British Columbia, or simply B.C. or BC (French: Colombie-Britannique, C.-B.), is the westernmost of Canada's provinces. It was the sixth province to join Confederation (in 1871). As of 2005, the population estimate is 4,220,000 (British Columbians).
Geography
- Main article: Geography of British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, bordered by the Pacific coast. It is bound on the northwest by the U.S. state of Alaska, directly north by Yukon and the Northwest Territories, on the east by Alberta, and on the south by the states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. The southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty.
British Columbia's capital is Victoria, located at the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island. BC's most populous city is Vancouver, located in southwest corner of the BC mainland called the Lower Mainland. Other major cities include Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Richmond, Delta, and New Westminster in the Lower Mainland; Abbotsford and Langley in the Fraser Valley; Nanaimo on Vancouver Island; and Kelowna and Kamloops in the Interior. Prince George is the major city nearest the centre of the province; however, a small town called Vanderhoof, 100 km to the west, is much nearer to the geographic centre.
The Canadian Rockies and the Inside Passage's fjords provide some of British Columbia's renowned and spectacular scenery, which forms the backdrop and context for a growing outdoor adventure and ecotourism industry. The Okanagan area is one of only three wine-growing regions in Canada and also produces excellent ciders, but exports little of either drink. The small rural towns of Penticton, Oliver, and Osoyoos have some of the warmest summer climates in Canada.
Much of Vancouver Island is covered by temperate rain forest, one of a mere handful of such ecosystems in the world (notable others being on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington and in Chile and Tasmania). The province's mainland has snowy, cold winters, especially in the north. The coast and Vancouver Island are temperate in many places, where the climate is moderated by the Pacific Ocean. In the interior, summer temperatures can be quite warm, even notably hot and there are large semi-arid areas and a few localities classifiable as pocket deserts, including the towns of Osoyoos and Lillooet. There is more than one spot in British Columbia that has recorded peak summer temperatures of 43.3 °C (110 °F) and an ongoing rivalry exists between the Fraser Canyon towns of Lytton and Lillooet for the title of "Canada's Hot Spot".
Nine Largest Municipalities in BC by population
| Municipality |
2001 |
1996 |
| Vancouver |
545,671 |
514,008 |
| Surrey |
347,825 |
304,477 |
| Burnaby |
193,954 |
179,209 |
| Richmond |
164,345 |
148,867 |
| Abbotsford |
115,463 |
104,403 |
| Coquitlam |
112,890 |
101,820 |
| Saanich |
103,654 |
101,388 |
| Delta |
96,950 |
95,411 |
| Kelowna |
96,288 |
89,422 |
History
- Main article: History of British Columbia
From 1818 to 1846, British Columbia south of 54°40′ and west of the Rocky Mountains was part of a region named by the Americans (after they started claiming it, even though there were none actually in the territory), the Oregon Country, after an old name for the Columbia River coming from the French word ouragan (hurricane). The land was under the control of - but unlike Rupert's Land not owned by - the Hudson's Bay Company, who had a monopoly within the region on trade with the Indians. Hudson's Bay territories west of the Rockies were divided into the departments of Columbia, vaguely defined as to the (south of the Thompson River) and New Caledonia (north of the river).
In 1846, the Oregon Treaty divided the territory along the 49th parallel to Georgia Strait, with the area north of this boundary (and all of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands) becoming exclusively British territory. The Colony of Vancouver Island was created in 1849, with Victoria designated as the capital. New Caledonia — the mainland — continued to be an unorganized territory of British North America, "administered" by individual HBC trading post managers.
