Spring comes early to coastal B.C., with flowers beginning to bloom in late February or early March. By April, Vancouver’s cherry trees blanket the city streets with their pink blossoms. It can still rain in the spring, but showers are shorter and temperatures milder than during the winter months. Early autumn (September and October) is another moderate season with comfortable temperatures and less frequent rain.
The region’s numerous microclimates can cause surprising variations in weather, even across short distances. The North Shore, where it snows regularly at higher elevations, receives far more rain than downtown Vancouver. In contrast, it rains noticeably less in the suburb of Richmond, where Vancouver International Airport is located, than on the downtown peninsula. Within the city itself, there are variations, too. It can be snowing in Vancouver’s Point Grey neighborhood or near Queen Elizabeth Park, when at lower elevations just down the hill, in Kitsilano, along False Creek, or downtown, it’s raining.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Vancouver is a green city, with parks throughout the metropolitan region, citywide recycling initiatives, and programs to encourage everything from environmentally friendly construction to car sharing. Farmers markets are helping to provide better access to locally grown food, though most operate only from May through October. The city is in the midst of a major initiative to make Vancouver even more bicycle-friendly; a bike-sharing program launched in the downtown core in 2016, and the city continues to build bike lanes on many urban streets.
As residential and commercial towers sprout up throughout metropolitan Vancouver, development has become a major issue. Recent city governments have worked to increase urban density—building up, rather than out—to try to reduce the environmental impact of commuting from the suburbs and, at least in theory, enable more people to live in the central city. In many districts, historic homes and other structures are being razed to make room for more expensive towers, and neighborhoods are changing in character as they become more densely populated.
History
ABORIGINAL ROOTS
Aboriginal people have lived in western Canada for more than 10,000 years. The southwestern corner of British Columbia, where Vancouver is located, is the traditional territory of several aboriginal groups, collectively known as the Coast Salish. Coast Salish territory extends across the Strait of Georgia to Vancouver Island, which is also home to the Nuu-chah-nulth and the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples.
The west coast’s natural resources defined the early life of Canada’s coastal people. Much of their food came from the sea, where salmon, crab, and other species were abundant. They used the region’s large trees, particularly the western red cedar, to construct their homes and longhouses, to carve oceangoing dugout canoes, and to craft massive totem poles, which commemorated the events, histories, and people of these native communities. Although totems have come to be a symbol of many aboriginal peoples, only six west coast First Nations originally carved the poles.
EUROPEAN EXPLORATION
The earliest European explorers to reach North America’s west coast were the Spanish, who traveled north from Mexico as early as the 1540s. However, it wasn’t until the 1700s that extensive exploration of the region got underway, when Spanish, Russian, French, and British ships all traveled along the coast of what is now British Columbia.
The British left the most lasting legacies, beginning with an expedition in the 1770s that British explorer James Cook captained. Cook became the first non-aboriginal person to set foot in what is now British Columbia, when he landed on Vancouver Island’s west coast in 1778. Cook’s crew included a young sailor named George Vancouver, who had joined the Royal Navy in 1772 when he was just 13 years old.
In 1792, George Vancouver returned to the region as captain of another Pacific Northwest expedition, charged with mapping the coastal areas and negotiating with the Spanish. The mainland beach where Captain Vancouver met with two Spanish captains is known today as Spanish Banks.
In the early 1800s, explorers and fur traders traveled westward across North America. Explorer Simon Fraser, who came from eastern Canada, reached the Pacific after following the river that today bears his name. The Hudson’s Bay Company established the first permanent European settlement in the Lower Mainland in 1827 at Fort Langley, east of present-day Vancouver. In 1843, the company set up a trading post on Vancouver Island, naming it Fort Victoria. That post, on the island’s southeastern point, would become the city of Victoria.
THE GOLD RUSH
In 1858, nine years after the start of the California gold rush in the United States, miners found gold along British Columbia’s Fraser River. Thousands of miners traveled from eastern Canada and from the United States to seek their fortunes. Many Chinese, too, joined the search for gold, coming either from California or directly from China, triggering a major wave of immigration.
