British Columbia

 

province (2001 pop. 3,907,738), 366,255 sq mi (948,600 sq km), including 6,976 sq mi (18,068 sq km) of water surface, W Canada.

Geography

British Columbia, the westernmost province of Canada, is bounded on the E by Alberta, on the S by Montana, Idaho, and Washington, on the W by the Pacific Ocean, on the NW by Alaska, and on the N by the Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories. Along its deeply indented Pacific coast lie many islands, notably Vancouver Island (c.280 mi/450 km long) and the sparsely inhabited Queen Charlotte Islands. The province is almost wholly mountainous, with the Rocky Mts. in the southeast, the Coast Mts. along the Pacific, and the Stikine Mts. in the northwest.

Chief of the many rivers is the Fraser, which, with its tributaries, drains much of central and S British Columbia as it flows to the Pacific. Other rivers in that region include the upper Columbia and the Kootenay. In the north are the Peace, the Stikine, the Nass, and the Skeena. Hydroelectric resources in British Columbia are highly developed; large plants along the rivers operate pulp and paper mills. The station at Kemano on the Nechako River serves one of the biggest aluminum plants in the world, at Kitimat. Long, narrow lakes are found throughout the interior, supplying vast backwaters for dams; Williston Lake, on the Peace River, is the largest of these.

British Columbia attracts millions of visitors annually, and the land is a hunting and fishing paradise. There are four national parks—Glacier, Mt. Revelstoke, Yoho, and Kootenay—and hundreds of provincial parks and camping grounds. The climate along the west coast, tempered by the warm Japan Current, has made that area, especially Vancouver and Victoria, very attractive to tourists.

Large areas of central and N British Columbia are sparsely settled; almost three fourths of the population is crowded into the southwest coastal tip in the Georgia Strait region. Victoria is the capital. The largest city and chief port is Vancouver, which grew rapidly throughout the 1980s, experiencing a real estate boom and heavy immigration from China and Hong Kong. Other population centers include Richmond, Kelowna, New Westminster, North Vancouver, Nanaimo, Kamloops, and Prince George.

Economy and Higher Education

Less than 10% of the province's land can be used for grazing or cultivation, while nearly three fourths is covered with forests. British Columbia's evergreens make up about half of all of Canada's timber. Lumbering and related enterprises (such as pulp and paper manufacturing) are the province's major industries. During the 1990s, however, the provincial tree harvest dropped some 25%, as concerns over clear-cutting and old-growth logging were pressed by environmentalists, tour operators, indigenous peoples, and others. Mining is also important; British Columbia is rich in mineral resources. Copper, mined principally at Kamloops, Princeton, and Brittania, and coal are the province's two largest mineral resources. Also important are natural gas, oil, zinc, gold, silver, nickel, and iron. The mine at Kimberley, one of the world's largest, is known for its silver, lead, and zinc. However, pollution generated by natural-resource industries is a major environmental concern in British Columbia.

British Columbia ranks first among the provinces in fishing; the most important catches are salmon, halibut, and herring. As with logging, however, the effects of overharvesting are now being felt, exacerbated by disputes with the states of Washington and Alaska over salmon catches. Beef is also an important product, especially along the Fraser River, which is known for its sprawling ranches. Other industries include food processing and the manufacture of transportation equipment, machinery, chemicals, furniture, and electrical items. Tourism and outdoor recreation are increasingly important to British Columbia, and Vancouver is a center for Pacific Rim business.

Institutions of higher learning include Simon Fraser Univ., at Burnaby; the Univ. of British Columbia, at Vancouver; and the Univ. of Victoria, at Victoria.

History and Politics

Early History

The earliest known inhabitants of the province are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest (widely known for their totem poles and potlatches); carbon dating has confirmed their occupation of some sites 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. Juan Peréz was probably the first European to sail (1774) along the coast, but he did not make a landing. In 1778, Capt. James Cook, on his last voyage, explored the coast in his search for the Pacific entrance to the elusive Northwest Passage and claimed the area for Great Britain.

