The population of the City of Vancouver proper is only 700k or so, but if you factor in the metropolitan area, the population soars to over 2 million. It’s also a major port. It’s in direct competition with Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and L.A.
Off the top of my head, I can think of 4 more cities within 700 miles all with populations over 1 million, 2 of them in Canada. If we go to cities of 250k or more, you can add another 5, 3 in Canada.
BTW, the “alternate Capital” (should DC disappear or become unusable) of the USA is a sleepy little town of 20k population that is 40 miles from where I sit.
You might want to read a slightly newer than 1850’s population distribution chart. Yes, there are long stretches of unpopulated land, but have you ever driven the Nevada desert?
Your statement would have been far more accurate had you said the about 75% of the Canadian population lives within 200 miles of the US border.
OK, so the distribution is a bit better than I thought.
That still doesn’t change my mind that these places are not prime targets (seems everyone is anxious to prove their place is prime target material - or at least, as in PC world, all places are equal), neither Vancouver nor Minneapolis.
Doesn’t mean the jerk-offs wouldn’t do it just for fun; it’s just not bloody likely to be high on their priority lists.
It’s clear in the US the prime targets are DC and New York. It should be intuitively obvious why, regardless of 9/11. They were pretty smart and went beyond even just population matters never mind symbols, although those are part of it.
According to the stats I’ve seen, Vancouver is the second most populous city on the west coast.
It truly is a beautiful place.
And them Canadians love their bakeries! Yum!