With the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858, the mainland was organized into the Colony of British Columbia, with New Westminster as its capital. The name was chosen by Queen Victoria, to differentiate the British part of the Columbia District from that portion lost to the United States, i.e. the remaining US portion of the Oregon Country. The name "Columbia" does not derive directly from Christopher Columbus, as does the name of the country Colombia or as in the District of Columbia, but instead comes from the name of the ship sailed up the Columbia's lower reaches (allegedly) by American Captain Robert Gray. That voyage, foregone by Captain Vancouver a few years before during his charting of the Coast, was one of the determining factors in the final surrender of what had been clearly a British fur dominion into the hands of expanding Americans. Unlike other names in Canada and elsewhere, the name Columbia (as in the river) is not translated in French, since it is a ship's name, although the province secondarily-named for it is rendered la Colombie-Britannique (the province's official name in French).
In 1858, in response to the Fraser Canyon gold rush, the mainland portion of the former Oregon Country was organized into the colony of British Columbia as a preventive against the risk of annexation by the American-dominated mining population, many of whom had defied the Governor's orders to enter the Colony via Victoria and instead came overland via Whatcom County and the Okanagan Trail. The Cariboo region ("Central Interior") of British Columbia experienced a gold rush in the years 1862 to 1865. This created a rapid influx of miners and settlers, about 30,000 in all. The colonial authorities feared the gold rush might spread beyond B.C.'s northern border (54°40′ north), so the Stikine Territory was created in 1862. However, the following year this new territory was disestablished, most of its area going to B.C., whose northern limit was increased to its current location, 60° north.
This period in the province's history is acknowledged today in the Gold Rush Trail: historic and other sites along the route from Lillooet to Barkerville and beyond. Some of the towns along this route are numbered according to their distance from the end of the navigable part of the Fraser River at Lillooet. Best known of these is the town of 100 Mile House which, along with the residential hub of 108 Mile Ranch, forms a substantial trading, tourism, and population centre for this region.
After the mainland's gold rushes collapsed and the colony almost went bankrupt from building roads in its interior, the two colonies of Vancouver's Island and British Columbia agreed to merge and share the debt. The merger was effected in 1866, with the name British Columbia being applied to the newly united colony.
Several factors played in the decision of British Columbia to join Canada on July 20, 1871. These included 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. The decision was made largely because the Canadian government offered to link British Columbia to the more settled parts of Canada via the Canadian Pacific Railway and offered to pay off the $1,000,000 British Columbian debt.
The completion of the CPR in 1885, and its upgrades during 1886, was a huge boost to Vancouver, the line's terminus founded in 1886, and it rapidly grew to become one of Canada's largest cities. The province became a centre of fishing, mining, and especially of logging throughout the twentieth century.
In 1903, British Columbia's territory shrank somewhat after the Alaska Boundary Dispute settled the vague boundary of the Alaska panhandle.
B.C. has long taken advantage of its Pacific coast to have close relations with East Asia. However, this has caused friction, with frequent feelings of animosity towards Asian immigrants. This was most manifest during the Second World War when many people of Japanese descent were interned in the interior of the province.
The post-World War II years saw Vancouver and Victoria also become cultural centres as poets, authors, artists, musicians, as well as dancers, actors, and haute cuisine chefs flocked to the beautiful scenery and warmer temperatures. Similarly, these cities have either attracted or given rise to their own noteworthy academics, commentators, and creative thinkers. Tourism also began to play an important role in the economy. The rise of Japan and other Pacific economies was a great boost to the B.C. economy.
Demographics
External link: British Columbia ethno-cultural profile at Statistics Canada
Politics
Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C.
BC has a 79-member elected Legislative Assembly, elected by the First Past the Post system.
British Columbia's political culture is polarized and has tended to swing between right and left. There is little middle ground between the two main parties, whose core support each is estimated at 15-20%, with the middle fracturing variously towards either side because of few alternatives. Within Canada, BC is viewed much as California is in the United States, prone to unusual politics and scandals. Its electorate is perhaps the most cynical in the country because of the history of sleaze and promise-breaking by temporarily-popular politicians. BC voters are known not to vote for someone or for their party, but against them as voters are generally more motivated to remove old politicians from power than to usher in new ones. As a result elections can produce sudden reversals, as well as overly dominant majorities of extreme left or extreme right.