Rival British and Spanish claims for the area were partly resolved by the Nootka Conventions of 1790–92 (see Nootka Sound), which gave both equal trading rights but did not resolve ownership. The British sent George Vancouver to take possession of the land, and in 1792–94 he explored and mapped the coast from Oregon to Alaska. In 1793, Sir Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific overland; he was followed early in the 19th cent. by fur traders and explorers of the North West Company who crossed the mountains to establish posts in New Caledonia, as the region was then called.

The Hudson's Bay Company Era

After the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) absorbed the North West Company in 1821, the region became a preserve of the new company. In 1843, Fort Victoria was established by James Douglas as an HBC trading post. Rival British and American claims to the area were settled three years later when the boundary was set at the 49th parallel (see Oregon, state), but further controversy led to the San Juan Boundary Dispute. Partly as protection against American expansion, Vancouver Island was ceded (1849) to Britain by the HBC and became a crown colony.

In 1858 gold was discovered in the sandbars and tributaries of the Fraser River. The gold rushes that resulted brought profound changes. Fort Victoria boomed as a supply base for miners, and a town sprang up around it. Officials of the crown were dispatched to keep order and to supervise government projects and the building of roads. Some 30,000 miners moved into what was then unorganized territory; this led to the creation (1858) of a new colony on the mainland, called British Columbia, and the end of the HBC's supremacy. In 1863 the newly settled territory about the Stikine River was added to British Columbia.

Confederation

In 1866, Vancouver Island and British Columbia were merged, and in 1871 the united British Columbia, lured by promises of financial aid and the building of a transcontinental railroad that would link it to the rest of Canada, voted to join the new Canadian confederation. The Canadian Pacific Railway finally reached the coast in 1885, and a new era began. By providing access to new markets, the railroad furthered agriculture, mining, and lumbering; steamship service with Asia was inaugurated, and Vancouver grew as a busy port, serving many provinces. The opening (1914) of the Panama Canal further boosted trade and commerce. A long dispute with the United States over the Alaska boundary was finally settled by the Alaska Boundary Commission in 1903.

The Twentieth Century

The Conservatives and Liberals alternated in power from 1903 (when the national parties were first introduced into local politics) until 1941, when a wartime coalition was formed. The Social Credit party came into power in 1952, under the leadership of W. A. C. Bennett, and retained control until 1972, when the New Democratic party, led by David Barrett, won a majority. The Social Credit party regained control in 1975 under Premier William Richards Bennett, who was succeeded in 1986 by William Vander Zalm. The New Democratic party again took power in 1991, with Michael Harcourt as premier, succeeded in 1996 by Glen Clark, in 1999 by Dan Miller, and in 2000 by Ujjal Dosanjh (Canada's first nonwhite provincial premier). In 2001, however, the Liberals, led by Gordon Campbell, won a landslide victory; they were returned to power in 2005, albeit with a narrower majority.

This fastest growing of Canada's provinces increased its national political clout in 1995 when it was given its own veto power over constitutional amendments rather than being subsumed under the western regional vote. By the end of the 1990s, metropolitan Vancouver had become one of the Pacific Rim's most dynamic cities, with a population c.10% Chinese and c.7% Asian Indian. At the same time, land claims by indigenous peoples, claims that could return much of the province to aboriginal ownership, had become a significant political and economic issue in the province. British Columbia, unlike Canada's other provinces, largely did not have signed treaties with most indigenous peoples, despite a 1763 Crown directive requiring such treaties. As a result, the provincial and federal governments began negotiating with the native tribes in the 1990s to sign treaties with them.

British Columbia sends 6 senators and 32 representatives to the national parliament.

Bibliography

See M. A. Ormsby, British Columbia (1958, repr. 1971); J. L. Robinson, ed., British Columbia (1972); M. L. Farley, Atlas of British Columbia (1979); J. King, British Columbia Handbook (1989); B. Christensen, Prince George: Rivers, Railways and Timber (1989).

