British Columbia
British Columbia (BC; French: Colombie-Britannique) is the westernmost
province of Canada, located between the
Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean and the Rocky
Mountains. With an estimated population of 4.8 million as of 2017, it
is Canada's third-most populous province.
The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria,
established in 1843, which gave rise to the City of Victoria, at first
the capital of the separate Colony of
Vancouver
Vancouver Island. Subsequently,
on the mainland, the
Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866)
Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) was
founded by Richard Clement Moody[5] and the Royal Engineers, Columbia
Detachment, in response to the
Fraser Canyon
Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Moody was
Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works for the Colony and the first
Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia: he was hand-picked by the
Colonial Office
Colonial Office in
London
London to transform
British Columbia
British Columbia into the
British Empire's "bulwark in the farthest west",[6] and "to found a
second England on the shores of the Pacific".[7] Moody selected the
site for and founded the original capital of British Columbia, New
Westminster, established the
Cariboo Road
Cariboo Road and Stanley Park,[8] and
designed the first version of the Coat of arms of British Columbia.[9]
Port Moody
Port Moody is named after him.[10]
In 1866,
Vancouver
Vancouver Island became part of the colony of British
Columbia, and Victoria became the united colony's capital. In 1871,
British Columbia
British Columbia became the sixth province of Canada. Its
Latin
Latin motto
is Splendor sine occasu ("Splendour without Diminishment").
The capital of
British Columbia
British Columbia remains Victoria, the
fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for the Queen
who created the original European colonies. The largest city is
Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest
in Western Canada, and the second-largest in the Pacific Northwest. In
October 2013,
British Columbia
British Columbia had an estimated population of
4,606,371 (about 2.5 million of whom were in Greater Vancouver).[11]
The province is currently governed by the
British Columbia
British Columbia New
Democratic Party in a minority government supported by the Green Party
of British Columbia, led by John Horgan, who became premier as a
result of a no-confidence motion on June 29, 2017.
British Columbia
British Columbia evolved from British possessions that were
established in what is now
British Columbia
British Columbia by 1871. First Nations,
the original inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least
10,000 years in the area. Today there are few treaties and the
question of Aboriginal Title, long ignored, has become a legal and
political question of frequent debate as a result of recent court
actions. Notably, the
Tsilhqot'in
.jpg/400px-Tsilhqot'in_baby_cradle_(UBC2010a).jpg)
Tsilhqot'in Nation has established Aboriginal
title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the recent
Supreme Court of
Canada
Canada decision (William [
Tsilhqot'in
Tsilhqot'in Nation] v.
British Columbia).
BC's economy is diverse, with service producing industries accounting
for the largest portion of the province's GDP.[12] It is the terminus
of two transcontinental railways, and the site of 27 major marine
cargo and passenger terminals. Though less than 5% of its vast
944,735 km2 (364,764 sq mi) land is arable, the
province is agriculturally rich (particularly in the Fraser and
Okanagan
Okanagan valleys), because of milder weather near the coast and in
certain sheltered southern valleys. Its climate encourages outdoor
recreation and tourism, though its economic mainstay has long been
resource extraction, principally logging, farming, and mining.
Vancouver, the province's largest city, serves as the headquarters of
many western-based natural resource companies. It also benefits from a
strong housing market and a per capita income well above the national
average. While the coast of
British Columbia
British Columbia and some valleys in the
south-central part of the province have mild weather, the majority of
its land mass experiences a cold-winter-temperate climate similar to
the rest of Canada. The Northern Interior region has a subarctic
climate with very cold winters. The climate of
Vancouver
Vancouver is by far the
mildest winter climate of the major Canadian cities, with nighttime
January temperatures averaging above the freezing point.[13]
Contents
1 Etymology
2 Geography
2.1 Climate
2.2 Parks and protected areas
2.3 Fauna
2.4 Forests
2.5 Traditional plant foods
2.6 Ecozones
3 History
3.1
First Nations
First Nations (Aboriginal) history
3.2
Fur trade
Fur trade and colonial era
3.3 Colony of
British Columbia
British Columbia (1858–66)
3.4 Later gold rushes
3.5 Rapid growth and development
3.6 1920s to 1940s
3.7 Coalition and the post-war boom
3.8 1952–1960s
3.9 1970s and 1980s
3.10 1990s to present
4 Demographics
4.1 Ethnic groups and languages
4.2 Cities
5 Economy
6 Government and politics
6.1 Official symbols
6.2 Civil rights
7 Social issues
7.1 Housing affordability
7.2
Fentanyl
Fentanyl crisis
8 Transportation
8.1 Roads and highways
8.2 Public transit
8.3 Rail
8.4 Water
8.5 Air
9 Culture
9.1 Outdoor life
10 Education
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
14 Further reading
15 External links
Etymology[edit]
The province's name was chosen by Queen Victoria, when the Colony of
British Columbia
British Columbia (1858–66), i.e., "the Mainland", became a British
colony in 1858.[14] It refers to the Columbia District, the British
name for the territory drained by the Columbia River, in southeastern
British Columbia, which was the namesake of the pre-
Oregon
Oregon Treaty
Columbia Department
Columbia Department of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria chose
British Columbia
British Columbia to distinguish what was the British sector of the
Columbia District
Columbia District from the United States ("American Columbia" or
"Southern Columbia"), which became the
Oregon Territory
Oregon Territory on August 8,
1848, as a result of the treaty.[15]
Ultimately, the Columbia in the name
British Columbia
British Columbia is derived from
the name of the Columbia Rediviva, an American ship which lent its
name to the
Columbia River
Columbia River and later the wider region;[16] the
Columbia in the name
Columbia Rediviva
Columbia Rediviva came from the name Columbia for
the New World or parts thereof, a reference to Christopher Columbus.
Geography[edit]
Main article:
Geography
Geography of British Columbia
British Columbia's geography is epitomized by the variety and
intensity of its physical relief, which has defined patterns of
settlement and industry since colonization.
British Columbia
British Columbia is bordered to the west by the
Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean and the
American state of Alaska, to the north by
Yukon
Yukon Territory and the
Northwest Territories, to the east by the province of Alberta, and to
the south by the American states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
The southern border of
British Columbia
British Columbia was established by the 1846
Oregon
Oregon Treaty, although its history is tied with lands as far south as
California. British Columbia's land area is 944,735 square kilometres
(364,800 sq mi). British Columbia's rugged coastline
stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres (17,000 mi), and
includes deep, mountainous fjords and about 6,000 islands, most of
which are uninhabited. It is the only province in
Canada
Canada that borders
the Pacific Ocean.
British Columbia's capital is Victoria, located at the southeastern
tip of
Vancouver
Vancouver Island. Only a narrow strip of
Vancouver
Vancouver Island, from
Campbell River to Victoria, is significantly populated. Much of the
western part of
Vancouver
Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast is covered
by temperate rainforest. The province's most populous city is
Vancouver, which is at the confluence of the
Fraser River
Fraser River and Georgia
Strait, in the mainland's southwest corner (an area often called the
Lower Mainland). By land area, Abbotsford is the largest city.
Vanderhoof is near the geographic centre of the province.[17]
Outline map of
British Columbia
British Columbia with significant cities and towns
The
Coast Mountains
Coast Mountains and the Inside Passage's many inlets provide some
of British Columbia's renowned and spectacular scenery, which forms
the backdrop and context for a growing outdoor adventure and
ecotourism industry. 75% of the province is mountainous (more than
1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level); 60% is forested; and
only about 5% is arable.
The province's mainland away from the coastal regions is somewhat
moderated by the Pacific Ocean. Terrain ranges from dry inland forests
and semi-arid valleys, to the range and canyon districts of the
Central and Southern Interior, to boreal forest and subarctic prairie
in the Northern Interior.
The
Okanagan
Okanagan area, extending from Vernon to
Osoyoos
Osoyoos at the United
States border, is one of several wine and cider-producing regions in
Canada. Other wine regions in
British Columbia
British Columbia include the Cowichan
Valley on
Vancouver
Vancouver Island and the Fraser Valley.
The Southern Interior cities of
Kamloops
Kamloops and
Penticton
Penticton have some of
the warmest and longest summer climates in Canada, although their
temperatures are often exceeded north of the Fraser Canyon, close to
the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson rivers, where the terrain is
rugged and covered with desert-type flora. Semi-desert grassland is
found in large areas of the Interior Plateau, with land uses ranging
from ranching at lower altitudes to forestry at higher ones.
The northern, mostly mountainous, two-thirds of the province is
largely unpopulated and undeveloped, except for the area east of the
Rockies, where the
Peace River Country
Peace River Country contains BC's portion of the
Canadian Prairies, centred at the city of Dawson Creek.
British Columbia
British Columbia is considered part of the
Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest and the
Cascadia bioregion, along with the American states of Alaska, Idaho,
Montana
Montana (western portion),
Oregon
Oregon and Washington.[18][19]
Climate[edit]
Köppen climate types in British Columbia
Strait of Georgia, near Vancouver
Coastal southern
British Columbia
British Columbia has a mild, rainy oceanic climate,
some far southern parts of which are warm-summer Mediterranean,
influenced by the North Pacific Current, which has its origins in the
Kuroshio Current. Due to the blocking presence of successive mountain
ranges, the climate of the interior of the province is semi-arid with
certain locations receiving less than 250 mm (10") in annual
precipitation. The annual mean temperature in the most populated areas
of the province is up to 12 °C (54 °F), the mildest
anywhere in Canada.
The valleys of the Southern Interior have short winters with only
brief bouts of cold or infrequent heavy snow, while those in the
Cariboo, in the Central Interior, are colder because of increased
altitude and latitude, but without the intensity or duration
experienced at similar latitudes elsewhere in Canada. For example, the
average daily low in Prince George (roughly in the middle of the
province) in January is −12 °C (10 °F).[20] Heavy
snowfall occurs in all elevated mountainous terrain providing bases
for skiers in both south and central British Columbia.
Winters are generally severe in the Northern Interior, but even there
milder air can penetrate far inland. The coldest temperature in
British Columbia
British Columbia was recorded in Smith River, where it dropped to
−58.9 °C (−74 °F) on January 31, 1947,[21] one of the
coldest readings recorded anywhere in North America. Atlin in the
province's far northwest, along with the adjoining Southern Lakes
region of Yukon, get midwinter thaws caused by the Chinook effect,
which is also common (and much warmer) in more southerly parts of the
Interior.
During winter, on the coast, rainfall, sometimes relentless heavy
rain, dominates because of consistent barrages of cyclonic
low-pressure systems from the North Pacific. Average snowfall on the
coast during an average winter is between 25 and 50 cm (9.8 and
19.7 in), but on occasion (and not every winter) heavy snowfalls
with more than 20 cm (7.9 in) and well below freezing
temperatures arrive when modified arctic air reaches coastal areas,
typically for short periods, and can take temperatures below
−10 °C (14 °F), even at sea level, and arctic outflow
winds can make wind chill temperatures at or even below
−17.8 °C (0.0 °F) for a couple of mornings. While
winters are very wet, coastal areas are generally milder and dry
during summer under the influence of stable anti-cyclonic high
pressure. Southern Interior valleys are hot in summer; for example in
Osoyoos
Osoyoos the July maximum temperature averages 31.7 °C
(89 °F) the hottest month of any place in Canada, this hot
weather sometimes spreads towards the coast or to the far north of the
province. Temperatures often exceed 40 °C (104 °F) in the
lower elevations of valleys in the Interior during mid-summer, with
the record high of 44.4 °C (111.9 °F) being held in Lytton
on July 16, 1941.[22]
The
Okanagan
Okanagan region has a climate suitable to vineyards.
The extended summer dryness often creates conditions that spark forest
fires, from dry-lightning or man-made causes. Many areas of the
province are often covered by a blanket of heavy cloud and low fog
during the winter months, in contrast to abundant summer sunshine.
Annual sunshine hours vary from 2200 near Cranbrook and Victoria to
less than 1300 in Prince Rupert, on the North Coast just south of
Southeast Alaska.
The exception to British Columbia's wet and cloudy winters is El
Niño. During this phase, the jet stream is much further south across
North America, therefore winters are milder and drier than normal.
