[vgoh1]

I don't understand this argument. What does the population of the country have to do with anything? Shouldn't a country with a larger population have more power to make competitive advantages, and larger economies of scale, and therefore have an easier time?

[bazooka_penguin]

More people to manage, more local governments with more layers of hierarchies and more bureaucracy overall and I've never heard of bureaucracies scaling well

[DubiousPusher]

If this were the case, Switzerland should be tremendously bad off. They have a ton of bureaucracy and are even more federalist than the U.S.

[mthoms]

The Canadian tiers of government are very similar to the US. The one difference (AFAIK) is there is no "county" government or equivalent.

Anyways, this is actually the first time I've ever heard someone claim that Canada has less bureaucracy than the United States.

[dx87]

If everyone agrees with each other, then yeah, a large population is better. But when you've got a ton of people it's harder to find a solution that everyone likes. It's like the difference between two people trying to decide where to get lunch, and 30 people trying to decide. It also doesn't help that the West and East coast are culturally different, even among people of the same political party.

[mthoms]

Isn't it more like 30 people vs 300 people? The proportions of differing opinions are are still the same in that case.

Your East vs West coast comment also confused me. I'd argue Canada has the same (or more) regional differences in politics.

There's the East Region (Ontario + Maritimes), Quebec (featuring a different language, heritage, culture and legal system), The Central region, and the West Coast.

Oh, and of course First Nations throughout (which of course the US has as well).