>Looking at Canada with Google Earth, I've noticed how large are the states (I don't know if that is the right denomination - maybe provinces?) when compared to the USA states - from 2-3 times larger that most of them, and how few they are,
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>Ontario and Quebec have the size of whole countries!
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>Why is that? Due to climate (at the extreme north there are the Northwest Territories, the Yukon Territories and Nunavut, that seemed to me to be as desolated as Alaska)? Population distribution? Ethnics?

CIA Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ca.html

Up here we do call them provinces. Years ago I spent a couple of weeks working in Kansas. The good ol' boys there liked to brag about how large the Plains states are, especially Texas. I'd just tell them that if you took Texas and Oklahoma together, you'd still need half of Kansas to catch up to my medium-sized Canadian province of British Columbia.

The climate is cold (and dark in winter) in the North, so there aren't many settlements north of Edmonton, Alberta that aren't built around a resource like a diamond mine or tar sands deposit. Something like 90% of the population of Canada lives within 150km of the US border.

I spent a summer working on Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories. That lake is on the border of the northern boreal forest - the tree line, north of which is treeless tundra, muskeg and permafrost. No good for growing crops other than blackflies and mosquitoes.

I had an opportunity to fly back from that job, from the lake to Port Alberni, BC on Vancouver Island. It was a 12 hour flight spread over two days in a deHavilland Beaver float plane. Being unpressurized, the whole trip was relatively low altitude - 2,000 to 3,000 meters. A Beaver's cruise speed is about 200 km/h. This low speed combined with the low altitude and clear weather we had gave us a terrific view of the terrain. We flew south across muskeg and northern forest, from the NWT into northern Alberta and the agricultural areas of the Peace River.

The Peace River area was the only part where I was a little nervous - unlike the muskeg and northern forest where there are tens of thousands of lakes and ponds, there is practically no surface water in that area. Being in a pure float plane (not an amphibian) we could land only on water. Most of the Peace River area is not a good place for a float plane if you have to land for any reason.

Eventually we reached the Peace River itself (sigh of relief) and turned west, flying upstream along the river into British Columbia. We then crossed over into the Fraser River watershed and flew down the Fraser to Prince George, where we landed on the river and spent the night.

Next morning we continued the trip down the Fraser River. Rather than following the river right down into Vancouver then crossing Georgia Strait to Vancouver Island, we turned right at Lilooet and flew into Howe Sound, then across the Strait to the Island.

We had beautiful clear weather the whole way until we hit some rainshowers approaching Vancouver Island at the very end of the trip. It was an incredible geography lesson as well as a free trip home ;)