Winters are much wetter and cooler under the opposite phase, La Niña.
Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures for selected cities in
British Columbia[23]
Municipality
January
April
July
October
Prince Rupert
5.6 °C (42.1 °F)/ −0.8 °C (30.6 °F)
10.2 °C (50.4 °F)/ 2.5 °C (36.5 °F)
16.2 °C (61.2 °F)/ 10.5 °C (50.9 °F)
11.1 °C (52.0 °F)/ 4.9 °C (40.8 °F)
Tofino
8.3 °C (46.9 °F)/ 2.3 °C (36.1 °F)
11.9 °C (53.4 °F)/ 4.0 °C (39.2 °F)
18.9 °C (66.0 °F)/ 10.5 °C (50.9 °F)
13.6 °C (56.5 °F)/ 6.3 °C (43.3 °F)
Nanaimo
6.9 °C (44.4 °F)/ 0.1 °C (32.2 °F)
14.1 °C (57.4 °F)/ 3.9 °C (39.0 °F)
23.9 °C (75.0 °F)/ 12.3 °C (54.1 °F)
14.6 °C (58.3 °F)/ 5.2 °C (41.4 °F)
Victoria
7.6 °C (45.7 °F)/ 1.5 °C (34.7 °F)
13.6 °C (56.5 °F)/ 4.3 °C (39.7 °F)
22.4 °C (72.3 °F)/ 11.3 °C (52.3 °F)
14.2 °C (57.6 °F)/ 5.7 °C (42.3 °F)
Vancouver
6.9 °C (44.4 °F)/ 1.4 °C (34.5 °F)
13.2 °C (55.8 °F)/ 5.6 °C (42.1 °F)
22.2 °C (72.0 °F)/ 13.7 °C (56.7 °F)
13.5 °C (56.3 °F)/ 7.0 °C (44.6 °F)
Chilliwack
6.1 °C (43.0 °F)/ 0.4 °C (32.7 °F)
15.8 °C (60.4 °F)/ 5.2 °C (41.4 °F)
25.0 °C (77.0 °F)/ 12.5 °C (54.5 °F)
15.3 °C (59.5 °F)/ 6.4 °C (43.5 °F)
Penticton
1.8 °C (35.2 °F)/ −3.0 °C (26.6 °F)
15.7 °C (60.3 °F)/ 2.5 °C (36.5 °F)
28.7 °C (83.7 °F)/ 13.3 °C (55.9 °F)
14.3 °C (57.7 °F)/ 3.2 °C (37.8 °F)
Kamloops
0.4 °C (32.7 °F)/ −5.9 °C (21.4 °F)
16.6 °C (61.9 °F)/ 3.2 °C (37.8 °F)
28.9 °C (84.0 °F)/ 14.2 °C (57.6 °F)
13.7 °C (56.7 °F)/ 3.3 °C (37.9 °F)
Osoyoos
2.0 °C (35.6 °F)/ −3.8 °C (25.2 °F)
18.1 °C (64.6 °F)/ 3.6 °C (38.5 °F)
31.5 °C (88.7 °F)/ 14.3 °C (57.7 °F)
16.4 °C (61.5 °F)/ 3.5 °C (38.3 °F)
Cranbrook
−1.9 °C (28.6 °F)/ −10.2 °C (13.6 °F)
12.9 °C (55.2 °F)/ 0.3 °C (32.5 °F)
26.2 °C (79.2 °F)/ 11.2 °C (52.2 °F)
11.7 °C (53.1 °F)/ −0.3 °C (31.5 °F)
Prince George
−4.0 °C (24.8 °F)/ −11.7 °C (10.9 °F)
11.2 °C (52.2 °F)/ −1.1 °C (30.0 °F)
22.4 °C (72.3 °F)/ 9.1 °C (48.4 °F)
9.4 °C (48.9 °F)/ −0.5 °C (31.1 °F)
Fort Nelson
−16.1 °C (3.0 °F)/ −24.6 °C (−12.3 °F)
9.6 °C (49.3 °F)/ −3.6 °C (25.5 °F)
23.2 °C (73.8 °F)/ 10.9 °C (51.6 °F)
5.2 °C (41.4 °F)/ −4.2 °C (24.4 °F)
Parks and protected areas[edit]
Main articles:
List of protected areas of British Columbia
List of protected areas of British Columbia and List of
British Columbia
British Columbia Provincial Parks
Kinney Lake
Kinney Lake and Mount Robson, Canadian Rockies
There are 14 designations of parks and protected areas in the province
that reflect the different administration and creation of these areas
in a modern context. There are 141 ecological Reserves, 35 provincial
marine parks, 7 Provincial Heritage Sites, 6 National Historic Sites
of Canada, 4 National Parks and 3 National Park Reserves. 12.5%
(114,000 km2 (44,000 sq mi)) of
British Columbia
British Columbia is
considered protected under one of the 14 different designations that
includes over 800 distinct areas.
British Columbia
British Columbia contains seven of Canada's national parks and
National Park Reserves:
Glacier National Park
Gulf Islands
Gulf Islands National Park Reserve
Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site
Kootenay National Park
Mount Revelstoke National Park
Pacific Rim National Park Reserve
Yoho National Park
British Columbia
British Columbia contains a large number of provincial parks, run by
BC Parks under the aegis of the Ministry of Environment. British
Columbia's provincial parks system is the second largest parks system
in Canada, the largest being Canada's National Parks system).
Another tier of parks in
British Columbia
British Columbia are regional parks, which
are maintained and run by regional districts. Forest Recreation Sites
are operated by the Ministry of Forests.
In addition to these areas, over 47,000 km2
(18,000 sq mi) of arable land are protected by the
Agricultural Land Reserve.
Fauna[edit]
Yoho National Park
Much of the province is undeveloped, so populations of many mammalian
species that have become rare in much of the United States still
flourish in British Columbia. Watching animals of various sorts,
including a very wide range of birds, has long been popular. Bears
(grizzly, black—including the
Kermode bear
Kermode bear or spirit bear) live
here, as do deer, elk, moose, caribou, big-horn sheep, mountain goats,
marmots, beavers, muskrats, coyotes, wolves, mustelids (such as
wolverines, badgers and fishers), cougars, eagles, ospreys, herons,
Canada
Canada geese, swans, loons, hawks, owls, ravens, harlequin ducks, and
many other sorts of ducks. Smaller birds (robins, jays, grosbeaks,
chickadees, and so on) also abound.
Murrelets are known from Frederick Island, a small islands off the
coast of Queen Charlotte's Islands.[24]
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Many healthy populations of fish are present, including salmonids such
as several species of salmon, trout, char. Besides salmon and trout,
sport-fishers in BC also catch halibut, steelhead, bass, and sturgeon.
On the coast, harbour seals and river otters are common. Cetacean
species native to the coast include the orca, humpback whale, grey
whale, harbour porpoise, Dall's Porpoise, Pacific white-sided dolphin
and minke whale.
Cheakamus Lake
Cheakamus Lake at dawn, in Garibaldi Provincial Park, BC
British Columbian introduced species include: common dandelion,
ring-necked pheasant, Pacific oyster, brown trout, black slug,
European starling, cowbird, knapweed, bullfrog, purple loosestrife,
Scotch broom, Himalayan blackberry, European earwig, tent caterpillar,
sowbug, grey squirrel, Asian longhorn beetle, English ivy, fallow
deer, thistle, gorse, Norway rat, crested mynah, and Asian or European
gypsy moth.[citation needed]
Some endangered species in
British Columbia
British Columbia are:
Vancouver
Vancouver Island
marmot, spotted owl, American white pelican, and badgers.
Type of organism
Red-listed species in BC
Total number of species in BC
Freshwater fish
24
80
Amphibians
5
19
Reptiles
6
16
Birds
34
465
Terrestrial mammals
Requires new data
Requires new data
Marine mammals
3
29
Plants
257
2333
Butterflies
19
187
Dragonflies
9
87
As of 2001[25]
Forests[edit]
White spruce or Engelmann spruce and their hybrids occur in 12 of the
14 biogeoclimatic zones of
British Columbia
British Columbia (Coates et al. 1994).[26]
Common types of trees present in BC's forests include Western
Redcedar, Yellow-cedar, Rocky Mountain juniper, Lodgepole pine,
Ponderosa or yellow pine, Whitebark pine, Limber pine, Western white
pine, Western larch, Tamarack, Alpine larch, White spruce, Engelmann
spruce, Sitka spruce, Black spruce, Grand fir, Amabilis fir, Subalpine
fir, Western hemlock, Mountain hemlock, Douglas-fir, Western yew,
Pacific dogwood, Bigleaf maple, Douglas maple, Vine maple, Arbutus,
Black hawthorn, Cascara, Garry oak, Pacific crab apple, Choke cherry,
Pin cherry, Bitter cherry, Red alder, Mountain alder, Paper birch,
Water birch, Black cottonwood, Balsam poplar, Trembling aspen.
Traditional plant foods[edit]
Main article: Wild and medicinal plants of British Columbia
Plant foods traditionally contributed only a part of the total food
intake of coastal
First Nations
First Nations peoples of British Columbia, though
they contributed to most of the material good produced. Among the
plant foods used, berries, some roots (for example the Camas Lily –
part of the
Camassia
Camassia family), cambium noodles (inner bark of hemlock),
and seaweeds were (and to an extent still are) important. Animal
products were traditionally far more important than plant foods in
terms of quantity consumed; however, the huge nutritional diversity
provided by native plants of BC largely contributes to the health of
First Nations
First Nations peoples of British Columbia. (Before colonization,
British Columbia
British Columbia had the densest aboriginal population of any region
in what is now called Canada.)[27]
Ecozones[edit]
Environment
Canada
Canada subdivides
British Columbia
British Columbia into six ecozones:
Pacific Marine
Pacific Maritime
Boreal Cordillera
Montane Cordillera
Taiga Plains
Boreal Plains Ecozones.
History[edit]
Main article: History of British Columbia
First Nations
First Nations (Aboriginal) history[edit]
Main articles: Indigenous peoples of the
Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest Coast,
Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, and The Canadian Crown
and Aboriginal peoples
The area now known as
British Columbia
British Columbia is home to
First Nations
First Nations groups
that have a deep history with a significant number of indigenous
languages. There are more than 200
First Nations
First Nations in BC. Prior to
contact (with non-Aboriginal people), human history is known from oral
histories of
First Nations
First Nations groups, archaeological investigations, and
from early records from explorers encountering societies early in the
period.
The arrival of
Paleoindians
Paleoindians from
Beringia
Beringia took place between 20,000
and 12,000 years ago.[28]
Hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer families were the main
social structure from 10,000 to 5,000 years ago.[29] The nomadic
population lived in non-permanent structures foraging for nuts,
berries and edible roots while hunting and trapping larger and small
game for food and furs.[29] Around 5,000 years ago individual groups
started to focus on resources available to them locally. Thus with the
passage of time there is a pattern of increasing regional
generalization with a more sedentary lifestyle.[29] These indigenous
populations evolved over the next 5,000 years across a large area into
many groups with shared traditions and customs.
To the northwest of the province are the peoples of the Na-Dene
languages, which include the Athapaskan-speaking peoples and the
Tlingit, who lived on the islands of southern
Alaska
Alaska and northern
British Columbia. The Na-
Dene language group is believed to be linked
to the
Yeniseian languages
Yeniseian languages of Siberia.[30] The
Dene of the western
Arctic may represent a distinct wave of migration from Asia to North
America.[30] The
Interior of British Columbia
Interior of British Columbia was home to the Salishan
language groups such as the Shuswap (Secwepemc),
Okanagan
Okanagan and
Athabaskan language groups, primarily the
Dakelh
Dakelh (Carrier) and the
Tsilhqot'in.[31] The inlets and valleys of the
British Columbia
British Columbia Coast
sheltered large, distinctive populations, such as the Haida,
Kwakwaka'wakw
Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth, sustained by the region's abundant
salmon and shellfish.[31] These peoples developed complex cultures
dependent on the western red cedar that included wooden houses,
seagoing whaling and war canoes and elaborately carved potlatch items
and totem poles.[31]
Contact with Europeans brought a series of devastating epidemics of
diseases from
Europe
Europe the people had no immunity to.[32] The result was
a dramatic population collapse, culminating in the 1862 Smallpox
outbreak in Victoria that spread throughout the coast. European
settlement did not bode well for the remaining native population of
British Columbia. Colonial officials deemed colonists could make
better use of the land than the
First Nations
First Nations people, and thus the
land territory be owned by the colonists.[33] To ensure colonists
would be able to settle properly and make use of the land, natives
were relocated onto reserves, which were often too small to support
their way of life.[34] By the 1930s,
British Columbia
British Columbia had over 1500
reserves.[35]
Fur trade
Fur trade and colonial era[edit]
The British, during the colonial period, spread across the world
claiming territories and building the British Empire. Lands now known
as
British Columbia
British Columbia were added to the empire during the 19th century.
