Population of Canada with indigenous nations separated. Population of Canada Canada ranks 38 comprising about 0.5% of the world's total population, with over 37 million Canadians as of 2018. Despite having the 2nd largest landmass, the vast majority of the country is sparsely inhabited, with most of its population south of the 55th parallel north. Though Canada's population density is low, many regions in the south such as Southern Ontario, have population densities higher than several European countries. Canada's largest population centres are Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa with those six being the only ones with more than one million people.
Province of Canada deadlock between English (mainly from Canada West) and French (mainly from Canada East). The majority of the province was French, which demanded "rep-by-pop" (representation by population), which the Anglophones opposed. The granting of responsible government to the colony is typically attributed to reforms in 1848 (principally the effective transfer of control over patronage from the Governor to the elected ministry). These reforms resulted in the appointment of the second Baldwin–Lafontaine government that quickly removed many of the disabilities on French-Canadian political participation in the colony. Once the English population, rapidly growing through immigration, exceeded the French, the English demanded representation-by-population.