British Columbia

Administrative division of Canada
Also known as Province de Colombie-Britannique
Total area: 947,800 square kilometres (365,948 square miles)
Maximum elevation: 4,663 metres (15,299 feet)
 

British Columbia, Pacific coast province in south-western Canada, bounded on the north by Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories; on the east by Alberta; on the south by the American states of Montana, Idaho, and Washington; and on the west by the Pacific Ocean and Alaska. The crest of the Rocky Mountains forms the southern portion of the eastern boundary. The province includes Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands off the western coast. The only Canadian province on the Pacific Ocean, British Columbia is the third-largest province in both area and population, behind both Quebec and Ontario. It is a mountainous region, with its population primarily in the south-west corner of the province. The largest city is Vancouver, and the provincial capital is Victoria.
British Columbia became part of the Confederation of Canada on July 20, 1871, as the sixth province. It is well endowed with natural resources, including mineral reserves, forests, and fisheries, all of which have provided the basis for its diversified economic development. The outstanding scenic and recreational attractions of the province have also made tourism important. Its name refers to the Columbia River, which originates here and flows south across the border into the United States.
 

Land and Resources

British Columbia, with an area of 947,800 sq km (365,946 sq mi), is the third-largest province in Canada. The province is roughly rectangular in shape; its extreme dimensions are about 1,250 km (780 mi) from north to south and about 1,050 km (650 mi) from east to west. Elevations range from sea level to 4,663 m (15,300 ft) at Mount Fairweather in the St Elias Mountains. British Columbia's shoreline along the Pacific Ocean, including the coasts of islands and land bordering estuaries, is 32,747 km (20,348 mi) long.
 

Physical Geography

British Columbia is the most physically diverse of the four western Canadian provinces. Mountain ranges trending south-east to north-west cover much of the province. In the north-eastern corner, however, is a portion of the Interior Plains of Canada. This region has a flat to gently hilly landscape. Almost all of British Columbia was covered by ice during the Glacial Period except for the Queen Charlotte Islands, which have unique flora and fauna. The Eastern Mountain System comprises a complex belt of heavily glaciated ranges and valleys trending south-east to north-west. This region is dominated by the Rocky Mountains. Lesser ranges include the Cassiar and Omineca Mountains in the north and the Cariboo, Selkirk, Monashee, and Purcell ranges of the Columbia Mountain system in the south. The Intermontane Region is also a rugged area. The central section, around Prince George and Williams Lake, has a broken, rolling terrain, but both the northern and southern portions contain mountain ranges with elevations only slightly lower than those of the Rockies. The Western Mountain System is dominated by the heavily glaciated Coast Mountains, which in the extreme north-west contain the province's highest peak, Mount Fairweather. The many islands along the Pacific coast are the highest points of a mountain range that was partly submerged by a geologically recent sea-level rise.

Run-off from the mountains feeds many swift-running streams and large rivers in British Columbia. The most prominent are the Fraser, Skeena, Columbia, and Kootenay rivers, all of which drain to the Pacific Ocean, and the Peace River, which drains north-east towards the Arctic Ocean. The Stikine is an important river in the north-west part of the province. British Columbia has many large natural lakes, especially in the valleys of the southern and central interior. Among the largest lakes are Babine, Atlin, Kootenay, Ootsa, Okanagan, Upper and Lower Arrow, and Quesnel.
 

Climate

Coastal British Columbia has a mild climate; winters are wet and mild, and summers are cool and somewhat drier, especially in the south. The average coastal temperature is about 0° C (32° F) in January, and about 15° C (59° F) in July. Moist ocean winds bring plenty of precipitation to the coastal region, with annual precipitation in the range of 150 to 250 cm (59 to 98 in). The eastern and especially north-eastern parts of the province have a different climate, more like the weather of the interior plains of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Winters are very cold, summers are warm to hot, and there is moderate precipitation. Average temperatures range from -10° to -15° C (14° to 5° F) in January, to July temperatures between 15° and 20° C (60° and 70° F). Inland average precipitation is in the range of 70 to 100 cm (28 to 39 in), and can be as low as 25 cm (10 in).
 

Plants and Animals

About half of the total land area of British Columbia is forested, and the province contains nearly 40 per cent of Canada's merchantable wood. The coastal forest, with western hemlock, Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, and various pines, produces the largest trees in Canada. The forest of the interior is coniferous; aspen and birch are also common here, as well as spruce and pine. In the dry lowlands of the southern and central interior, a steppe-like vegetation of grasses and pines is characteristic. In the north-eastern corner of the province is found a parkland of prairie grasses and aspens. At elevations higher than about 1,830 m (6,000 ft), an alpine vegetation of shrubs, mosses, and grasses occurs.

Large mammals are abundant in British Columbia and include grizzly bear, black bear, moose, caribou, elk, deer, bighorn sheep, and mountain goat. Other mammals found here include beaver, lynx, marten, mink, and otter. The great diversity of habitat harbours a wide range of bird life, especially waterfowl. Also found are various species of frogs, toads, and snakes.
 