Originally established under the auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company,
colonies were established (
Vancouver
Vancouver Island, the mainland) that were
amalgamated, then entered Confederation as
British Columbia
British Columbia in 1871 as
part of the Dominion of Canada.
During the 1770s, smallpox killed at least 30% of the Pacific
Northwest First Nations.[36] This devastating epidemic was the first
in a series; the Great
Smallpox
Smallpox Epidemic of 1862 killed 50% of the
native population.[37]
Spanish fort San Miguel at Nootka in 1793
Kwakwaka'wakw
Kwakwaka'wakw house pole, second half of the 19th century
The arrival of Europeans began around the mid-18th century, as fur
traders entered the area to harvest sea otters. While it is thought
Sir
Francis Drake
Francis Drake may have explored the British Columbian coast in
1579, it was Juan Pérez who completed the first documented voyage,
which took place in 1774. Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra
explored the coast in 1775. In doing so, Pérez and Quadra reasserted
the Spanish claim for the Pacific coast, first made by Vasco Núñez
de Balboa in 1513.
The explorations of
James Cook
James Cook in 1778 and George
Vancouver
Vancouver in
1792–93 established British jurisdiction over the coastal area north
and west of the Columbia River. In 1793,
Sir Alexander Mackenzie
.jpg/440px-Alexander_MacKenzie_by_Thomas_Lawrence_(c.1800).jpg)
Sir Alexander Mackenzie was
the first European to journey across North America overland to the
Pacific Ocean, inscribing a stone marking his accomplishment on the
shoreline of
Dean Channel near Bella Coola. His expedition
theoretically established British sovereignty inland, and a succession
of other fur company explorers charted the maze of rivers and mountain
ranges between the
Canadian Prairies
.jpg/600px-Sifton_(Manitoba).jpg)
Canadian Prairies and the Pacific. Mackenzie and
other explorers—notably John Finlay, Simon Fraser, Samuel Black, and
David Thompson—were primarily concerned with extending the fur
trade, rather than political considerations. In 1794, by the third of
a series of agreements known as the Nootka Conventions, Spain conceded
its claims of exclusivity in the Pacific. This opened the way for
formal claims and colonization by other powers, including Britain, but
because of the Napoleonic Wars, there was little British action on its
claims in the region until later.
The establishment of trading posts under the auspices of the North
West Company and the
Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), effectively
established a permanent British presence in the region. The Columbia
District was broadly defined as being south of 54°40 north latitude,
(the southern limit of Russian America), north of Mexican-controlled
California, and west of the Rocky Mountains. It was, by the
Anglo-American Convention of 1818, under the "joint occupancy and use"
of citizens of the United States and subjects of Britain (which is to
say, the fur companies). This co-occupancy was ended with the Oregon
Treaty of 1846.
The major supply route was the
York Factory Express
York Factory Express between Hudson Bay
and Fort Vancouver. Some of the early outposts grew into settlements,
communities, and cities. Among the places in
British Columbia
British Columbia that
began as fur trading posts are Fort St. John (established 1794);
Hudson's Hope (1805); Fort Nelson (1805); Fort St. James (1806);
Prince George (1807);
Kamloops
Kamloops (1812); Fort Langley (1827); Fort
Victoria (1843); Yale (1848); and
Nanaimo
Nanaimo (1853). Fur company posts
that became cities in what is now the United States include Vancouver,
Washington (Fort Vancouver), formerly the "capital" of Hudson's Bay
operations in the Columbia District,
Colville, Washington
Colville, Washington and Walla
Walla, Washington (old Fort Nez Percés).
With the amalgamation of the two fur trading companies in 1821, the
region now comprising
British Columbia
British Columbia existed in three fur trading
departments. The bulk of the central and northern interior was
organized into the New Caledonia district, administered from Fort St.
James. The interior south of the
Thompson River
Thompson River watershed and north of
the Columbia was organized into the Columbia District, administered
from Fort
Vancouver
Vancouver on the lower Columbia River. The northeast corner
of the province east of the Rockies, known as the Peace River Block,
was attached to the much larger Athabasca District, headquartered in
Fort Chipewyan, in present-day Alberta.
Until 1849, these districts were a wholly unorganized area of British
North America under the de facto jurisdiction of HBC administrators.
Unlike
Rupert's Land
Rupert's Land to the north and east, however, the territory was
not a concession to the company. Rather, it was simply granted a
monopoly to trade with the
First Nations
First Nations inhabitants. All that was
changed with the westward extension of American exploration and the
concomitant overlapping claims of territorial sovereignty, especially
in the southern Columbia Basin (within present day Washington and
Oregon). In 1846, the
Oregon Treaty
Oregon Treaty divided the territory along the
49th parallel to the Strait of Georgia, with the area south of this
boundary (excluding
Vancouver
Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands) transferred
to sole American sovereignty. The Colony of
Vancouver
Vancouver Island was
created in 1849, with Victoria designated as the capital. New
Caledonia, as the whole of the mainland rather than just its
north-central Interior came to be called, continued to be an
unorganized territory of British North America, "administered" by
individual HBC trading post managers.
Colony of
British Columbia
British Columbia (1858–66)[edit]
Main articles:
Colony of British Columbia (1858–66)
Colony of British Columbia (1858–66) and Richard
Clement Moody
With the
Fraser Canyon Gold Rush
Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858, an influx of
Americans
Americans into
New Caledonia prompted the colonial office to designate the mainland
as the Colony of British Columbia. When news of the
Fraser Canyon
Fraser Canyon Gold
Rush reached London,
Richard Clement Moody
.JPG)
Richard Clement Moody was hand-picked by the
Colonial Office, under Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, to establish British
order and to transform the newly established Colony of British
Columbia into the British Empire's "bulwark in the farthest west"[6]
and "found a second England on the shores of the Pacific".[7] Lytton
desired to send to the colony "representatives of the best of British
culture, not just a police force": he sought men who possessed
"courtesy, high breeding and urbane knowledge of the world"[38] and he
decided to send Moody, whom the Government considered to be the
"English gentleman and British Officer"[39] at the head of the Royal
Engineers, Columbia Detachment.
Moody and his family arrived in
British Columbia
British Columbia in December 1858,
commanding the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment. He was sworn in
as the first
Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia
Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia and appointed
Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works for British Columbia. On the
advice of Lytton, Moody hired
Robert Burnaby
Robert Burnaby as his personal
secretary.
In British Columbia, Moody "wanted to build a city of beauty in the
wilderness" and planned his city as an iconic visual metaphor for
British dominance, "styled and located with the objective of
reinforcing the authority of the crown and of the robe".[40]
Subsequent to the enactment of the Pre-emption Act of 1860, Moody
settled the Lower Mainland. He selected the site and founded the new
capital, New Westminster. He selected the site due to the strategic
excellence of its position and the quality of its port.[40] He was
also struck by the majestic beauty of the site, writing in his letter
to Blackwood,
"The entrance to the Frazer is very striking--Extending miles to the
right & left are low marsh lands (apparently of very rich
qualities) & yet fr the Background of Superb Mountains-- Swiss in
outline, dark in woods, grandly towering into the clouds there is a
sublimity that deeply impresses you. Everything is large and
magnificent, worthy of the entrance to the Queen of England’s
dominions on the Pacific mainland. [...] My imagination converted the
silent marshes into Cuyp-like pictures of horses and cattle lazily
fattening in rich meadows in a glowing sunset. [...] The water of the
deep clear Frazer was of a glassy stillness, not a ripple before us,
except when a fish rose to the surface or broods of wild ducks
fluttered away".[41][42]
Moody designed the first Coat of arms of British Columbia.[9][10]
However, Lord Lytton "forgot the practicalities of paying for clearing
and developing the site and the town" and the efforts of Moody's
Engineers were continuously hampered by insufficient funds, which,
together with the continuous opposition of Douglas, "made it
impossible for Moody’s design to be fulfilled".[43]
Moody and the Royal Engineers also built an extensive road network,
including what would become Kingsway, connecting
New Westminster
New Westminster to
False Creek, the North Road between
Port Moody
Port Moody and New Westminster,
and the
Cariboo Road
Cariboo Road and Stanley Park. He named
Burnaby Lake
Burnaby Lake after his
private secretary
Robert Burnaby
Robert Burnaby and named Port Coquitlam’s 400-foot
"Mary Hill" after his wife. As part of the surveying effort, several
tracts were designated "government reserves", which included Stanley
Park as a military reserve (a strategic location in case of an
American invasion). The Pre-emption act did not specify conditions for
distributing the land, so large parcels were snapped up by
speculators, including 3,750 acres (1,517 hectares) by Moody himself.
For this he was criticized by local newspapermen for land grabbing.
Port Moody
Port Moody is named after him. It was established at the end of a
trail that connected
New Westminster
New Westminster with
Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet to defend New
Westminster from potential attack from the US.
By 1862, the
Cariboo
Cariboo Gold Rush, attracting an additional 5000 miners,
was underway, and Douglas hastened construction of the Great North
Road (commonly known now as the
Cariboo
Cariboo Wagon Road) up the Fraser
Canyon to the prospecting region around Barkerville. By the time of
this gold rush, the character of the colony was changing, as a more
stable population of British colonists settled in the region,
establishing businesses, opening sawmills, and engaging in fishing and
agriculture. With this increased stability, objections to the colony's
absentee governor and the lack of responsible government began to be
vocalised, led by the influential editor of the New Westminster
British Columbian and future Premier, John Robson. A series of
petitions requesting an assembly were ignored by Douglas and the
colonial office until Douglas was eased out of office in 1864.
Finally, the colony would have both an assembly and a resident
governor.
Later gold rushes[edit]
A series of gold rushes in various parts of the province followed, the
largest being the
Cariboo
Cariboo Gold Rush in 1862, forcing the colonial
administration into deeper debt as it struggled to meet the extensive
infrastructure needs of far-flung boom communities like Barkerville
and Lillooet, which sprang up overnight. The
Vancouver
Vancouver Island colony
was facing financial crises of its own, and pressure to merge the two
eventually succeeded in 1866, when the colony of
British Columbia
British Columbia was
amalgamated with the Colony of
Vancouver
Vancouver Island to form the Colony of
British Columbia
British Columbia (1866–71), which was, in turn, succeeded by the
present day province of
British Columbia
British Columbia following the Canadian
Confederation of 1871.
Rapid growth and development[edit]
Lord Strathcona drives the Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway,
at Craigellachie, November 7, 1885. Completion of the transcontinental
railroad was a condition of entry into Confederation.
The Confederation League, including such figures as Amor De Cosmos,
John Robson, and Robert Beaven, led the chorus pressing for the colony
to join Canada, which had been created out of three British North
American colonies in 1867 (the
Province of Canada,
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick). Several factors motivated this agitation, including the
fear of annexation to the United States, the overwhelming debt created
by rapid population growth, the need for government-funded services to
support this population, and the economic depression caused by the end
of the gold rush.
Memorial "Last spike" in Craigellachie
With the agreement by the Canadian government to extend the Canadian
Pacific Railway to
British Columbia
British Columbia and to assume the colony's debt,
British Columbia
British Columbia became the sixth province to join Confederation on
July 20, 1871. The borders of the province were not completely
settled. The Treaty of Washington sent the Pig War San Juan Islands
Border dispute to arbitration in 1871 and in 1903, the province's
territory shrank again after the
Alaska
Alaska boundary dispute settled the
vague boundary of the
Alaska
Alaska Panhandle.
