 2. So, if we hold tight and they continue slowing maybe we can make up some ground. And there is considerable ground to make up, the gap between the two provinces is slightly more than the population of Newfoundland and Labrador. It doesn't really help that they're still growing faster in absolute terms either. They out paced us by just over five thousand souls last quarter.
Speaking of poor old NL, there's another jurisdiction in Canada that needs to see oil bounce back harder than we do. Hopefully they can turn the corner at some point. They were the only shrinking province last quarter and last year. Mostly good news for the country as a whole though. Growth across the board, NL excepting. Alberta barely trailed Quebec in absolute growth.
Scarily though, more than half the growth last quarter was in Ontario. It can't be good for the confederation to have so much of the population in a single province. Consider this the introduction of my long held dream that it should be broken into four pieces (Southern, Central, Northern and Capital). Those are place holder names, as I'd far rather see us try something creative rather than just slap the name Ontario on a couple extra things and carry on.
There was an interesting note on the population estimates front page. It looks like this will be the last estimate based on the 2011 census. It'll be interesting to see if switching to the 2016 census will have an impact. They note that they will be correcting for under-counts.
Source:
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710000901
Northern Ontario -
Winnipequa - everything north of Barrie and the southern border of Algonquin Park - Major cities: Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay - Capital:
Sault Ste. Marie - Largest Metropolitan Area: Sudbury/Nickel Belt (300,000) - Provincial Population: 800,000
Capital -
District of Kanata (DK) - Ottawa/Gatineau, equal geographic territory from both Ontario and Quebec - Major cities: Ottawa, Gatineau, Pontiac - Capital:
Ottawa (federally administered territory with senate and parliamentary voting rights) - Territorial Population: 1,600,000
Central Ontario -
Ontario - everything south of DK and Winnipekwa, everything north of the Niagara Escarpment (includes City of Niagara Falls) - Major cities: Toronto, Hamilton, St. Catharines/Niagara, Oshawa, Barrie, Kingston - Capital:
Toronto - Largest Metropolitan Area: Greater Toronto and Hamilton Megapolitan Region (10,000,000) - Provincial Population: 10,500,000
Southern Ontario -
Tuscarora - everything south of the Niagara escarpment and north of the American border - Major cities: Grand River (KWC), London, Windsor, Guelph, Brantford - Capital:
London - Largest Metropolitan Area: Grand River (700,000) - Provincial Population: 3,500,000
(loosely projected future populations around 2030)
Etymology of Winnipequa: conjunction of indigenous terms meaning Great Water/Many Lakes.
Etymology of Tuscarora: the largest First Nations reserve in the country in Brant County, the only tribal government with representatives of all six Iroquois Nations sitting on council. An apt symbol of strength through cooperation for a newly federated province.