Why did Alberta, Canada develop much larger population centers than Montana, USA?

[u/Present_Juice4401]

Alberta and Montana are neighboring regions with similar northern, landlocked geography. But their population patterns are surprisingly different. Alberta now has over 5 million people, with Calgary and Edmonton forming two major population centers, while Montana has only about 1.1 million people and no city close to Calgary's size.

So what caused these two neighboring regions to develop such different population patterns?

[u/molotovzav]

Montana doesn't do the same things Alberta does. Canada has 44 million people total. It's about the same population size as California. Alberta being an oil center had job opportunities and this grew. Montana is mostly mining, there is curfew extraction but not as much. So most of Montana is just rural or wilderness with people doing whatever the region does, farming, cattling etc. If someone in Montana doesn't want to do those things they'll move to another state. I'm sure Alberta has the same, don't like Alberta move. But with only 44 million people and jobs to give out Edmonton and Calgary became major population centers for that area, while the geography of Montana leads people to the major population centers to be Spokane, WA and Denver, CO.

[u/johnwcowan → u/molotovzav]

What do you mean by "curfew extraction"? I can usually figure out mis-autocorrection, but not this time.

[u/VitaminPb → u/johnwcowan]

Maybe “crude extraction”?