Population in
British Columbia
British Columbia continued to expand as the province's
mining, forestry, agriculture, and fishing sectors were developed.
Mining
Mining activity was particularly notable throughout the Mainland,
particularly in the Boundary Country, in the Slocan, in the West
Kootenay around Trail, the East Kootenay (the southeast corner of the
province), the Fraser Canyon, the Cariboo, the Omineca and the
Cassiar, so much so a common epithet for the Mainland, even after
provincehood, was "the Gold Colony".
Agriculture
Agriculture attracted settlers to
the fertile Fraser Valley, and cattle ranchers and later fruit growers
came to the drier grasslands of the
Thompson River
Thompson River area, the Cariboo,
the Chilcotin, and the Okanagan.
Forestry
Forestry drew workers to the lush
temperate rainforests of the coast, which was also the locus of a
growing fishery.
The completion of the railway in 1885 was a huge boost to the
province's economy, facilitating the transportation of the region's
considerable resources to the east. The milltown of Granville, known
as Gastown, near the mouth of the
Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet was selected as the
terminus of the railway, prompting the incorporation of the City as
Vancouver
Vancouver in 1886. The completion of the Port of
Vancouver
Vancouver spurred
rapid growth, and in less than fifty years the city surpassed
Winnipeg, Manitoba, as the largest in Western Canada. The early
decades of the province were ones in which issues of land
use—specifically, its settlement and development—were paramount.
This included expropriation from
First Nations
First Nations people of their land,
control over its resources, as well as the ability to trade in some
resources (such as the fishery).
Establishing a labour force to develop the province was problematic
from the start, and
British Columbia
British Columbia was the locus of immigration from
Europe, China, and Japan. The influx of a non-Caucasian population
stimulated resentment from the dominant ethnic groups, resulting in
agitation (much of it successful) to restrict the ability of Asian
people to immigrate to
British Columbia
British Columbia through the imposition of a
head tax. This resentment culminated in mob attacks against Chinese
and Japanese immigrants in
Vancouver
Vancouver in 1887 and 1907. By 1923, almost
all Chinese immigration had been blocked except for merchants,
professionals, students and investors.
Meanwhile, the province continued to grow. In 1914, the last spike of
a second transcontinental rail line, the Grand Trunk Pacific, linking
north-central
British Columbia
British Columbia from the
Yellowhead Pass
Yellowhead Pass through Prince
George to
Prince Rupert
Prince Rupert was driven at Fort Fraser. This opened up the
North Coast and the
Bulkley Valley
Bulkley Valley region to new economic
opportunities. What had previously been an almost exclusively fur
trade and subsistence economy soon became a locus for forestry,
farming, and mining.
In World War I, the province responded strongly to the call to assist
the
British Empire
British Empire against its German foes in French and Belgian
battlefields. About 55,570 of the 400,000 British Columbian residents,
the highest per-capita rate in Canada, responded to the military
needs. Horseriders from the province's Interior region and First
Nations soldiers made contributions to Vimy Ridge and other battles.
About 6,225 men from the province died in combat.[44]
1920s to 1940s[edit]
When the men returned from the First World War, they discovered the
recently enfranchised women of the province had helped vote in the
prohibition of liquor in an effort to end the social problems
associated with the hard-core drinking
Vancouver
Vancouver and the rest of the
province was famous for until the war. Because of pressure from
veterans, prohibition was quickly relaxed so the "soldier and the
working man" could enjoy a drink, but widespread unemployment among
veterans was hardened by many of the available jobs being taken by
European immigrants and disgruntled veterans organized a range of
"soldier parties" to represent their interests, variously named
Soldier-Farmer, Soldier-Labour, and Farmer-Labour Parties. These
formed the basis of the fractured labour-political spectrum that would
generate a host of fringe leftist and rightist parties, including
those who would eventually form the Co-operative Commonwealth and the
early Social Credit splinter groups.
Internment camp for the
Japanese Canadians
Japanese Canadians during World War II
The advent of prohibition in the United States created new
opportunities, and many found employment or at least profit in
cross-border liquor smuggling. Much of Vancouver's prosperity and
opulence in the 1920s results from this "pirate economy", although
growth in forestry, fishing and mining continued. The end of US
prohibition, combined with the onset of the Great Depression, plunged
the province into economic destitution. Compounding the already dire
local economic situation, tens of thousands of men from colder parts
of
Canada
Canada swarmed into Vancouver, creating huge hobo jungles around
False Creek
False Creek and the
Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet rail yards, including the old
Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway mainline right-of-way through the heart of
the city's downtown (at Hastings and Carrall). Increasingly desperate
times led to intense political organizing efforts, an occupation of
the main Post Office at Granville and Hastings which was violently put
down by the police and an effective imposition of martial law on the
docks for almost three years. A
Vancouver
Vancouver contingent for the
On-to-Ottawa Trek
On-to-Ottawa Trek was organized and seized a train, which was loaded
with thousands of men bound for the capital but was met by a Gatling
gun straddling the tracks at Mission; the men were arrested and sent
to work camps for the duration of the Depression.[45]
There were some signs of economic life beginning to return to normal
towards the end of the 1930s, but it was the onset of World War II
which transformed the national economy and ended the hard times of the
Depression. Because of the war effort, women entered the workforce as
never before.
British Columbia
British Columbia has long taken advantage of its location on the
Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean to have close relations with East Asia. However, this
has often caused friction between cultures which have caused
occasional displays of animosity toward Asian immigrants. This was
most manifest during the
Second World War
Second World War when many people of Japanese
descent were relocated or interned in the Interior of the province.
Coalition and the post-war boom[edit]
The BC Regiment (DCOR), marching in New Westminster, 1940
During the
Second World War
Second World War the mainstream BC Liberal and BC
Conservative Parties of
British Columbia
British Columbia united in a formal coalition
government under new Liberal leader John Hart, who replaced Duff
Pattullo when the latter failed to win a majority in the 1941
election. While the Liberals won the most number of seats, they
actually received fewer votes than the socialist Co-operative
Commonwealth Federation (CCF). Pattullo was unwilling to form a
coalition with the rival Conservatives led by
Royal Maitland and was
replaced by Hart, who formed a coalition cabinet made up of five
Liberal and three Conservative ministers.[46] The CCF was invited to
join the coalition but refused.[46]
The pretext for continuing the coalition after the end of the Second
World War was to prevent the CCF, which had won a surprise victory in
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan in 1944, from ever coming to power in British Columbia.
The CCF's popular vote was high enough in the 1945 election that they
were likely to have won three-way contests and could have formed
government. However, the coalition prevented that by uniting the
anti-socialist vote.[46] In the post-war environment the government
initiated a series of infrastructure projects, notably the completion
of Highway 97 north of Prince George to the Peace River Block, a
section called the John Hart Highway and also public hospital
insurance.
In 1947 the reins of the Coalition were taken over by Byron Ingemar
Johnson. The Conservatives had wanted their new leader Herbert Anscomb
to be premier, but the Liberals in the Coalition refused. Johnson led
the coalition to the highest percentage of the popular vote in British
Columbia history (61%) in the 1949 election. This victory was
attributable to the popularity of his government's spending
programmes, despite rising criticism of corruption and abuse of power.
During his tenure, major infrastructures continued to expand, such as
the agreement with Alcan Aluminum to build the town of
Kitimat
Kitimat with an
aluminum smelter and the large
Kemano
Kemano Hydro Project.[47] Johnson
achieved popularity for flood relief efforts during the 1948 flooding
of the Fraser Valley, which was a major blow to that region and to the
province's economy.
Increasing tension between the Liberal and Conservative coalition
partners led the Liberal Party executive to vote to instruct Johnson
to terminate the arrangement. Johnson ended the coalition and dropped
his Conservative cabinet ministers, including Deputy Premier and
Finance minister
Finance minister Herbert Anscomb, precipitating the general election
of 1952.[46] A referendum on electoral reform prior to this election
had instigated an elimination ballot (similar to a preferential
ballot), where voters could select second and third choices. The
intent of the ballot, as campaigned for by Liberals and Conservatives,
was that their supporters would list the rival party in lieu of the
CCF, but this plan backfired when a large group of voters from all
major parties, including the CCF, voted for the fringe British
Columbia Social Credit Party (Socreds), who wound up with the largest
number of seats in the House (19), only one seat ahead of the CCF,
despite the CCF having 34.3% of the vote to Social Credit's 30.18%.
The Social Credit Party, led by rebel former Conservative MLA W. A. C.
Bennett, formed a minority government backed by the Liberals and
Conservatives (with 6 and 4 seats respectively). Bennett began a
series of fiscal reforms, preaching a new variety of populism as well
as waxing eloquent on progress and development, laying the ground for
a second election in 1953 in which the new Bennett regime secured a
majority of seats, with 38% of the vote. Secure with that majority,
Bennett returned the province to the first-past-the-post system
thereafter, which is still in use.
1952–1960s[edit]
With the election of the Social Credit Party, British Columbia
embarked on a phase of rapid economic development. Bennett and his
party governed the province for the next twenty years, during which
time the government initiated an ambitious programme of infrastructure
development, fuelled by a sustained economic boom in the forestry,
mining, and energy sectors.
During these two decades, the government nationalized British Columbia
Electric and the
British Columbia
British Columbia Power Company, as well as smaller
electric companies, renaming the entity BC Hydro. West Kootenay Power
and Light remained independent of BC Hydro, being owned and operated
by Cominco, though tied into the regional power grid. By the end of
the 1960s, several major dams had been begun or completed in—among
others—the Peace, Columbia, and
Nechako River
Nechako River watersheds (the
Nechako Diversion to Kemano, was to supply power to the Alcan Inc.
aluminum smelter at Kitimat, and was not part of the provincial power
grid but privately owned). Major transmission deals were concluded,
most notably the
Columbia River
Columbia River Treaty between
Canada
Canada and the United
States. The province's economy was also boosted by unprecedented
growth in the forest sector, as well as oil and gas development in the
province's northeast.
The 1950s and 1960s were also marked by development in the province's
transportation infrastructure. In 1960, the government established BC
Ferries as a crown corporation, to provide a marine extension of the
provincial highway system, also supported by federal grants as being
part of the Trans-
Canada
Canada Highway system. That system was improved and
expanded through the construction of new highways and bridges, and
paving of existing highways and provincial roads.
Vancouver
Vancouver and Victoria became cultural centres as poets, authors,
artists, musicians, as well as dancers, actors, and haute cuisine
chefs flocked to the beautiful scenery and warmer temperatures, with
the cultural and entrepreneurial community notably bolstered by many
Draft dodgers
Draft dodgers from the United States. Similarly, these cities have
either attracted or given rise to their own noteworthy academics,
commentators, and creative thinkers.[citation needed]
Tourism
Tourism also
began to play an important role in the economy. The rise of
Japan
Japan and
other Pacific economies was a great boost to British Columbia's
economy, primarily because of massive exports of lumber products and
unprocessed coal and trees.
Politically and socially, the 1960s brought a period of significant
social ferment. The divide between the political left and right, which
had prevailed in the province since the Depression and the rise of the
labour movement, sharpened as so-called free enterprise parties
coalesced into the de facto coalition represented by Social
Credit—in opposition to the social democratic New Democratic Party,
the successor to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. As the
province's economy blossomed, so did labour-management tensions.
Tensions emerged, also, from the counterculture movement of the late
1960s, of which
Vancouver
Vancouver and
Nanaimo
Nanaimo were centres. The conflict
between hippies and
Vancouver
Vancouver mayor Tom Campbell was particularly
legendary, culminating in the so-called
Gastown
Gastown Riots of 1971. By the
end of the decade, with social tensions and dissatisfaction with the
status quo rising, the Bennett government's achievements could not
stave off its growing unpopularity.
