Is Canada much more freshwater-oriented in its growth/history than most countries?

[Capsicum]

Many countries have their largest cities on sea coastlines, but Canada's two largest cities are lake and river-oriented respectively and the two coasts had relatively little growth. To start with, Canada's history of settlement already had much more of a concentration on the St. Lawrence seaway and Great Lakes than the Maritimes early on (unlike the US, where the Great Lakes/Midwest lagged behind the Atlantic seaboard and New England, and where, while lake cities like Chicago, Detroit had their great heyday, even at their peak, were as a whole, close to approaching but not necessarily larger or more important than the coastal northeast like NYC, Boston, Philly). And soon, as the west coast grew, people started thinking of the US as a "bi-coastal" dominant country. By contrast, there wasn't any major time period in Canada's history when the Atlantic coast and Pacific coasts were exceptionally dominant relative to the Great-Lakes and St. Lawrence seaway area (or "Laurentia"). Upper Canada and Lower Canada almost evoke Upper and Lower Egypt, another river-oriented civilization. And even though the west is rising in importance, BC hasn't really grown especially much up along the coast in terms of population.

[The Chemist]

While China may have large coastal cities, it's also a heavily river-oriented country. There are several huge cities built along the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers (although only the Yangtze is really a transportation corridor). China also built the world's longest artificial waterway (the Grand Canal) hundreds of years ago, and to this day it is still a major transport conduit.

[Capsicum]

On a related note, Canada is one of the top large countries for using rivers for hydroelectric power generation I think.

It's fitting that the national animal, the beaver is also a freshwater (stream and ponds) animal. The fur trade and transport by canoes is obviously important in Canadian history. Tourism and recreation by freshwater is a big deal (eg. cottage country) too though of course there's plenty of tourism to BC and Atlantic Canada. But it seems that many of the coastal industries (eg. the cod fisheries after their collapse) are economically more peripheral.

Not to downplay the Maritime contribution to Canadian culture (eg. Anne of Green Gables, the Bay of Fundy etc.) of course, or on the other coast, the importance of BC in getting Canada a foothold among the "Pacific Rim" region of the world.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

Upper Canada and Lower Canada almost evoke Upper and Lower Egypt, another river-oriented civilization. .

I never thought about this. It's very interesting. Montreal as Memphis, Toronto as Luxor-on-the-lake.

[MolsonExport]

cbc

Map of the world's lakes with surface areas of 10 hectares or more. The large, dark blue areas in Canada reflect the high concentration of lakes in those regions. (HydroLAB, McGill University)

Lehner, who was the database's senior author, estimated the depth and water content for 1.42 million lakes around the world. The study focused on those that are 10 hectares and larger. And of those, Canada is home to a whopping 62 per cent.

[lio45]

Historically, definitely "yes". Canada was a "one river civilization" for a good while at first. Egypt with the Nile is a decent analogy.

Northern lakes are completely orthogonal to this, though just as relevant.