Entre Les Murs

Why So Few?

There are some questions for which you assume you have the answer, until someone goes and asks. It's the last day of this French class, and the Italian guy turns to me in the midst of another discussion and says there's something he's always wondered. I'd kind of written him off as a slacker, but today he had launched into an informed and logical defence of nuclear power, and now we're going around the room talking about birth rates, maternity leave and daycare in our respective countries, and he wants to know: why are there so few people in Canada? His figure for the population of Canada is accurate and he's curious why there are so few in in such a large space - and the way he asks, not impolite, but it's like we've been careless. I launch into an explanation of how much of the land to the North isn't really habitable and I allude to historical factors, but I realize I don't really have a good answer. After all, even where we're concentrated in the South, compared to European densities there really aren't that many of us.

It's always seemed like we've got the right number. But how do you explain it to Europe, with Japan and Korea looking on? Sorry Italy, I guess we've been kind of wasteful...? The teacher sums up with something along the lines of it's nice to live in a big natural park, and I shrug, yeah.

posted 28.10.05