Currently the province is governed by the revived British Columbia Liberal Party under Gordon Campbell, widely perceived as conservative along the lines of the Klein or Harris governments, although Campbell claims to be a centrist. While many Liberal backbenchers and one or two cabinet ministers are, in fact, liberal, the party behaves as a rightist party and makes no secret of their ties to conservative economic policies and conservative governments in other jurisdictions. For a decade before the Campbell government took power, B.C. was governed by the social democratic New Democratic Party (NDP). Before that, the government was led by the right-wing Social Credit Party from 1975 to 1991. However, due to the increasing unpopularity of leader Bill Vander Zalm and mounting scandals, the party was roundly defeated at the polls and collapsed in 1991. From 1972 to 1975 an NDP government led by Dave Barrett held power but was defeated after a showdown with organized labour. Its predecessor was the original Social Credit regime of W.A.C. Bennett, a populist who espoused conservative policies but frequently resorted to state intervention and nationalization of key infrastructure.
Prior to 1903 there were no political parties in British Columbia, other than at the federal level. Sir Richard McBride was the first Premier to declare a party affiliation (Conservative Party of Canada) and institute conventional party/caucus politics.
Recall and Initiative
British Columbia is the only province in Canada with recall election and initiative legislation.
Only one recall petition was ever deemed to have had any success, compelling MLA Paul Reitsma to resign his seat hours before he would have been removed from office.
Electoral Reform
A Citizens' Assembly in 2004 recommended replacing the First Past the Post system with a Single Transferable Vote system to be implemented in 2009, and a referendum was held on May 17, 2005 to determine if this change should go ahead. The proposal received majority support (58% of the popular vote), but the government had required 60% to make the proposal binding on them. A second requirement was a simple majority in 60% of the current ridings and 77 of the 79 ridings achieved this, far more than the 48 minimum. The close result has provoked further interest in electoral reform. As a result of this, the Provincial Government has promised a second referendum on the issue to be held in November 2008.
Parks and Protected Areas
There are 14 designations of parks and protected areas in the province that reflects 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, 4 National Parks and 3 National Park Reserves. 12.5% (114,000 km²) of BC is currently considered 'protected' under one of the 14 different designations that includes over 800 distinct areas.
British Columbia contains seven of Canada's national parks:
BC also contains a large network of provincial parks, run by BC Parks of the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection.
In addition to these areas, over 4.7 million hectares of arable land are protected by the Agricultural Land Reserve.
Recreation
Given its varied mountainous terrain and its coasts, lakes, rivers, and forests, British Columbia has long been enjoyed for pursuits like hiking and camping, rock climbing and mountaineering, hunting and fishing.
Much of the province is wild or semi-wild, so that populations of very many mammalian species that have become rare in much of the United States still flourish in B.C. Watching animals of various sorts, including a very wide range of birds, has also long been popular. Bears (grizzly and black) live here, as do deer, elk, moose, caribou, big-horn sheep, mountain goats, beavers, muskrat, coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, eagles, ospreys, herons, Canada geese, swans, loons, hawks, owls, ravens, and many sorts of ducks. Smaller birds (robins, jays, grosbeaks, chickadees, etc.) also abound.
Healthy populations of many sorts of fishes are found in the waters (including, of course, salmonids such as several species of salmon, trout, char, etc.). Besides salmon and trout, sport-fishers in B.C. also catch halibut, steelhead, bass, and sturgeon.
Water sports, both motorized and non-motorized, are enjoyed in many places. Sea kayaking opportunities abound on the B.C. coast with its fjords. Whitewater rafting and kayaking are popular on many inland rivers. 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 has mushroomed in popularity since the early 1990s. The 2010 Winter Olympics downhill events will be held in Whistler-Blackcomb area of the province, while the indoor events will be in the Vancouver area.
In 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 more robust mountain bikes, trails in more rugged and wild places have been developed for them. Some of the province's retired rail beds have been converted and maintained for hiking, biking, and cross-country skiing.