British Columbia
Colombie-Britannique

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour Without Sunset (diminishment))
Capital	Victoria
Largest city	Vancouver
Official languages	English
Government
- Lieutenant-Governor	Steven Point
- Premier	Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal)
Federal representation	in Canadian Parliament
- House seats	36
- Senate seats	6
Confederation	July 20, 1871 (6th province)
Area	Ranked 5th
- Total	km² ( sq mi)
- Land	km² ( sq mi)
- Water (%)	km² ( sq mi) (2.1%)
Population	Ranked 3rd
- Total (2007)	4,380,256 (est.)[1]
- Density	/km² (/sq mi)
GDP	Ranked 4th
- Total (2006)	C$179.701 billion[2]
- Per capita	C$41,689 (7th)
Abbreviations
- Postal	BC
- ISO 3166-2	CA-BC
Time zone	UTC−8 & −7
Postal code prefix	V
Flower	Pacific dogwood
Tree	Western Redcedar
Bird	Steller's Jay
Web site	www.gov.bc.ca
Rankings include all provinces and territories

British Columbia (IPA: /ˌbrɪtɨʃ kəˈlʌmbiə/) (BC) ((listen) (French: la Colombie-Britannique, C.-B.) is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu ("Splendour without Sunset (Diminishment)").

It was the sixth province to join the Canadian Confederation and residents are referred to as British Columbians.

The capital of British Columbia is Victoria. The largest city is Vancouver, Canada's third-largest metropolitan area.

Geography

Main article: Geography of British Columbia

See also: Demographics of British Columbia

British Columbia is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the west, by the American state of Alaska on the northwest, and to the north by the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, on the east by the province of Alberta, and on the south by the U.S. states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. The current southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, although its history is tied with lands as far south as the California border. British Columbia's land area is 944,735 square kilometres (364,764 square miles) which is about the size of France, Germany and the Netherlands combined. It is larger than the total area of Washington, Oregon and California. British Columbia's rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres (16,780 miles), and includes deep, mountainous fjords and about 6,000 islands, most of which are uninhabited.

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 largest city in the northern part of the province, while a town northwest of it, Vanderhoof, is near the geographic centre of the province.^[3]

The Coast Mountains, Canadian Rockies 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. Seventy-five percent of the province is mountainous (more than 1,000 metres or 3,280 feet above sea level); 60% is forested; and only about 5% is arable. The Okanagan area is one of only three wine-growing regions in Canada and also produces excellent ciders, but exports little of either beverage. The small rural towns of Penticton, Oliver, and Osoyoos have some of the warmest and longest summer climates in Canada, although their temperature ranges are exceeded by the even-warmer Fraser Canyon towns of Lillooet and Lytton, where temperatures on summer afternoons often surpass 40°C (104°F).

Much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast as far north as the Alaska Panhandle and south from the Olympic Peninsula to northern California, is covered by temperate rain forest. This region is one of a mere handful of such temperate rain forest ecosystems in the world (notable others being in Chile, New Zealand, Tasmania, and the Russian Far East). The province's mainland away from the coastal regions is not as moderated by the Pacific Ocean and ranges from desert and semi-arid plateau to the range and canyon districts of the interior plateau. A few southern interior valleys have snowy, cold winters, while those in the Cariboo, the northern part of the Central Interior, are as cold as anywhere else in wintertime Canada due to their altitude and latitude. The northern two-thirds of the province is largely unpopulated and undeveloped, and is mostly mountainous except east of the Rockies, where the Peace River District contains BC's portion of the Canadian Prairies.

