Can the Future Perfect be used in a main clause of a conditional sentence that has a stative/non-action verb in the if-clause?

Question

A student asked me this question today about a sentence like:

(1) If Canada's population is 40 million, the Canadian economy will have been more dynamic.

I was asked if it corresponded, in a future conditional sense, to the third conditional sentence (2) If Canada's population had been 40 million, the Canadian economy would have been more dynamic.

To me, sentence #1 sounds utterly ungrammatical, and my tentative theory is that the ungrammaticality is because of the stative/non-action verb in the if-clause. I can come up with unusual--but grammatical--sentences using Future Perfect in the main clause and a Simple Present action verb in the if-clause, such as If she agrees to marry me, we will have lived together for a year by next Christmas. But I have not been able to dream up a corresponding, grammatical example that uses a stative/non-action verb in the if-clause, nor can I think of a way to transpose the meaning of #2 (third conditional) to #1.

I need some help with this, and my search of umpteen grammar reference books, Google, and the ELU archives has not helped. Please enlighten me.

Answer 1

Past

If Canada's population had been 40 million, the Canadian economy would have been more dynamic.

Present

If Canada's population were 40 million, the Canadian economy would be more dynamic.

You could say is when the clause introduced by the if is not a condition but a consequence, as in:

If Canada's population is 40 million, it is because people are living longer.

You could also use is if you doubt a fact, e.g.

I do not believe the extrapolation of the last census. If Canada's population is 40 million, the Canadian economy must be more dynamic than what I thought.

Answer 2

I surely don't know how to identify the parts of the grammar as well as you, but based on the example given, would this be a valid answer?

If I am a typical man, my life will have been of little use to my Creator.

or

If my life is a typical life, it will have been of little use to my Creator.

Answer 3

I agree with you that it's utterly ungrammatical. Your second example sentence is to me the correct version of this. I don't know where the sentence came from though, and why you insist on trying to interpret it as grammatically correct.

Answer 4

If mayor Ford IS high on crack cocaine, he WILL SUFFER a drug withdrawal.

The sentence "If Canada's population IS 40 million, the Canadian economy WILL BE more dynamic" gives sense and is grammatically correct if the previous or the previous sentences acts or act as a qualifier to the sentence that follows. An example : "As a general rule, the increase of a population causes an economy to expand and this year the population count reached 40 million. If Canada's population IS [indeed] 40 million, the Canadian economy WILL BE more dynamic" A 'qualifying sentence' does not have to be used if the fact or facts relevant to the meaning of a sentence are generally well understood. In the case of the mayor Ford statement it is well known that the use of drugs causes drug withdrawals and thus a logical link that gives this sentence a coherence of meaning is naturally provided.