Canada Guide

British Columbia is Canada’s westernmost province and famed for its natural beauty. Victoria is British Columbia’s capital and it is also Canada’s 15th largest metropolitan region. The largest city of this province is Vancouver which is also the country’s third largest metropolitan area.

Geography
British Columbia is bordered by the Pacific Ocean in the west, by the Alberta province in East, by the Northwest Territories and Yukon to the north, in the northwest by U.S state of Alaska and in the south by U.S states of Idaho, Montana and Washington. The land area of British Columbia is 944,735 square kms which includes about 6000 islands and mountainous fjords. Its capital, Victoria is situated at the Vancouver Island’s southern tip and the most populous city of Vancouver resides in the southwestern corner of the Lower Mainland. The other major cities of the province include, Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, Coquitlam, Delta, New Westminster, Pitt Meadows, Langley, Abbotsford, Nanaimo, Kamloops, Kelowna and Prince George. The province’s 75% area is mountainous, 60% is forested and only 5% is arable.
Seven of the National Parks of Canada are located in British Columbia. These are Glacier national Park, Kootenay National Park, Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, Mount Revelstoke National Park and Yoho National Park.

History
British Columbia had human habitation from 11500 years ago. Throughout its region there was a high population of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest’s coast. Explorations in British Columbia started after 1770, by James Cook, George Vancouver, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, John Finlay, Samuel Black, Davis Thompson and Simon Fraser. After the1818 Anglo American Conventions, joint occupancy by the citizens of United States and Britain took place. This joint occupancy ended after the Oragon Treaty in 1840. These early posts grew into communities, settlements and cities. The confederation League which formed in the year 1867 pressed the province to join the league and British Columbia joined the Confederation on 20th July, 1871. After that, the province’s forestry, mining, fishing and agricultural sectors started developing and the population continued expanding.

Economy
The economy of British Columbia is resource dominated and centered in the industry of forestry and mining. The Vancouver region of the province is famous as Hollywood North and is North America’s third largest film production location. The cultivation of marijuana also plays a major role in the province’s economy. Throughout its history, the economy of British Columbia has had dramatic downswings and upswings specially in the sector of mining activity.
Recreation
Due to the varied mountainous terrains and coasts present in British Columbia, it has been attractive to tourists for hiking, camping, rock climbing, mountaineering, fishing and hunting. Both, non-motorized and motorized water sports are available in many places. Whitewater rafting, kayaking, sailboarding and sailing are widely popular in the inland rivers and coasts. During the winter, telemark skiing and cross-country skiing are very much enjoyed in the coastal mountain range, the Rockies, Shuswap highlands and the Columbia Mountains.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 5:51 am and is filed under British Columbia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.