Ten Largest Metropolitan Areas in BC by Population[4] Community (includes metro areas) 2006 1996 Vancouver 2,116,581 1,831,665 Victoria 330,088 304,287 Kelowna 162,276 136,349 Abbotsford 159,020 136,480 Kamloops 92,882 85,407 Nanaimo 92,361 82,691 Prince George 83,225 87,731 Chilliwack 80,892 66,254 Vernon 55,418 49,701 Courtenay 49,214 46,297

Ten Largest Municipalities in BC by Population Municipality 2006 1996 Vancouver 578,041 514,008 Surrey (GVRD) 394,976 304,477 Burnaby (GVRD) 202,799 179,209 Richmond (GVRD) 174,461 148,867 Abbotsford 123,864 104,403 Coquitlam (GVRD) 114,565 101,820 Saanich 108,265 101,388 Kelowna 106,707 89,422 Delta (GVRD) 96,723 95,411 Langley Township (GVRD) 93,726 80,179

A view overlooking Skaha Lake in the Okanagan Valley, one of the driest regions of the province's interior.

History

Main article: History of British Columbia

Pre-Confederation

The discovery of stone tools on the Beatton River near Fort St. John date human habitation in British Columbia to at least 11,500 years ago. The First Nations population spread throughout the region, mostly on the coast, where aboriginals achieved the highest density of any place in Canada. At the time of European contact, nearly half the aboriginal people in present-day Canada lived in B.C.

The explorations of James Cook in the 1770s and George Vancouver in the 1790s, and the concessions of Spain in the 1790s established British jurisdiction over the coastal area north and west of the Columbia River. In 1793, 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 South Bentinck Arm 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 Prairies and the Pacific. Mackenzie and these other explorers — notably John Finlay, Simon Fraser, Samuel Black, and David Thompson — were primarily concerned with extending the fur trade, rather than political considerations.

Their establishment of trading posts under the auspices of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), however, effectively established a permanent British presence in the region, which (south of 54°40' north latitude, the southern limit of Russian America) was, as of 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.

Some of these early posts would grow into settlements, communities, and cities. Among the places in 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 (1812); Fort Langley (1827); Victoria (1843); Yale (1848); and 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 (aka the Oregon Territory), Colville, Washington and Walla Walla, Washington.

With the amalgamation of the two fur trading companies in 1821, the region now comprising 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 watershed and north of the Columbia was organized into the Columbia District, administered from Fort Vancouver (present-day Vancouver, Washington). 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 defacto jurisdiction of HBC administrators. Unlike 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 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 state and Oregon). In 1846, the Oregon Treaty divided the territory along the 49th parallel to Georgia Strait, with the area south of this boundary, excluding Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands) transferred to sole American sovereignty. The Colony of 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.

With the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858, an influx of Americans into New Caledonia prompted the colonial office to formally designate the mainland as the Colony of British Columbia, with New Westminster as its capital. A second gold rush — the Cariboo Gold Rush — followed 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 Island colony was facing financial crises of its own, and pressure to merge the two eventually succeeded in 1866. Queen Victoria chose the name British Columbia as the name of the new pacific dominion.

Rapid growth and development

The Confederation League led by such figures as Amor De Cosmos, John Robson, and Robert Beaven had long led the chorus pressing for the colony to join Canada, which had been created out of three British North American colonies in 1867. 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. With the agreement by the Canadian government to extend the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to British Columbia and to assume the colony's debt, BC became the sixth province to join Confederation on July 20 1871. The borders of the province were not completely settled until 1903, however, when the province's territory shrank somewhat after the Alaska Boundary Dispute settled the vague boundary of the Alaska Panhandle.

Population in British Columbia continued to expand as the province's mining, forestry, agriculture, and fishing sectors were developed. Mining activity was particularly notable 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 and elsewhere. Agriculture attracted settlers to the fertile Fraser Valley, and cattle ranchers and later fruit growers to the drier grasslands of the Thompson River area, the Cariboo, the Chilcotin, and the Okanagan. Forestry drew workers to the lush temperate rain forests of the coast, which was also the locus of a growing fishery.

The completion of the CPR in 1885 was a huge boost to the province's economy, facilitating the transportation of the region's considerable resources to the east. The booming logging town of Granville, near the mouth of the Burrard Inlet was selected as the terminus of the railway, prompting the incorporation of the community as Vancouver in 1886. The completion of the Port of Vancouver spurred rapid growth, and in less than fifty years the city would surpass Winnipeg 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 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 was the locus of immigration not only from Europe, but also from 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 through the imposition of a head tax. This resentment culminated in mob attacks against Chinese and Japanese immigrants in Vancouver in 1887 and 1907. By 1923, almost all Chinese immigration had been blocked except for merchants and investors (see Chinese Immigration Act, 1923).