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.
Of course, British Columbians have not failed to enjoy all the traditional sports, like golf, tennis, soccer, hockey, rugby, softball, basketball, curling, figure skating, and so on. B.C. has produced many outstanding athletes, especially in aquatic and winter sports. Also, today programs of training and toning systems like aerobics and hatha yoga are widespread. Most communities of several thousand people or more have developed facilities for these (as, in some cases, have communities of even a few hundred).
Consistent with both increased tourism and increased participation in diverse recreations by British Columbians themselves 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.
Recreational Cannabis
In recent years there has also been a rise of 'marijuana culture' in many parts of BC, to the extent that the production and sale of the drug is now estimated by the provincial Organized Crime Agency to be among the province's largest industries[1]. In Vancouver there are several open-to-the-public "brown cafe"-style coffee houses where people can meet and openly smoke marijuana. Though police may tend to turn a blind eye to pot use in some urban areas, the drug remains illegal throughout the province, and controlling its spread remains an ongoing and much-debated legal issue in the province. Issues such as the rise of marijuana "grow ops" in suburban communities and their related ties to organized crime continue to be a concern, though there is also a large and vocal pro-legalization lobby. Nevertheless, the quality, assortment and price of marijuana in BC sometimes makes it a destination for those taking an interest in cannabis.
Famous British Columbians
- Bryan Adams, musician
- Pamela Anderson, actress
- Gil Bellows, actor
- Earle Birney, poet
- Michael Bublé, singer
- Raymond Burr, actor
- Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister
- Yvonne de Carlo, actress
- Kim Cattrall, actress
- Hayden Christensen, actor
- James Doohan, actor
- Peter Dyakowski, athlete
- Atom Egoyan, screenwriter/director
- Arthur Erickson, architect
- Judith Forst, opera singer (contralto)
- David Foster, musician
- Dan George, native leader and actor
- Matthew Good, musician
- Michael J. Fox, actor and Parkinson's activist
- Terry Fox, athlete
- Don Francks, actor
- Nelly Furtado, singer/songwriter
- Nancy Greene-Raine, Olympic medalist (skiing)
- Rick Hansen, former Paralympian and disability activist
- Doug Hepburn, Empire Games medalist and founder of the sport of powerlifting
- Ben Heppner, opera singer (tenor)
- Joshua Jackson, actor
- Paul Kariya, hockey player
- Joe Keithley, punk singer/songwriter
- Gene Kiniski, professional wrestler
- Diana Krall, musician
- Kristin Kreuk, actress
- Evelyn Lau, author
- Silken Laumann, Olympic medalist (rower)
- Malcolm Lowry, novelist
- Sarah McLachlan, musician
- Leon Mandrake, magician ("Mandrake the Magician")
- Greg Moore, race car driver
- Carrie-Anne Moss, actress
- Steve Nash, NBA MVP
- Cam Neely, hockey player
- Scott Niedermayer, hockey player
- Rob Niedermayer, Scott's brother
- Jimmy Pattison, businessperson and Fortune 500 member
- Tony Pep, boxer/boxing coach-promoter
- Al Purdy, poet
- Jason Priestley, actor
- Ryan Reynolds, actor
- Joe Sakic, hockey player
- Jack Shadbolt, painter/sculptor
- Michael Shanks, actor
- Dorothy Stratten, actress/model
- David Suzuki, environmental advocate
- Margaret Trudeau, ex-wife of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau
- Larry Walker, baseball player
- Steve Yzerman, hockey player
Maps
British Columbia map from the Atlas of Canada
Cities
Half of all British Columbians live in the Greater Vancouver Regional District, which includes Vancouver, New Westminster, Surrey, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Langley, Delta, Pitt Meadows, White Rock, Richmond, Port Moody, Anmore, Belcarra, Lions Bay and Bowen Island.
Other cities:
See also
External links
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia under GFDL
