Weather will be the primary reason. Despite its huge size. the real habitable area is probably less than 10% of its geographical size. Even Southern Ontario is deemed by many I know to be "too cold to live". 90% of Ontario and Quebec are simply inhabitable. I also personally think the entire Manitoba and Saskachewan are not suitable for human habitation unless we can create a way to simply hibernate during the 6 month winter (why there are so few people in Montana and North Dakota?) The fact that Montreal are thrive as a vibrant metropolis is already sort of a miracle and we don't see many such large cities with such severe weather. The only other case I can think of is probably Moscow.
Economic distress and resentment of the treaty within Germany helped fuel the ultra-nationalist sentiment that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, as well as the coming of a World War II just two decades later.