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 from the Yellowhead Pass through Prince George to Prince Rupert was driven at Fort Fraser. This opened up the north coast and the 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.

The 1920s through the 1940s

When the men returned from World War I, 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 that Vancouver and the rest of the province was famous for until the war. Because of pressure from veterans, prohibition was quickly relaxed so that 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 - Italians and others - 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.

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 is due to this "pirate economy", although growth in forestry, fishing and mining continued. The end of US-side 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 swarmed into Vancouver, creating huge hobo jungles around False Creek and the Burrard Inlet rail yards, including the old CPR 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 & 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 contingent for the 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.

There were some signs of economic life beginning to assert normalcy towards the end of the '30s, 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.

BC has long taken advantage of its location on the 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 when many people of Japanese descent were relocated or interned in the Interior of the province. Conversely, there have also been historically high rates of intermarriage and other examples of inter-racial harmony, cooperation and integration.

Growth returns: The Coalition and the post-War boom

During World War II the mainstream Liberal and Conservative Parties of 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 and was unwilling to form a coalition with the rival Conservatives. Although the CCF's 14 seats (out of 48), plus one radical labour independent, were nowhere near enough to form a government, and their share of the popular vote remained below one-third, the pretext of the Coalition was to prevent them ever coming to power. Hart won re-election in 1945 and in the post-war environment 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.

In 1947 the reins of the Coalition were taken over by Byron Ingemar Johnson. He led it to the highest percentage of the popular vote in BC history to date (61%) in the 1949 election. This victory was due largely to the popularity of his government's spending programmes, despite rising criticism of corruption and abuse of power. During his tenure major infrastructure continued to expand and the agreement with Alcan to build the Kemano-Kitimat hydro and aluminum complex was put in place. 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 evidence of corruption led Conservative leader Royal Maitland to withdraw his party from the Coalition in 1951, precipitating the general election of 1952. 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, 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, known as the Socreds and 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.

The Bennett Era: Growth of government in the economy

With the election of the Social Credit Party, BC embarked a phase of rapid economic development. Bennett and his party would go on to govern the province for the next twenty years, during which time the government initiated an ambitious programme of infrastructure development, fueled by a sustained economic boom in the forestry, mining, and energy sectors.

During these two decades, the BC government nationalized British Columbia Electric and the British Columbia Power Company, as well as smaller electric companies, renaming the entity BC Hydro. By the end of the 1960s, several major dams had been begun or completed in — among others — the Peace, Columbia, and Nechako River watersheds. Major transmission deals were concluded, most notably the Columbia River Treaty between 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 60s were also marked by development in BC's transportation infrastructure. In 1960, the government established BC Ferries as a crown corporation, in order to provide a marine extension of the provincial highway system. That system was improved and expanded through the construction of new highways and bridges, and paving of existing highways and provincial roads.

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 BC economy.

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 defacto 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 and Nanaimo were centres. The conflict between hippies and Vancouver mayor Tom Campbell was particularly legendary, culminating in the so-called 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.

Shifting fortunes: BC in the 1970s and 80s

On August 27 1969 the Social Credit Party was re-elected in a general election for what would be W.A.C Bennett's final term in power. At the start of the 1970s, BC's economy was quite strong due to rising coal prices and an increase in annual allowable cuts in the forestry sector. However, BC Hydro reported its first loss - which was the beginning of the end for Bennett and the Social Credit Party.^[5]

The Socreds were forced from power in the August 1972 election, paving the way for a NDP government under Dave Barrett. Under Barrett, the large provincial surplus soon became a deficit, although changes to the accounting system makes it likely that some of the deficit was carried over from the previous Social Credit regime. 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 (ALR), intended to protect farmland from redevelopment, and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), a crown corporation charged with a monopoly on providing single-payer basic automobile insurance.