1970s and 1980s[edit]
On August 27, 1969, the Social Credit Party was re-elected in a
general election for what would be Bennett's final term in power. At
the start of the 1970s, the economy was quite strong because of rising
coal prices and an increase in annual allowable cuts in the forestry
sector. However,
BC Hydro
BC Hydro reported its first loss, which was the
beginning of the end for Bennett and the Social Credit Party.[48]
The Socreds were forced from power in the August 1972 election, paving
the way for a provincial New Democratic Party (NDP) government under
Dave Barrett. Under Barrett, the large provincial surplus soon became
a deficit,[citation needed] although changes to the accounting system
makes it likely some of the deficit was carried over from the previous
Social Credit regime and its "two sets of books", as WAC Bennett had
once referred to his system of fiscal management. The brief three-year
("Thousand Days") period of NDP governance brought several lasting
changes to the province, most notably the creation of the Agricultural
Land Reserve, intended to protect farmland from redevelopment, and the
Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, a crown corporation charged
with a monopoly on providing single-payer basic automobile insurance.
Perceptions the government had instituted reforms either too swiftly
or that were too far-reaching, coupled with growing labour disruptions
led to the ouster of the NDP in the 1975 general election. Social
Credit, under W.A.C. Bennett's son, Bill Bennett, was returned to
office. Under the younger Bennett's government, 85% of the province's
land base was transferred from Government Reserve to management by the
Ministry of Forests, reporting of deputy ministers was centralized to
the Premier's Office, and NDP-instigated social programs were rolled
back, with then-Human Resources Minister infamously demonstrating a
golden shovel to highlight his welfare policy, although the new-era
Socreds also reinforced and backed certain others instigated by the
NDP—notably the creation of the Resort Municipality of Whistler,
whose special status including Sunday drinking, then an anomaly in BC.
Also during the "MiniWac" regime (a reference to his father's acronym,
WAC) certain money-losing Crown-owned assets were "privatized" in a
mass giveaway of shares in the
British Columbia
British Columbia Resources Investment
Corporation, "BCRIC", with the "Brick shares" soon becoming
near-worthless. Towards the end of his tenure in power, Bennett
oversaw the completion of several megaprojects meant to stimulate the
economy and win votes – unlike most right-wing parties, British
Columbia's Social Credit actively practised government stimulation of
the economy. Most notable of these was the winning of a world's fair
for Vancouver, which came in the form of Expo 86, to which was tied
the construction of the
Coquihalla Highway
Coquihalla Highway and Vancouver's SkyTrain
system. The
Coquihalla Highway
Coquihalla Highway project became the subject of a scandal
after revelations the premier's brother bought large tracts of land
needed for the project before it was announced to the public, and also
because of graft investigations of the huge cost overruns on the
project. Both investigations were derailed in the media by a still
further scandal, the Doman Scandal, in which the Premier and
millionaire backer Herb Doman were investigated for insider-trading
and securities fraud. Nonetheless, the Socreds were re-elected in 1979
under Bennett, who led the party until 1986.
The Coquihalla Highway. The road was one of the legacies of the Expo
86 World's fair. The creation of the toll highway sparked controversy.
As the province entered a sustained recession, Bennett's popularity
and media image were in decline. On April 1, 1983, Premier Bennett
overstayed his constitutional limits of power by exceeding the legal
tenure of a government, and the Lieutenant-Governor, Henry Pybus
Bell-Irving, was forced to call Bennett to Government House to resolve
the impasse, and an election was called for April 30, while in the
meantime government cheques were covered by special emergency warrants
as the Executive Council no longer had signing authority because of
the constitutional crisis. Campaigning on a platform of moderation,
Bennett won an unexpected majority.
After several weeks of silence in the aftermath, a sitting of the
House was finally called and in the speech from the throne the Socreds
instituted a programme of fiscal cutbacks dubbed "restraint", which
had been a buzzword for moderation during the campaign. The programme
included cuts to "motherhood" issues of the left, including the human
rights branch, the offices of the Ombudsman and Rentalsman, women's
programs, environmental and cultural programs, while still supplying
mass capital infusions to corporate British Columbia. This sparked a
backlash, with tens of thousands of people in the streets the next day
after the budget speech, and through the course of a summer repeated
large demonstrations of up to 100,000 people.
This became known as the 1983 Solidarity Crisis, from the name of the
Solidarity Coalition, a huge grassroots opposition movement mobilized,
consisting of organized labour and community groups, with the British
Columbia Federation of Labour forming a separate organization of
unions, Operation Solidarity, under the direction of Jack Munro,
then-President of the
International Woodworkers of America (IWA), the
most powerful of the province's resource unions. Tens of thousands
participated in protests and many felt a general strike would be the
inevitable result unless the government backed down from its policies
they had claimed were only about restraint and not about recrimination
against the NDP and the left. Just as a strike at Pacific Press ended,
which had crippled the political management of the public agenda by
the publishers of the province's major papers, the movement collapsed
after an apparent deal was struck by union leader and IWA president,
Jack Munro and Premier Bennett.[49]
A tense winter of blockades at various job sites around the province
ensued, as among the new laws were those enabling non-union labour to
work on large projects and other sensitive labour issues, with
companies from
Alberta
Alberta and other provinces brought in to compete with
union-scale
British Columbia
British Columbia companies. Despite the tension, Bennett's
last few years in power were relatively peaceful as economic and
political momentum grew on the megaprojects associated with Expo, and
Bennett was to end his career by hosting Prince Charles and Lady Diana
on their visit to open Expo 86. His retirement being announced, a
Social Credit convention was scheduled for the Whistler Resort, which
came down to a three-way shooting match between Bud Smith, the
Premier's right-hand man but an unelected official, Social Credit
party grande dame Grace McCarthy, and the charismatic but eccentric
Bill Vander Zalm.
Bill Vander Zalm became the new Socred leader when Smith threw his
support to him rather than see McCarthy win, and led the party to
victory in the election later that year. Vander Zalm was later
involved in a conflict of interest scandal following the sale of
Fantasy Gardens, a
Christian
Christian and Dutch culture theme park built by the
Premier, to Tan Yu, a
Filipino Chinese
Filipino Chinese gambling kingpin. There were
also concerns over Yu's application to the government for a bank
licence, and lurid stories from flamboyant realtor
Faye Leung of a
party in the "Howard Hughes Suite" on the top two floors of the
Bayshore Inn, where
Tan Yu had been staying, with reports of a bag of
money in a brown paper bag passed from Yu to Vander Zalm during the
goings-on. These scandals forced Vander Zalm's resignation, and Rita
Johnston became premier of the province. Johnston presided over the
end of Social Credit power, calling an election which led to the
reducing of the party's caucus to only two seats, and the revival of
the long-defunct
British Columbia Liberal Party
British Columbia Liberal Party as Opposition to the
victorious NDP under former
Vancouver
Vancouver mayor Mike Harcourt.
In 1988, David Lam was appointed as British Columbia’s twenty-fifth
Lieutenant-Governor, and was the Province's first Lieutenant-Governor
of Chinese origin.
1990s to present[edit]
This article needs to be updated. Please update this section to
reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2012)
Johnston lost the 1991 general election to the NDP, under the
leadership of Mike Harcourt, a former mayor of Vancouver. The NDP's
unprecedented creation of new parkland and protected areas was popular
and helped boost the province's growing tourism sector. However, the
economy continued to struggle against the backdrop of a weak resource
economy. Housing starts and an expanded service sector saw growth
overall through the decade, despite political turmoil. Harcourt ended
up resigning over "Bingogate"—a political scandal involving the
funnelling of charity bingo receipts into party coffers in certain
ridings. Harcourt was not implicated, but he resigned nonetheless in
respect of constitutional conventions calling for leaders under
suspicion to step aside. Glen Clark, a former president of the BC
Federation of Labour, was chosen the new leader of the NDP, which won
a second term in 1996. More scandals dogged the party, most notably
the
Fast Ferry Scandal involving the province trying to develop the
shipbuilding industry in British Columbia. An allegation (never
substantiated) that the Premier had received a favour in return for
granting a gaming licence led to Clark's resignation as Premier. He
was succeeded on an interim basis by Dan Miller who was in turn
followed by
Ujjal Dosanjh
Ujjal Dosanjh following a leadership convention.
In the 2001 general election Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals defeated
the NDP, gaining 77 out of 79 total seats in the provincial
legislature. Campbell instituted various reforms and removed some of
the NDP's policies including scrapping the "fast ferries" project,
lowering income taxes, and the controversial sale of
BC Rail
BC Rail to CN
Rail. Campbell was also the subject of criticism after he was arrested
for driving under the influence during a vacation in Hawaii. However,
Campbell still managed to lead his party to victory in the 2005
general election, against a substantially strengthened NDP opposition.
Campbell won a third term in the
British Columbia
British Columbia general election,
2009, marking the first time in 23 years a premier has been elected to
a third term.
The province won a bid to host the
2010 Winter Olympics
2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver
and Whistler. As promised in his 2002 re-election campaign, Vancouver
Mayor Larry Campbell staged a non-binding civic referendum regarding
the hosting of the Olympics. In February 2003, Vancouver's residents
voted in a referendum accepting the responsibilities of the host city
should it win its bid. Sixty-four percent of residents voted in favour
of hosting the games.[50]
After the Olympic joy had faded, Campbell's popularity started to
fall. His management style, the implementation of the Harmonized Sales
Tax (HST) against election promises and the cancelling of the BC Rail
corruption trial lead to low approval ratings and loss of caucus
support. He would resign in November 2010 and call on the party to
elect a new leader.[51]
Christy Clark
.jpg/440px-Christy_Clark_by_Kris_Krug_01_(cropped).jpg)
Christy Clark was
Premier of British Columbia
Premier of British Columbia from 2011 until 2017
In early 2011, Christy Clark, former Deputy Premier, would become
leader of the Liberal Party. Though she was not a sitting MLA, she
would go on to win the seat left vacant by Campbell and form a
government. For the next two years she would attempt to distance
herself from the unpopularity of Campbell and forge an image for the
upcoming election. Among her early accomplishments she raised the
minimum wage, created the new holiday of Family Day and pushed the
development of BC's liquified natural gas. In the 2013 election, the
Liberals lagged behind the NDP with a double-digit gap in the polls,
but were able to come to a surprise victory on election night with a
majority, making Clark the first elected female premier in BC
history.[52] While Clark lost her seat to NDP candidate David Eby, she
later won a by-election in the riding of Westside-Kelowna. Her
government would go on to balance the budget, implement changes to
liquor laws and continue with the question of the proposed Enbridge
Northern Gateway Pipelines.
In the 2017 election, the NDP formed a minority government with the
support of the Green Party. The NDP and Green caucuses together
control 44 seats, compared with the Liberal's 43. On July 18, NDP
leader
John Horgan
John Horgan was officially be sworn in as premier of British
Columbia.
John Horgan
John Horgan has been
Premier of British Columbia
Premier of British Columbia since 2017
British Columbia
British Columbia has also been significantly affected by demographic
changes within
Canada
Canada and around the world.
Vancouver
Vancouver (and to a lesser
extent some other parts of British Columbia) was a major destination
for many of the immigrants from
Hong Kong
Hong Kong who left the former UK
colony (either temporarily or permanently) in the years immediately
prior to its handover to the People's Republic of China. British
Columbia has also been a significant destination for internal Canadian
migrants. This has been the case throughout recent decades, because of
its image of natural beauty, mild climate and relaxed lifestyle, but
is particularly true during periods of economic growth. As a result,
British Columbia
British Columbia has moved from approximately 10% of Canada's
population in 1971 to approximately 13% in 2006. Trends of
urbanization mean the Greater
Vancouver
Vancouver area now includes 51% of the
Province's population, followed in second place by Greater Victoria
with 8%. These two metropolitan regions have traditionally dominated
the demographics of BC.
