Canada is the second largest country in the world, but such a "big country" has little influence in the international community, let alone joining the ranks of world powers.
Canada is located in the northern part of North America. Its land area is above 45 degrees north latitude, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the United States to the northwest, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. The land area is 9.98 million square meters. kilometers, second only to Russia, and ranks second in the world in terms of land area.
Although Canada has a very vast land area, due to the country's poor geographical location and relatively high latitude, most of the country's land area is distributed north of 49 degrees north latitude. You must know that at the same latitude, the northern part of Northeast my country and further north, so it can be seen that most parts of Canada are very cold.
The northern third of Canada is deep into the Arctic Circle . The surface is covered with ice and snow all year round, which makes the place for people to live even smaller. In addition, the terrain in the north of Canada is mainly dominated by mountain forests. , life and transportation are very inconvenient.
Therefore, although Canada has a very large land area, there are not many livable places. The only places that can really be used are the four Great Lakes adjacent to the United States and the southeastern coastal areas, and the total area of these areas is only about It is about 500,000 square kilometers, accounting for only 5% of the land area.
The actual development area in Canada is only about 500,000 square kilometers, but the undeveloped land is more than 9 million square kilometers. Wouldn't it be a waste if such a large area of land cannot be developed? In fact, the reason why
is not developed is because it is too difficult to develop, and Canada's population is only 38.13 million. If we really want to carry out large-scale development, just this few people will not be enough. Except for women, the elderly and children, we can use There are less than 10 million men who want to be "strong men". If these people are evenly dispersed, each person will need to be responsible for the development of one square kilometer of area, which is very unrealistic.
Although Canada has what we call disadvantages such as poor geographical location and sparse population, Canada is still a developed country and one of the seven major industrial countries in the West.
So why can Canada become a highly developed capitalist country with such a small population?
Canada is very rich in resources
This includes wood and oil resources that are most needed by modern industry. According to relevant agency detection, Canada's underground oil reserves can account for 10% of the world's total oil reserves.
Therefore, Canada's export of these resources has always been an important source of economic support for the country, and because of the capital accumulated from the early export of oil, Canada's manufacturing and high-tech industries have become very developed. In addition, Canada's agriculture and fisheries can also bring a lot of wealth, and Canada has become a major exporter of wheat and fish products.
Some people may find it strange that Canada is next to the United States. Can such a hegemonic country tolerate such a resource-rich country and ignore it? You must know that the United States has sent troops to countries as far away as the Middle East ." Counterterrorism". This is the second reason.
Canada’s national strategy of “walking with the United States”
Although Canada is rich in oil, the country’s demand for oil is not large, so 99% of its oil production is exported to the United States every year. Therefore, the United States will definitely "stumbling" on the oil trade issue, but Canada has not thought about how to safeguard its own interests. Instead, it relies closely on the United States. Only the United States will follow. If the United States says so, Canada will definitely not Say two. Canada's behavior is to pursue the national strategy of "walking with the United States", making Canada a "vassal state" of the United States. Therefore, it has no sense of presence in the international community and naturally has little influence.
Of course, the standard for judging a strong country cannot only look at the country's economic strength, but also its military strength. Only when both have a certain degree of strength can it be called a strong country. What about Canada's military strength?
Canada's military strength can be described in two words, that is "sparse".
As we mentioned before, the total population of Canada is only over 30 million, and the number of people joining the military who meet the age and physical fitness standards is very few.
According to statistics, the total number of Canadian soldiers in service remains at around 60,000 all year round, which is only the size of a Class B Army Group in China. With such a small number of people, not to mention going to the battlefield, even conducting military drills is not enough.
Canada is therefore at a loss. Since it does not have enough capabilities to consolidate the country's military strength, and is surrounded by sea on three sides. The only neighboring country is the United States. Its military strength completely crushes itself. In order not to make unnecessary sacrifices, So we might as well just hand it over directly to the United States, and even hand over the full power of national defense to the United States.
So to this day, we can also see that the domestic air defense identification area of the United States includes Canada as a whole.
And Canadians are very smart. The United States is responsible for national defense and does not have to spend a penny more. So many times, the United States directly or indirectly asked Canada to increase its military strength, but Canada pretended not to hear it. This is unprecedented in today's world. No powerful country would be willing to do this because it would seriously threaten its own country’s homeland security.
Therefore, although Canada is an economically developed country, if it cannot control its national defense power, it will not be able to become a powerful country.