Perceptions that 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, the province completed several projects, most notably the Coquihalla Highway and Expo 86 in Vancouver. The Coquihalla Highway project became the subject of a scandal after revelations that the Premier's brother bought large tracts of land needed for the project before it was announced to the public. Nonetheless, the Socreds were re-elected in 1979 under Bennett, who led the party until 1986.

As the province entered a sustained recession, the Socreds instituted a programme of fiscal restraint. This sparked a backlash, the so-called 1983 Solidarity Crisis, when a huge grassroots opposition movement mobilized, comprised of organized labour and community groups. Tens of thousands participated in protests and many felt that a general strike would be the inevitable result unless the government backed down from its policies of restraint. The movement collapsed after an apparent deal was struck by union leader and IWA president, Jack Munro and Premier Bennett.^[6]

Bill Vander Zalm became the new Socred leader and Premier in 1986 and led the party to victory in the election of that year. Vander Zalm was later involved in a conflict of interest scandal following the sale of Fantasy Gardens, a Christian and Dutch culture theme park built by the Premier, to Tan Yu, a Taiwanese gambling kingpin. There were also concerns over Yu's application to the government for a bank license. These scandals forced Vander Zalm's resignation, and Rita Johnston became premier of the province.

BC since the 1990s

Johnston lost the 1991 general election to the NDP, under the leadership of Mike Harcourt, a former mayor of Vancouver. Although the unprecedented creation of new parkland and protected areas was popular, and helped boost the province's growing tourism sector, the economy continued to struggle against the backdrop of a weak resource economy. Harcourt ended up resigning over "Bingogate", yet another British Columbia political scandal - this time involving the funnelling of charity bingo receipt's into the Premier's party's coffers. Harcourt was not directly implicated, but resigned nonetheless. Glen Clark, a former president of the BC Federation of Labour, was chosen the new leader of the party, which won a second term in 1996, even though it secured fewer total votes than the opposition BC Liberals. Clark's tenure marked a change in British Columbia. Unemployment and taxes rose, and key industries struggled, which amounted to low economic growth levels.^[7] More scandals dogged the party, most notably the Fast Ferry Scandal, involving the province trying to rebuild a shipbuilding industry in British Columbia. An allegation (never explicitly 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. For Dosanjh and the NDP, however, it was too late to save the party from near-oblivion in the next election.

In the 2001 general election Gordon Campbell's BC Liberal Party soundly defeated the NDP party, gaining 77 out of 79 seats. Campbell instituted various reforms including scrapping the "fast ferries" project, lowering income taxes and selling BC Rail to CN Rail (sparking yet another scandal). Campbell was also the subject of scandal after he was caught driving while drunk during a vacation in Hawaii and arrested. However, Campbell still managed to lead his party to victory in the 2005 general election against a substantially strengthened NDP opposition, making him the first elected premier in over a decade to finish a term as premier without resigning, and the first premier to win back to back elections since Bill Bennett. Campbell's government successfully led the coalition to bring the 2010 Winter Olympics to Vancouver. Under the Campbell regime the economy of British Columbia has revived substantially, aided significantly by improvements in global resource markets.^[8]

British Columbia has also been significantly affected by demographic changes within Canada and around the world. Vancouver (and to a lesser extent some other parts of British Columbia) was a major destination for many of the emigrants from 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, due to its image of natural beauty, mild climate and relaxed lifestyle, but is particularly true during periods of economic growth. As a result, BC has moved from approximately 10% of Canada's population (1971) to approximately 13% (2006). The final fundamental demographic shift is that away from rural British Columbia to urban centres, particularly the Lower Mainland. This trend has reversed itself to a limited degree in recent years with improved resource-economy prospects, but the Vancouver metro area now includes 52% of the Province's population.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of British Columbia See also: Cities in British Columbia and List of communities in British Columbia Population of British Columbia since 1851 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 6 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 n/a 17.8 6 1951 1,165,210 n/a 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 Source: Statistics Canada[9][10] Religion