Products and Industries

Logging, mineral extraction, and ocean and inshore fishing are important sources of both employment and income. British Columbia has historically relied on the timber industry more than any other single economic element; it possesses approximately 20 per cent of the commercial forest land in Canada. Most of Canada's plywood and more than half its sawn timber comes from the province. Fishing is an important economic factor for many coastal communities, with salmon the most important species. Mining production is dominated by coal, copper, and gold. Other important resources include lead, molybdenum, zinc, silver, sulphur, and asbestos.

Cattle and dairy farms contribute significantly to the annual farm income. British Columbia is a leading Canadian producer of apples, raspberries, cherries, cranberries, and plums.

Wood processing is the chief industry. Other leading industries are the manufacture of paper and allied goods, food and beverages, petroleum and coal products, primary and fabricated metals, printed materials, and chemical products.
 

Population

According to the 1991 census, British Columbia had 3,282,061 inhabitants, an increase of 13.8 per cent over 1986. The overall population density in 1991 was only 3 people per sq km (9 per sq mi). English was the only mother tongue of about four-fifths of the people; less than 2 per cent had French as their only mother tongue. More than 83,000 indigenous peoples live in the province.
 

Education and Cultural Institutions

The first schools in what is now British Columbia were established by the Hudson's Bay Company about 1853 on Vancouver Island. The present state school system originated with the Public School Act of 1872. In the early 1990s British Columbia had 1,995 elementary and secondary schools, with a combined enrolment of 606,800 pupils. At the same time, it had 25 institutions of higher learning, with a combined enrolment of some 76,300 students. The leading universities and colleges include the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, the British Columbia Institute of Technology (1964) and Simon Fraser University (1965), both in Burnaby, and the University of Victoria (1963) in Victoria. The University of Northern British Columbia was established in Prince George in the early 1990s.

Vancouver is the cultural heart of the province, but Victoria and other communities also have many cultural institutions. The leading museums in Vancouver include the Vancouver Museum, with historical and anthropological collections; the Museum of Anthropology, on the campus of the University of British Columbia; and the Maritime Museum, with items related to the development of the Port of Vancouver. 'Ksan Indian Village in Hazelton is a detailed reconstruction of an aboriginal people's village from the 1800s. Museums in Victoria include the Royal British Columbia Museum, containing local Native American artefacts, and a maritime museum. Thunderbird Park in Victoria has an excellent collection of totem poles. Both Vancouver and Victoria have symphony orchestras and opera companies, and Vancouver also has a ballet company.
 

Places of Interest

Most of British Columbia's historical sites commemorate the pioneers and early settlers of the province. Barkerville Provincial Historical Park, in the Cariboo Mountains, is a restored mining town that was founded during the gold rush of the 1860s. National historic sites in the province are Fort Langley, east of Vancouver, with remnants of the Hudson's Bay Company fort, and Fort Rodd Hill, near Victoria, with 19th-century fortifications.
 

Sports and Recreation

British Columbia is famous for its spectacular mountains and beautiful coastal scenery, which are well represented in the many provincial and federal parks, including Yoho, Kootenay, Glacier, and Pacific Rim National Park. Salmon fishing and water sports are excellent, as is hunting, hiking, and camping.
 

Government and Politics

British Columbia has a parliamentary form of government. The formal chief executive of British Columbia is the lieutenant-governor, who is appointed by the Canadian governor-general in council for five years and who represents the Crown. Executive powers actually rest with the premier, who is a member of the legislature and usually the leader of the majority party. The premier appoints about 20 ministers to the executive council (cabinet) from among the members of the party. The ministers operate and formulate policy for the departments of the provincial government. British Columbia has a unicameral legislature, called the Legislative Assembly. It has 75 members elected for a maximum of five years. At a federal level, British Columbia is represented by 32 members in the House of Commons and by 6 senators, appointed by the governor-general.
 

History

The Danish navigator Vitus Bering approached what is now British Columbia in 1741. In 1774, the coast was noted on charts by the Spanish explorer Juan Pérez. British trading with the Native Americans of the northern coast followed the visit of the British mariner and explorer Captain James Cook to Nootka in 1778. Much of the subsequent mapping of the coastal indentations and islands of the region was done by two expeditions, one British and the other Spanish; they did not know of the other's presence in the area until they met in the Strait of Georgia in 1792. The British were commanded by a naval officer, George Vancouver. The two parties explored the Pacific coast from Puget Sound northwards through the Strait of Georgia and then sailed together for Nootka Sound to discuss ownership of the newly mapped coast. In 1795, under the Nootka Convention (1790), Spain withdrew from the area.
At about the same time, explorations of the interior regions were also in progress. In 1793 the British explorer Sir Alexander Mackenzie, who was in the service of the fur-trading North West Company, ascended the Peace and Parsnip rivers from Lake Athabasca in search of an overland route to the Pacific. Other fur traders from the interior followed, and the first fur-trading fort, Fort McLeod, was built in 1805 to the north of present-day Prince George. From this interior fur-trading region the American-born trader and explorer Simon Fraser completed the exploration of the swift Fraser River, arriving at its mouth in July 1808. At about the same time, the Canadian surveyor and explorer David Thompson mapped the rivers of the Kootenay region, and in 1812 he explored the Columbia River to its mouth. During this period the mainland was known as New Caledonia.

