Canada Place, co-named Komagata Maru Place, is a building situated on the

Burrard Inlet Burrard Inlet () is a shallow-sided fjord in the northwestern Lower Mainland, British Columbia, Canada. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the lowland Burrard Peninsula to the south from the coa ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, British Columbia, Canada. It is home to the

Vancouver Convention Centre The Vancouver Convention Centre (formerly known as the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre, or VCEC) is a convention centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; it is one of Canada's largest convention centres. With the opening of the n ...

East Building, the Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel, the Vancouver World Trade Centre, and the virtual flight experience Flyover in Vancouver. The building's exterior is covered by fabric roofs resembling sails. It is also the main

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

passenger terminal for the region, where cruises to

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

originate. The building was designed by architects Zeidler Roberts Partnership in joint venture with Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and DA Architects + Planners. Canada Place is accessed via West Cordova Street and near Waterfront Station, a major transit hub with SkyTrain, SeaBus, and

West Coast Express The West Coast Express is a Commuter rail in North America, commuter railway serving the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. It is owned and operated by the region's transit authority, TransLink (British Columbia), TransLink. ...

connections. The structure was expanded in 2001 to accommodate another cruise ship berth. During the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

, Canada Place served as the Main Press Centre.

History

Canada Place was built on the land which was originally the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

's Pier B–C. Built in 1927, its primary purpose was to serve CPR and other shipping lines trading across the Pacific Ocean. In 1978 Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments commenced planning for development of convention, cruise ship and hotel facilities. Four years later, the

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

created a crown corporation, the Canada Harbour Place Corporation (known as Canada Place Corporation until 2012), to develop the Canada Place project on the Pier B–C site. Construction began when

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

arrived on the Royal Yacht Britannia with

Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau (October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000) was a Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Between his no ...

Prime Minister of Canada The prime minister of Canada () is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the Confidence and supply, confidence of a majority of the elected House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons ...

and William R. Bennett, Premier of BC to initiate the first concrete pour. During

Expo 86 The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a world's fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communicatio ...

, the Canada Pavilion at Canada Place was opened by

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

and

Brian Mulroney Martin Brian Mulroney (March 20, 1939 – February 29, 2024) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studi ...

, Prime Minister of Canada. Among the largest and most elaborate pavilions presented by any nation at any World's Fair, the Canada Pavilion hosted more than 5 million visitors prior to the October 13, 1986 closing date. Canada Place Corporation (CPC), a Crown agent, continues to act as the coordinating landlord for Canada Place facilities. In 2024, Canada Place was co-named Komagata Maru Place in honor of a 1914 incident when the Komagata Maru steamship (also known as the

Guru Nanak Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: , ), also known as ('Father Nanak'), was an Indian spiritual teacher, mystic and poet, who is regarded as the founder of Sikhism and is t ...

Jahaaz) brought 376

Punjabis The Punjabis (Punjabi language, Punjabi: ; ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ; romanised as Pañjābī) are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group associated with the Punjab region, comprising areas of northwestern India and eastern Paki ...

(337

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...

, 27

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

and 12

Hindus Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

) to Vancouver, most of whom were denied entry, detained for two months with a lack of medical aid, food or water, and then forced to return to India, where many were killed by British authorities.

Events

Throughout the year many community events are held at and hosted by Canada Place.

Pan Pacific Vancouver

The Pan Pacific Vancouver opened in January 1986 and has 503 rooms and suites, two restaurants, and a lounge. The hotel is operated by Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts. File:Pan Pacific Vancouver Lobby.jpg, Pan Pacific Vancouver lobby File:CanadaPlaceByNight.JPG, Canada Place, night view

Heritage Horns

The Heritage Horns, formerly known as the 12 O'clock Horn, sound the first four notes of

O Canada "O Canada" () is the national anthem of Canada. The song was originally commissioned by Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Théodore Robitaille for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony; Calixa Lavallée composed the music, after which French- ...

every day at noon and can be heard throughout Downtown Vancouver and beyond. The ten horns have five facing north and five facing east on the roof of the Pan Pacific hotel and have an output of 115

Decibels The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a ...

. They were originally on the roof of the BC Hydro building (now The Electra) and were silent when the headquarters was converted to condominiums in the early 1990s. The horns started sounding again on November 8, 1994 after being acquired, refurbished, and relocated to Canada Place. Due to complaints, the timer was changed from mechanical to electrical soon after to make them accurate. They sounded 26 times during the 2010 Olympics, once for each medal won by Canada. The first was at 7:30pm on February 13 for a silver won by Jennifer Heil. The Heritage Horns were also sounding at 7:00 p.m. each evening from March 26 to April 16, 2020 in support of essential service workers across Canada. Another notable

time signal A time signal is a visible, audible, mechanical, or electronic signal used as a reference to determine the time of day. Church bells or voices announcing hours of prayer gave way to automatically operated chimes on public clocks; however, au ...

in the area is the 9 O'Clock Gun across the harbour in

Stanley Park Stanley Park is a public park in British Columbia, Canada, that makes up the northwestern half of Vancouver's Downtown Vancouver, Downtown peninsula, surrounded by waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay, Vancouver, English Bay. The park bor ...

References

External links