It already does compete with air travel handily on plenty of these routes, but there are some really super cheap flights around the EU and HSR is still basically run like a profit driven business that has to recoup its significant capital costs (building the system). Flying can often be cheaper even if the time you take to travel is roughly the same or even comes out in favor of the train.
I get where you're coming from but the biggest city in Montana has like 100,000 people and it's 90% white whereas Alberta has two cities of more than 1 million, around 60% white and like a third of the people in each weren't born in Canada. I don't think you can really flatten them down like that unless you're just looking at rural culture.