For several decades thereafter the area was the domain of the Hudson's Bay Company, a fur-trading enterprise. Fort Langley, the first coastal trading post of the company, was built in 1827 near the mouth of the Fraser River, and the West Coast headquarters, Fort Victoria, was erected in 1843. When the Oregon Treaty of 1846 established the 49th parallel as the boundary between British and United States territory, Victoria became the centre of British interests. In order to protect the territory, Great Britain proclaimed Vancouver Island a Crown colony in 1849, naming Victoria the capital. The first governor, Richard Blanshard, had little authority over the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. The British government acknowledged this fact in 1851 by naming the chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, James Douglas, governor of the colony. In the same year the Queen Charlotte Islands were made a dependency of the Vancouver Island colony.

In 1858 gold was discovered in the central Fraser River and Cariboo Mountains regions, and the rush to the area began, with miners flocking northwards from San Francisco. As a result, the British Colonial Office created a new Crown colony on the mainland, that of British Columbia. In order to control the northward movement of the gold miners, the territory of Stikine was added to British Columbia in 1862. In 1866 the mainland and island colonies were merged into a single entity, with New Westminster as capital; in 1868, however, the capital was re-established in the older settlement of Victoria.

When British Columbia joined the Confederation in 1871, the new Dominion of Canada became a transcontinental nation. One of the conditions of union was a promise to connect the province to central Canada by railway. Finally, in 1886, the first trains reached the west coast. The location of the western terminal became the city of Vancouver, Canada's gateway to Asia.

By 1921 Vancouver had become Canada's third-largest metropolitan area. Economic expansion began after World War I with additional railway connections, the development of steamship lines, and an influx of foreign capital. The eastern ports of the United States and Canada were opened to the products of British Columbia via the Panama Canal. Trade also developed with the Orient.

British Columbia's economy was based largely on the exploitation of natural resources through mining, logging, and fisheries, which produced a range of goods for the export trade. This economy was dominated by large-scale enterprises employing numerous labourers, a situation that gave rise to serious class tensions, militant trade unions, and a socialist movement.

The class tensions were further exacerbated by the arrival of Asian immigrants, who came first in the gold rush of the 1860s. Their numbers were later swelled with the arrival of labourers hired by the railways. After 1890 the Chinese were joined by Japanese newcomers who soon became important in the fishing industry. Pressured by the white labour force and by anti-Asian riots, the provincial governments moved to restrict immigration and then successfully lobbied the federal government to act, eventually cutting off entry by passing legislation such as the Chinese Immigration Act (1923). The significant Asian population that remained in the province continued to be the target of white hostility. During World War II, the federal government interned Japanese-Canadians and appropriated their property (more than 40 years later the Canadian government apologized for this action). The provincial franchise was not extended to Chinese and Japanese citizens until 1949.

The overall character of British Columbia's economy has changed little since the 1920s. About 70 per cent of the population lived in the south-western corner but, with irrigation, agriculture developed in the Okanagan Valley and elsewhere. The Columbia River Treaty with the United States in 1961 and a 1963 agreement with Ottawa opened up development of the Columbia River and Peace River projects. Hydroelectric power is now exported to the state of Washington. Since 1970 new money has come from Japan and Hong Kong for the exploitation of natural resources. As a result, the population of British Columbia has grown from about 818,000 in 1941 to 1,629,000 only 20 years later, to more than 3.2 million in 1991.

The political pattern in the province has been characterized by long periods of business-minded government and short periods of left-wing rule. In 1933, during the Great Depression, the Liberal party leader T. Dufferin Pattulo came to power. His regime was replaced in 1941 by a Liberal-Conservative coalition formed to meet the threat of the powerful socialist opposition of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). When this coalition deteriorated, William A. C. Bennett led a new free enterprise grouping, the Social Credit party, to power in 1952. For the next 20 years the party, under his leadership, retained power with its anti-Socialist position and predictions of continued prosperity. In 1972 the New Democratic party (NDP), successor to the CCF, won office and launched a series of economic and social reforms. This move to the left was reversed in 1975 when a revitalized Social Credit party, led by William R. Bennett, was swept back into power. Bennett worked to make the province a haven for free enterprise and to restrict social programmes. He resigned as premier in 1986 and was succeeded by William Vander Zalm. Vander Zalm's government was constantly troubled by charges of mismanagement, scandals, and defections, and he resigned in 1991. In the subsequent election the NDP, led by Michael Harcourt, again won control of the government.