The net number of people coming to BC from other provinces has grown
almost four times larger since 2012. BC was the largest net recipient
of interprovincial migrants in
Canada
Canada in the first quarter of 2016
with half of the 5,000 people coming from Alberta.[53]
Demographics[edit]
This section needs to be updated. In particular: Missing 2016 census
data. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly
available information. (March 2017)
Main article: Demographics of British Columbia
See also: List of cities in
Canada
Canada § British Columbia, List of
communities in British Columbia, and List of municipalities in British
Columbia
Year
Population
Five year
% change
Ten year
% change
Rank among
provinces
1851
55,000
n/a
n/a
6
1861
51,524
n/a
−6.3
6
1871
36,247
n/a
−29.7
7
1881
49,459
n/a
36.4
8
1891
98,173
n/a
98.5
8
1901
178,657
n/a
82.0
0
1911
392,480
n/a
119.7
6
1921
524,582
n/a
33.7
6
1931
694,263
n/a
32.3
6
1941
817,861
26.8
17.8
4
1951
1,165,210
21.7
42.5
3
1956
1,398,464
20.0
n/a
3
1961
1,629,082
16.5
39.8
3
1966
1,873,674
15.0
34.0
3
1971
2,184,620
16.6
34.1
3
1976
2,466,610
12.9
31.6
3
1981
2,744,467
11.3
25.6
3
1986
2,883,370
5.1
16.9
3
1991
3,282,061
13.8
19.6
3
1996
3,724,500
13.5
29.2
3
2001
3,907,738
4.9
19.1
3
2006
4,113,487
5.3
10.4
3
2011
4,400,057
7.0
12.6
3
2016
4,648,055
5.6
13.0
3
[54][55]
Religious groups in BC (1991 & 2001) &
Canada
Canada (2001)
1991 BC %
2001 BC %
2001 Canada %
BC 2001 number
Total population
100%
100%
100%
3,868,875
No religious affiliation
30.0%
35.1%
16.5%
1,388,300
includes agnostic, atheist, humanist, and no religion, and other
responses, such as Darwinism, and so on
Protestant
41.9%
31.4%
29.2%
1,213,295
Catholic
18.3%
17.2%
43.6%
675,320
includes Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic
Eastern Orthodox
0.7%
0.9%
1.6%
35,655
includes Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox
Christian
Christian n. i. e.
2.7%
5.2%
2.6%
200,345
Includes mostly answers of "Christian", not identified elsewhere
Sikh
2.3%
3.5%
0.9%
135,310
Buddhist
1.1%
2.2%
1%
85,540
Muslim
0.8%
1.5%
2%
56,220
Hindu
0.6%
0.8%
1%
31,500
Jewish
0.5%
0.5%
1.1%
21,230
Eastern religions
0.3%
0.1%
9,970
includes Baha'i, Eckankar, Jains, Shinto, Taoist, Zoroastrian and
Eastern religions, not identified elsewhere
Other religions
0.4%
0.2%
16,205
includes Aboriginal spirituality, pagan, wicca, unity – new thought
– pantheist, Scientology, Rastafarian, new age, gnostic, and so on
[56][57]
The largest denominations by number of adherents according to the 2001
census were none (atheist, agnostic, and so on.) with 1,388,300
(35.9%);
Protestant
Protestant with 1,213,295 (31.4%); the Roman Catholic Church
with 675,320 (17%); the United Church of
Canada
Canada with 361,840 (9%); and
the Anglican Church of
Canada
Canada with 298,375 (8%).[58]
Ethnic groups and languages[edit]
The following statistics represent both single (for example, "German")
and multiple (for example, "Chinese-Canadian") responses to the 2006
Census, and thus do not add up to 100%. All items are
self-identified.[59]
Ethnic origin
Population
Percent
English
1,207,245
29.6%
Scottish
828,145
20.3%
Canadian
720,200
17.7%
Irish
618,120
15.2%
German
561,570
13.8%
Chinese
432,435
10.6%
French
361,215
8.9%
East Indian
232,370
5.7%
Ukrainian
197,265
4.8%
Dutch (Netherlands)
196,420
4.8%
North American Indian
193,060
4.7%
Italian
143,155
3.5%
Norwegian
129,420
3.2%
Polish
128,360
3.2%
Russian
114,105
2.8%
Welsh
104,275
2.6%
Swedish
104,025
2.6%
Filipino
94,255
2.3%
British
74,145
1.8%
American (US)
66,765
1.6%
Ethnic origin
Population
Percent
Métis
62,570
1.5%
Danish
56,125
1.4%
Spanish
52,640
1.3%
Korean
51,860
1.3%
Hungarian
49,870
1.2%
Austrian
46,620
1.1%
Japanese
41,585
1.0%
Portuguese
34,660
0.9%
Vietnamese
30,835
0.8%
Jewish
30,830
0.8%
Finnish
29,875
0.7%
Iranian
29,265
0.7%
Swiss
28,240
0.7%
Romanian
25,670
0.6%
Icelandic
22,110
0.5%
Greek
21,770
0.5%
Czech
21,150
0.5%
Croatian
18,815
0.5%
Punjabi
18,525
0.5%
Belgian
17,510
0.4%
Though just 1.8% refer to their origins as being "British", a majority
(57.3%) of the population of
British Columbia
British Columbia claim their ethnic
origin as being from one of the three main British nations (England,
Scotland
Scotland or Wales). Migration was primarily from Scotland,
Wales
Wales and
Northern England, especially
North East England
North East England – out of the 54 of
Metro Vancouver's 100 most common names that are British in origin, 29
are of Scottish or Northern English origin, 9 are Welsh, and only four
are native to England's south.[60][61] Another 15.2% refer to their
ethnicity as "Irish", though not distinguishing between Northern
Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Of the provinces,
British Columbia
British Columbia had the highest proportion of
visible minorities, representing 27% of its population.[62] According
to the 2011 National Household Survey, the largest communities of
visible minorities in
British Columbia
British Columbia include Chinese, South Asian
and Japanese.[63]
Also present in large numbers relative to other regions of Canada
(except Toronto), and ever since the province was first settled
(unlike Toronto), are many European ethnicities of the first and
second generation, notably Germans, Scandinavians, Yugoslavs, Italians
and Spaniards. Third-generation Europeans are generally of mixed
lineage, and traditionally intermarried with other
European-derived[citation needed] ethnic groups more than in any other
Canadian province. First-generation Britons remain a strong component
of local society despite limitations on immigration from Britain since
the ending of special status for British subjects in the 1960s.
Of the 4,113,847 population counted by the 2006 census, 4,074,385
people completed the section about language. Of these 4,022,045 gave
singular responses to the question regarding mother tongue. The
languages most commonly reported were the following:
Language
Number of
native speakers
Percentage of
singular responses
English
2,875,770
71.5%
Chinese
342,920
8.5%
Punjabi
158,750
4.0%
German
86,690
2.2%
French
54,745
1.4%
Tagalog (Filipino)
50,425
1.3%
Korean
46,500
1.2%
Spanish
34,075
0.9%
Persian
28,150
0.7%
Italian
27,020
0.7%
Dutch
26,355
0.7%
Vietnamese
24,560
0.7%
Hindi
23,240
0.6%
Japanese
20,040
0.5%
Russian
19,320
0.5%
Polish
17,565
0.4%
Portuguese
14,385
0.4%
Ukrainian
12,285
0.3%
Hungarian
10,670
0.3%
Croatian
8,505
0.2%
Language
Number of
native speakers
Percentage of
singular responses
Arabic
8,440
0.2%
Urdu
7,025
0.2%
Danish
6,720
0.2%
Greek
6,620
0.2%
Gujarati
6,565
0.2%
Romanian
6,335
0.2%
Serbian
6,180
0.2%
Czech
6,000
0.1%
Finnish
4,770
0.1%
Athabaskan languages
3,500
0.1%
Slovak
3,490
0.1%
Norwegian
3,275
0.1%
Tamil
3,200
0.1%
Salish languages
3,190
0.1%
Ilocano
3,100
0.1%
Malay
3,100
0.1%
Bisayan languages
3,035
0.1%
Swedish
2,875
0.1%
Turkish
2,255
0.1%
Tsimshianic languages
2,125
0.1%
Numerous other languages were also counted, but only languages with
more than 2,000 native speakers are shown.
Figures shown are for the number of single language responses and the
percentage of total single-language responses.[64]
Cities[edit]
Vancouver
Vancouver Skyline
See also: List of cities in British Columbia, List of metropolitan
areas in British Columbia, List of municipalities in British Columbia,
and List of regional districts of British Columbia
Half of all British Columbians live in the Metro
Vancouver
Vancouver area, which
includes Vancouver, Surrey, New Westminster, West Vancouver, North
Vancouver
Vancouver (city), North
Vancouver
Vancouver (district municipality), Burnaby,
Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Langley (city), Langley
(district municipality), Delta, Pitt Meadows, White Rock, Richmond,
Port Moody, Anmore, Belcarra, Lions Bay and Bowen Island, with
adjacent unincorporated areas (including the University Endowment
Lands) represented in the regional district as the electoral area
known as Greater
Vancouver
Vancouver Electoral Area A. The metropolitan area has
seventeen Indian reserves, but they are outside of the regional
district's jurisdiction and are not represented in its government.
The second largest concentration of
British Columbia
British Columbia population is at
the southern tip of
Vancouver
Vancouver Island, which is made up of the 13
municipalities of Greater Victoria, Victoria, Saanich, Esquimalt, Oak
Bay, View Royal, Highlands, Colwood, Langford, Central
Saanich/Saanichton, North Saanich, Sidney, Metchosin, Sooke, which are
part of the Capital Regional District. The metropolitan area also
includes several Indian reserves (the governments of which are not
part of the regional district). Almost half of the
Vancouver
Vancouver Island
population is in Greater Victoria.
Ten largest metropolitan areas by population[65][66]
Community (includes metro areas)
2011
2006
Vancouver
2,313,328
2,116,581
Victoria
344,615
330,088
Kelowna
179,839
162,276
Abbotsford
170,191
159,020
Kamloops
98,754
92,882
Nanaimo
98,021
92,361
Chilliwack
92,308
82,465
Prince George
84,232
83,225
Vernon
58,584
55,418
Courtenay
55,213
49,214
Ten largest municipalities by population
Municipality
2011
2006
Vancouver
603,502
578,041
Surrey (Metro Vancouver)
468,251
394,976
Burnaby
Burnaby (Metro Vancouver)
223,218
202,799
Richmond (Metro Vancouver)
190,473
174,461
Abbotsford
133,497
124,258
Coquitlam
Coquitlam (Metro Vancouver)
126,456
114,565
Kelowna
117,312
107,035
Saanich (Greater Victoria)
109,752
108,265
Langley Township (Metro Vancouver)
104,177
93,726
Delta (Metro Vancouver)
99,863
96,635
Canada
Canada 2006 Census
Population
% of total population
European
2,869,455
7001704000000000000♠70.4%
Visible minority group
Source:[67]
Chinese
407,225
7001100000000000000♠10%
South Asian
262,290
7000640000000000000♠6.4%
Black
28,315
6999700000000000000♠0.7%
Filipino
88,075
7000220000000000000♠2.2%
Latin
Latin American
28,965
6999700000000000000♠0.7%
Southeast Asian
40,685
7000100000000000000♠1%
Arab
8,635
6999200000000000000♠0.2%
West Asian
29,810
6999700000000000000♠0.7%
Korean
50,490
7000120000000000000♠1.2%
Japanese
35,060
6999900000000000000♠0.9%
Other visible minority
3,880
6999100000000000000♠0.1%
Mixed visible minority
25,420
6999600000000000000♠0.6%
Total visible minority population
1,008,855
7001248000000000000♠24.8%
Aboriginal group
Source:[68]
First Nations
129,575
7000320000000000000♠3.2%
Métis
59,445
7000150000000000000♠1.5%
Inuit
795
5000000000000000000♠0%
Total Aboriginal population
196,070
7000480000000000000♠4.8%
Total population
4,074,380
100%
Economy[edit]
A view of Vancouver's downtown core.
Vancouver
Vancouver is the business capital
of British Columbia.
