Canada's development can be described as an interdependence between urban centers and hinterlands. The urban centers (cities) dominate the hinterland (rural areas). In the beginning, when the fur trade was conducted, Paris and its increasing demands for hats and other items made from beaver pelts drove economic activity in New France. On a smaller scale, Montreal and Quebec City served as centers through which trade was conducted and the raw materials (the beaver pelts) were collected for shipment to France where finished goods (fur hats and coats) were made to be sold at home and abroad.
As Canada grew and expanded westward after the fur trade, the trend of metropolitan dominance continued. Now southern Ontario and Quebec served as the center where manufactured goods were created and the West became the storehouse of raw materials that allowed the center to profit. The West provided wheat, oil, minerals, timber, and fish that could all be brought to the center for manufacturing and sale either back to the hinterland or beyond to the larger world. The metropolis gains wealth and supplies the hinterland with manufactured goods that it could not produce for itself while the hinterland gains consumer goods and convenience in exchange for its resources.
The net effect of metropolitan dominance and the country's geography can be seen in Canada's population distribution. Most settlement remains at the southernmost points and near the coasts.
When describing what we see in the maps above, we usually use two terms:
Population distribution - the pattern of where people live
Population density - the number of people in a given space (square mile or kilometer)