British Columbia
British Columbia has a history of being a resource dominated economy,
centred on the forestry industry but also with fluctuating importance
in mining. Employment in the resource sector has fallen steadily as a
percentage of employment, and new jobs are mostly in the construction
and retail/service sectors. It now has the highest percentage of
service industry jobs in the west, comprising 72% of industry
(compared to 60% Western Canadian average).[69] The largest section of
this employment is in finance, insurance, real estate and corporate
management. Many areas outside of metropolitan areas, however, are
still heavily reliant on resource extraction. With its film industry
known as Hollywood North, the
Vancouver
Vancouver region is the third-largest
feature film production location in North America, after Los Angeles
and New York City.[70]
The economic history of
British Columbia
British Columbia is replete with tales of
dramatic upswings and downswings, and this boom and bust pattern has
influenced the politics, culture and business climate of the province.
Economic activity related to mining in particular has widely
fluctuated with changes in commodity prices over time, with documented
costs to community health.[71]
British Columbia's GDP is the fourth largest in
Canada
Canada at C$219.99
billion in 2012. GDP per capita was $45,430.[72] British Columbia's
debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to reach 15.8% in fiscal year
2019–2020.[73]
Government and politics[edit]
Main articles:
Politics of British Columbia
Politics of British Columbia and Monarchy in British
Columbia
The
British Columbia
British Columbia Legislature Buildings in Victoria
The Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, Judith Guichon, is the
Queen of Canada's representative in the
Province of British Columbia.
During the absence of the Lieutenant-Governor, the Governor General in
Council may appoint an administrator to execute the duties of the
office. In practice, this is usually the Chief Justice of British
Columbia.[74]
British Columbia
British Columbia has an 87-member elected Legislative Assembly,
elected by the plurality voting system, though in recent years there
has been significant debate about switching to a single transferable
vote system. The government of the day appoints ministers for various
portfolios, what are officially part of the Executive Council of
British Columbia
British Columbia (cabinet), of whom the premier is chair.
The province is governed by the
British Columbia
British Columbia New Democratic Party
(BC NDP) under Premier John Horgan. The 2017 provincial election saw
the Liberal Party take 43 seats, the NDP take 41, and the British
Columbia Green Party take 3. No party met the minimum of 44 seats for
a majority, therefore leading to the first minority government since
1953. Following the election, the Greens entered into negotiations
with both the Liberals and NDP, eventually announcing they would
support the current NDP minority. Previously, the right-of-centre
British Columbia Liberal Party
British Columbia Liberal Party governed the province for sixteen years
between 2001 and 2017, and won the largest landslide election in
British Columbia
British Columbia history in 2001, with 77 of 79 seats. The legislature
became more evenly divided, however, between the Liberals and NDP
following the 2005 (46 Liberal seats of 79) and 2009 (49 Liberal seats
of 85) provincial elections. The NDP and its predecessor the CCF have
been the main opposition force to right-wing parties since the 1930s
and have ruled with majority governments in 1972–1975 and
1991–2001. The Green Party plays a larger role in the politics of
British Columbia
British Columbia than Green parties do in most other jurisdictions in
Canada. After a breakthrough election in 2001 (12.39%), the party's
vote share declined (2005 – 9.17%, 2009 – 8.09%, 2013 - 8.13%)
before increasing again to a record high of 16.84% at the 2017
election.
The
British Columbia Liberal Party
British Columbia Liberal Party is not related to the federal
Liberal Party and does not share the same ideology. Instead, the BC
Liberal party is a rather diverse coalition, made up of the remnants
of the Social Credit Party, many federal Liberals, federal
Conservatives, and those who would otherwise support right-of-centre
or free enterprise parties. Historically, there have commonly been
third parties present in the legislature (including the Liberals
themselves from 1952 to 1975); the BC Green Party are the current
third party in British Columbia, with three seats in the legislature.
Prior to the rise of the Liberal Party, British Columbia's main
political party was the
British Columbia Social Credit Party
British Columbia Social Credit Party which
ruled
British Columbia
British Columbia for 20 continuous years. While sharing some
ideology with the current Liberal government, they were more
right-wing although undertook nationalization of various important
monopolies, notably
BC Hydro
BC Hydro and BC Ferries.
The meeting chamber of the provincial legislative assembly
British Columbia
British Columbia is known for having politically active labour unions
who have traditionally supported the NDP or its predecessor, the CCF.
British Columbia's political history is typified by scandal and a cast
of colourful characters, beginning with various colonial-era land
scandals and abuses of power by early officials (such as those that
led to
McGowan's War
McGowan's War in 1858–59). Notable scandals in Social Credit
years included the Robert Bonner Affair and the Fantasy Gardens
scandal which forced Premier
Bill Vander Zalm to resign and ended the
Social Credit era. NDP scandals included Bingogate, which brought down
NDP Premier Mike Harcourt, and the alleged scandal named Casinogate
which drove NDP Premier
Glen Clark
Glen Clark to resign. A variety of scandals
plagued the 2001-2017 Liberal government, including Premier Gordon
Campbell's arrest for drunk driving in Maui and the resignation of
various cabinet ministers because of conflict-of-interest allegations.
A Christmas Eve[which?] raid on the Parliament Buildings in Victoria,
including the Premier's Office, has resulted in charges only for
ministerial aides, although key cabinet members from the time have
since resigned. The case, currently in preliminary hearings in the
courts and relating to the sale of
BC Rail
BC Rail to CN Rail, may not reach
trial because of the mass of evidence and various procedural
problems.[citation needed] Campbell eventually resigned in late 2010
due to opposition to his government's plan to introduce a Harmonized
Sales Tax (HST) and was replaced by
Christy Clark
Christy Clark as Premier in a 2011
BC Liberal leadership election.
British Columbia
British Columbia is underrepresented in the Senate of Canada, leading
Premier
Christy Clark
Christy Clark to refuse to cooperate with the federal
government's new reforms for senate appointments to be made based on
the recommendations of a new advisory board that would use
non-partisan criteria. Hours after that plan was unveiled in Ottawa on
December 3, 2015, Clark issued a statement that it did "not address
what’s been wrong with the Senate since the beginning".[75]
The imbalance in representation in that House is apparent when
considering population size. The six senators from BC constitute only
one for every 775,000 people vs. one for every 75,000 in P.E.I. which
has four senators.
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick
New Brunswick have much smaller
populations than BC, yet each has ten Senators according to a Global
News summary.[76] Correcting this imbalance would require a
constitutional amendment, but that is unlikely to be supported by the
Atlantic Provinces.[76]
The flower of the
Pacific dogwood
Pacific dogwood is often associated with British
Columbia.
Official symbols[edit]
The government of
British Columbia
British Columbia has designated several official
symbols:[77]
Flag: Flag of British Columbia
Coat of arms: Coat of arms of British Columbia
Floral emblem: Pacific dogwood
Mineral emblem: Jade
Tree emblem: Western red cedar
Bird emblem: Steller's jay
Mammal emblem: "Spirit" or Kermode bear
Fish emblem: Pacific salmon
Tartan emblem:
British Columbia
British Columbia Tartan
The flag of
British Columbia
British Columbia is not protected and is in the public
domain.[78] However, the coat of arms of
British Columbia
British Columbia is protected
by law; no one may "without the permission of the minister, assume,
display or use the Coat of Arms of
British Columbia
British Columbia or a design so
closely resembling it as to be likely to deceive."[77]
Civil rights[edit]
British Columbia
British Columbia was the second Canadian jurisdiction (after Ontario)
to legalize same-sex marriage.[79]
Social issues[edit]
Housing affordability[edit]
Housing affordability is of concern to British Columbians.[80]
Fentanyl
Fentanyl crisis[edit]
In April 2016 the government of
British Columbia
British Columbia declared a public
health emergency due to overdoses on the illicit opioid Fentanyl. As
of November 2016, there had been 755 cases of
Fentanyl
Fentanyl overdose.[81]
Transportation[edit]
Transportation played a huge role in British Columbia's history. The
Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains and the ranges west of them constituted a significant
obstacle to overland travel until the completion of the
transcontinental railway in 1885. The Peace River Canyon through the
Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains was the route the earliest explorers and fur traders
used.
Fur trade
Fur trade routes were only marginally used for access to British
Columbia through the mountains. Travel from the rest of
Canada
Canada before
1885 meant the difficulty of overland travel via the United States,
around
Cape Horn
Cape Horn or overseas from Asia. Nearly all travel and freight
to and from the region occurred via the Pacific Ocean, primarily
through the ports of Victoria and New Westminster.
Until the 1930s, rail was the only means of overland travel to and
from the rest of Canada; travellers using motor vehicles needed to
journey through the United States. With the construction of the
Inter-Provincial Highway in 1932 (now known as the Crowsnest Pass
Highway), and later the Trans-
Canada
Canada Highway, road transportation
evolved into the preferred mode of overland travel to and from the
rest of the country.
Roads and highways[edit]
Main article: List of
British Columbia
British Columbia provincial highways
Alex Fraser Bridge
Alex Fraser Bridge on Highway 91 between Richmond and Delta
Because of its size and rugged, varying topography, British Columbia
requires thousands of kilometres of provincial highways to connect its
communities. British Columbia's roads systems were notoriously poorly
maintained and dangerous until a concentrated programme of improvement
was initiated in the 1950s and 1960s. There are now freeways in
Greater Victoria, the Lower Mainland, and Central Interior of the
province. Much of the rest of the province, where traffic volumes are
generally low, is accessible by well-maintained generally
high-mobility two-lane arterial highways with additional passing lanes
in mountainous areas and usually only a few stop-controlled
intersections outside the main urban areas.
A
British Columbia
British Columbia welcome sign on the Klondike Highway
A couple of busy intercity corridors outside Greater
Vancouver
Vancouver feature
more heavily signalized limited-mobility arterial highways that are
mostly four-lane and often divided by portable median traffic
barriers. Highway 1 on
Vancouver
Vancouver Island and Highway 97 through the
Okanagan
Okanagan Valley are medium- to high-volume roadways with variable
posted speeds that range from 50 km/h to maximums just slightly
lower than the principal grade-separated highways. Numerous traffic
lights operate in place of interchanges on both arterials as long-term
cost-cutting measures. Signalization along both these highways is
heaviest through urban areas and along inter-urban sections where
traffic volumes are similar to and sometimes higher than the freeways,
but where funding is not available for upgrades to interchanges or
construction of high-mobility alternative routes or bypasses. The
building and maintenance of provincial highways is the responsibility
of the
British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and
Infrastructure.[82]
There are only five major routes to the rest of Canada. From south to
north they are: BC Highway 3 through the Crowsnest Pass, the Vermilion
Pass (Highway 93 in both
British Columbia
British Columbia and Alberta), the Kicking
Horse Pass, the latter being used by the Trans-
Canada
Canada Highway entering
Alberta
Alberta through Banff National Park, the
Yellowhead Highway
Yellowhead Highway (16)
through Jasper National Park, and Highway 2 through Dawson Creek.
There are also several highway crossings to the adjoining American
states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. The longest highway is
Highway 97, running 2,081 km (1,293 mi) from the British
Columbia-Washington border at
Osoyoos
Osoyoos north to Watson Lake,
Yukon
Yukon and
which includes the
British Columbia
British Columbia portion of the
Alaska
Alaska Highway.
Public transit[edit]
Prior to 1979, surface public transit was administered by BC Hydro,
the provincially owned electricity utility. Subsequently, the province
established
BC Transit to oversee and operate all municipal
transportation systems. In 1998, the Greater
Vancouver
Vancouver Transportation
Authority (TransLink) (now South Coast
British Columbia
British Columbia Transportation
Authority), a separate authority for routes within the Greater
Vancouver
Vancouver Regional District was established.
Public transit in
British Columbia
British Columbia consists mainly of diesel buses,
although
Vancouver
Vancouver is also serviced by a fleet of trolleybuses.
Several experimental buses are being tested such as hybrid buses that
have both gasoline and electric engines. Additionally, there are
CNG-fueled buses being tested and used in
Nanaimo
Nanaimo and Kamloops
systems.[83]
British Columbia
British Columbia also tested a fleet of Hydrogen-fueled
buses for the Vancouver-Whistler Winter Olympics in 2010.[84]
TransLink operates SkyTrain, an automated metro system serving the
cities of Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, North Surrey and
Richmond. In 2009, the
Canada
Canada Line SkyTrain was completed, linking
Vancouver
Vancouver International Airport and the city of Richmond to downtown
Vancouver
Vancouver bringing the total to three operating metro lines.
A new line to
Coquitlam
Coquitlam and
Port Moody
Port Moody (the Evergreen Line) was
completed in December 2016. There is planning for an extension of the
Millennium Line through
Vancouver
Vancouver City to the University of British
Columbia. Turnstiles have been added to all existing stations in the
system. In the past, SkyTrain used a proof of payment honour system.
In the capital city of Victoria
BC Transit and the provincial
government's infrastructure ministry are working together to create a
bus rapid transit from the Westshore communities to downtown
Victoria.[85] In
Kamloops
Kamloops there is a rapid transit/ bus GPS trail
underway to see how bus rapid transit effects smaller cities, rather
than larger (Victoria and Vancouver).
Rail[edit]
CPR train traversing the Stoney Creek Bridge
Rail development expanded greatly in the decades after the Canadian
Pacific Railway was completed, in 1885, and was the chief mode of
long-distance surface transportation until the expansion and
improvement of the provincial highways system began in the 1950s. Two
major routes through the
Yellowhead Pass
Yellowhead Pass competed with the Canadian
Pacific Railway—the Grand Trunk Pacific, terminating at Prince
Rupert, and the Canadian Northern Railway, terminating at Vancouver.
The
Pacific Great Eastern
Pacific Great Eastern line supplemented this service, providing a
north–south route between interior resource communities and the
coast. The
Pacific Great Eastern
Pacific Great Eastern (later known as British Columbia
Railway and now owned by Canadian National Railway) connects Fort St
James, Fort Nelson, and Tumbler Ridge with North Vancouver. The
E&N Railway, rebranded as Southern Railway of
Vancouver
Vancouver Island,
serves the commercial and passenger train markets of
Vancouver
Vancouver Island
by owning the physical rail lines.
Amtrak
Amtrak runs international passenger service between
Vancouver
Vancouver and
Seattle.
The White Pass and
Yukon
Yukon Route runs between
Alaska
Alaska and the Yukon, via
British Columbia.
Water[edit]
BC Ferries
BC Ferries was established as a provincial crown corporation in 1960
to provide passenger and vehicle ferry service between Vancouver
Island and the
Lower Mainland
Lower Mainland as a cheaper and more reliable
alternative to the service operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
It now operates 25 routes among the islands of British Columbia, as
well as between the islands and the mainland. Ferry service to
Washington is offered by the
Washington State Ferries
Washington State Ferries (between Sidney
and Anacortes) and Black Ball Transport (between Victoria and Port
Angeles, Washington). Ferry service over inland lakes and rivers is
provided by the provincial government.
Commercial ocean transport is of vital importance. Major ports are at
Vancouver,
Roberts Bank (near Tsawwassen), Prince Rupert, and
Victoria.[86][87] Of these, the Port of
Vancouver
Vancouver is the most
important, being the largest in
Canada
Canada and the most diversified in
North America.
Vancouver, Victoria, and
Prince Rupert
Prince Rupert are also major ports of call
for cruise ships. In 2007, a large maritime container port was opened
in
Prince Rupert
Prince Rupert with an inland sorting port in Prince George.
Air[edit]
Main article: List of airports in British Columbia
There are over 200 airports throughout British Columbia, the major
ones being the
Vancouver
Vancouver International Airport, the Victoria
International Airport, the
Kelowna
Kelowna International Airport, and the
Abbotsford International Airport, the first three of which each served
over 1,000,000 passengers in 2005. As of 2017[update], Vancouver
International Airport is the 2nd busiest airport in the country and
the second biggest International Gateway on the west coast (after Los
Angeles) with an estimated 17.9 million travellers passing through in
2008.
Culture[edit]
Outdoor life[edit]
Ice sailing in Whistler
Given its varied mountainous terrain and its coasts, lakes, rivers,
and forests,
British Columbia
British Columbia has long been enjoyed for pursuits like
hiking and camping, rock climbing and mountaineering, hunting and
fishing.
Water sports, both motorized and non-motorized, are enjoyed in many
places. Sea kayaking opportunities abound on the British Columbia
coast with its fjords.
Whitewater
Whitewater rafting and kayaking are popular on
many inland rivers.
Sailing
.jpg/526px-Sailing-yachts.Tuiga.Lulworth.Cambria.Cannes.2006-09-26-(detail).jpg)
Sailing and sailboarding are widely enjoyed.
In winter, cross-country and telemark skiing are much enjoyed, and in
recent decades high-quality downhill skiing has been developed in the
Coast Mountain range and the Rockies, as well as in the southern areas
of the Shuswap Highlands and the Columbia Mountains.
Snowboarding
Snowboarding has
mushroomed in popularity since the early 1990s. The 2010 Winter
Olympics downhill events were held in
Whistler Blackcomb
Whistler Blackcomb area of the
province, while the indoor events were conducted in the Vancouver
area.
In
Vancouver
Vancouver and Victoria (as well as some other cities),
opportunities for joggers and bicyclists have been developed.
Cross-country bike touring has been popular since the ten-speed bike
became available many years ago. Since the advent of the more robust
mountain bike, trails in more rugged and wild places have been
developed for them. A 2016 poll on global biking website Pinkbike
rated BC as the top destination mountain bikers would like to
ride.[88] Some of the province's retired rail beds have been converted
and maintained for hiking, biking, and cross-country skiing.
Longboarding
Longboarding is also a popular activity because of the hilly geography
of the region.
Horseback riding is enjoyed by many British Columbians. Opportunities
for trail riding, often into especially scenic areas, have been
established for tourists in numerous areas of the province.
British Columbia
British Columbia also has strong participation levels in many other
sports, including golf, tennis, soccer, hockey, Canadian football,
rugby union, lacrosse, baseball, softball, basketball, curling, disc
golf, Ultimate and figure skating.
British Columbia
British Columbia has produced many
outstanding athletes, especially in aquatic and winter sports.
Consistent with both increased tourism and increased participation in
diverse recreations by British Columbians has been the proliferation
of lodges, chalets, bed and breakfasts, motels, hotels, fishing camps,
and park-camping facilities in recent decades.
In certain areas, there are businesses, non-profit societies, or
municipal governments dedicated to promoting ecotourism in their
region. A number of
British Columbia
British Columbia farmers offer visitors to combine
tourism with farm work, for example, through the
WWOOF
WWOOF Canada
program.[89]
Education[edit]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December
2014)
Aerial view of
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia
See also: Higher education in British Columbia
Public universities and colleges include:
University of British Columbia
Simon Fraser University
University of Victoria
University of Northern British Columbia
Vancouver
Vancouver Island University
British Columbia
British Columbia Institute of Technology
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Thompson Rivers University
Emily Carr University of Art and Design
Royal Roads University
Capilano University
University of the Fraser Valley
Camosun College
Langara College
Selkirk College
College of New Caledonia
College of the Rockies
In September 2014 there were 11,000 international students in BC
public K-12 schools and about 3,000 international students in other BC
K-12 schools.[90] As of 2006 there were 59 school districts. As of the
same year, 44 of them offered French immersion programs. Conseil
scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, established in 1995,
operates French-language public schools throughout the entire
province.[91]
See also[edit]
British Columbia
British Columbia portal
Canada
Canada portal
North America portal
Bibliography of British Columbia
Index of British Columbia-related articles
List of designated places in British Columbia
List of historic places in British Columbia
List of people from British Columbia
List of regions of Canada
Outline of British Columbia
Notes[edit]
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^ "Population by year of
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^ According to the Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage
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^ Statistics Canada. Gross domestic product, expenditure-based, by
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^ Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers,
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^ a b Donald J. Hauka, McGowan's War, Vancouver: 2003, New Star Books,
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^ a b Jean Barman, The West Beyond the West: A History of British
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^ "Col.
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^ a b Margaret Ormsby, Richard Clement Moody, in Dictionary of
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^ "Population Estimates,
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^ "2014
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^ "Canadian climate normals 1981–2010
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^ Martin, Ged (1978). "The Naming of British Columbia". Albion: A
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^ Akrigg, Helen B. and G.P.V. (1977).
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^ Attenborough, D.1998. The Life of Birds. BBC publication.
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^ BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, Conservation Data
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^ Coates, K.D.; Haeussler, S.; Lindeburgh, S.; Pojar, R.; Stock, A.J.
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^ a b c "
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^ Gilmartin, Mary. "Colonialism/ Imperialism" in Key Concepts in
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^ Gilmartin, Mary. "Colonialism/ Imperialism" in Key Concepts in
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^ Gilmartin, Mary. "Colonialism/ Imperialism" in Key Concepts in
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^ Scott, Laura Elaine (1983). The Imposition of British Culture as
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^ a b Scott, Laura Elaine (1983). The Imposition of British Culture as
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^ Moody, Richard Clement. Letter of Colonel Richard Clement Moody,
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Columbia Historical Quarterly (January – April 1951), ed. Willard E.
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^ Jean Barman, The West Beyond the West: A History of British
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^ Scott, Laura Elaine (1983). The Imposition of British Culture as
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New Westminster
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^
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^ Schroeder, Andreas (1992). Carved From Wood; Mission, BC,
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^ a b c d Michelmann, Hans; Smith, David; De Clercy, Cristine (2006).
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^ Palmer, Bryan (1987). Solidarity: The Rise and Fall of an Opposition
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^ "Profile of British Columbia". Statistics Canada. Retrieved
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^ Robinson, J. Lewis (November 18, 2010). "British Columbia". The
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References[edit]
"British Columbia". BC Geographical Names.
Further reading[edit]
Akrigg, G. P. V; Akrigg, Helen B (1997).
British Columbia
British Columbia place names.
Univ. of
British Columbia
British Columbia Press. ISBN 0-7748-0636-2.
Barman, Jean (2007). The West beyond the West: a history of British
Columbia. Univ. of
Toronto
Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-9309-4.
Dawson, Michael (2005). Selling British Columbia:
Tourism
Tourism and Consumer
Culture, 1890–1970. Univ. of
British Columbia
British Columbia Press.
ISBN 978-0-7748-1055-5.
Foster, Leslie T (2007). People, politics, and child welfare in
British Columbia. Univ. of
British Columbia
British Columbia Press.
ISBN 978-0-7748-1372-3.
Harris, R Cole (1997). The resettlement of British Columbia :
essays on colonialism and geographical change. Univ. of British
Columbia Press. ISBN 0-7748-0588-9.
McKee, Christopher (2000). Treaty talks in British Columbia:
negotiating a mutually beneficial future. Univ. of British Columbia
Press. ISBN 0-7748-0824-1.
McGillivray, Brett (2000).
Geography
Geography of British Columbia: people and
landscapes in transition. Univ. of
British Columbia
British Columbia Press.
ISBN 0-7748-0784-9.
Muckle, Robert James (1998). The
First Nations
First Nations of British Columbia: an
anthropological survey. Univ. of
British Columbia
British Columbia Press.
ISBN 0-7748-0663-X.
Thirkell, Fred; Bob Scullion (2002).
British Columbia
British Columbia 100 years ago:
portraits of a province. Heritage House Pub.
ISBN 1-894384-49-0.
Ver Berkmoes, Ryan; John Lee (2007). Guide to "British Columbia".
Lonely Planet. ISBN 978-1-74104-584-0.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to British Columbia.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for British Columbia.
Wikisource
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article
British Columbia.
Government of
British Columbia
British Columbia website
Tourism
Tourism
British Columbia
British Columbia official website
BC Facts
Newsroom
BCStats & Infoline Weekly Digest
British Columbia
British Columbia at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
Provincial Archives including online photo database
Vancouver
Vancouver Public Library; Historical Photographs of BC & the Yukon
BC Multicultural Photographs from the
Vancouver
Vancouver Public Library –
searchable photo database
BC Government online map archive
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Coordinates: 54°N 125°W / 54°N 125°W / 54; -125
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WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 137121920
LCCN: n79058445
ISNI: 0000 0001 1456 7794
GND: 4069670-4
SUDOC: 028635736
BNF: cb12043099w (d