Although the gold rush didn’t last long, many of these settlers remained in B.C. and found work in the emerging fishing and lumber industries, businesses that would remain the backbone of the province’s economy for years to come.
After two small sawmills began operation in the 1860s along the Burrard Inlet, the entrepreneurial Captain John Deighton opened a nearby saloon to quench the millworkers’ thirst. Although the district where the saloon was located had officially been named “Granville,” Deighton’s nickname, “Gassy Jack”—for his habit of telling tall tales—gave the area its more enduring name: Gastown.
WHEN CANADA BECAME A COUNTRY
A milestone year in Canadian history is 1867, when the British Parliament passed the British North America Act, creating the Dominion of Canada as a stand-alone nation, independent of Great Britain. Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick became the country’s first four provinces, joining together at Confederation on July 1, 1867. Canadians celebrate Confederation annually on July 1, now the Canada Day holiday.
British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871 (following Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, which came on board in 1870). B.C.’s government signed up with the expectation that the cross-country railroad, under construction to link the east and west, would be completed. It took nearly 15 more years, including a major influx of workers from China, but the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) officially finished the 3,100-mile (5,000-kilometer) transcontinental railroad in 1885, when workers drove in the last spike at Craigellachie, B.C., in the mountains west of the town of Revelstoke.
IMMIGRATION
The railway opened up the west to rapid settlement and drew large numbers of migrants from eastern Canada, the United States, and Europe, especially from Italy, the Ukraine, Poland, Germany, and Hungary. Chinese immigration continued, and small numbers of Japanese began arriving in British Columbia around the same time, many of whom found work along the coast in the fishing industry on boats or in canneries.
At that point, the western terminus of the rail line reached only as far as Port Moody, on the Burrard Inlet 12 miles (20 kilometers) east of Vancouver. The CPR’s decision to extend the railroad to the fledging settlement then known as Granville fueled Vancouver’s development. Named for the British explorer, the city of Vancouver was officially incorporated in 1886, and the first transcontinental passenger train rolled into town in 1887.
Migrants continued settling in B.C. throughout the early 1900s. The University of British Columbia was established in 1908 and by the 1920s, Vancouver had become the third largest city in Canada, a position it retains today.
Canada didn’t always welcome these immigrants, however. Despite the Chinese role in constructing the railroads, the federal government attempted to restrict further immigration from China. They imposed a “head tax” on every Chinese newcomer. In 1885, the tax was $50; by 1903, it had been raised to $500. In 1923, the Canadian Parliament passed the Chinese Immigration Act, an exclusionary measure that effectively prevented Chinese immigrants from entering Canada. The act was finally repealed in 1947 after World War II.
WOR
LD WAR II
During the Second World War, more than a million Canadians fought for the Allies, joining the United States, Britain, France, and Australia among the nations who battled the Axis coalition of Germany, Italy, and Japan.
At home, anti-Asian sentiment began to rise after the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, particularly in British Columbia, which by this time had a well-established Japanese Canadian population, most of whom lived in and around Vancouver. In January 1942, the B.C. government established a 100-mile (160-kilometer) “security zone” between the Pacific Ocean and the Coast Mountains, extending south to the U.S. border and north to the Yukon. They decreed that all male Japanese Canadians between the ages of 18 and 45 were prohibited from living in the area; they were separated from their families and sent to relocation camps in B.C.’s remote interior regions.
Less than two months later, the government extended the prohibition to all people of Japanese origin and began relocating women, children, and seniors. Overall, more than 22,000 people of Japanese heritage, three-quarters of whom were Canadian citizens, were forcibly relocated, and their land and other property were confiscated. Many spent the war years in these rustic internment camps in British Columbia’s Kootenay and eastern mountain regions.
After the war, most of the interned Japanese Canadians were given the choice of moving east of the Rockies or returning to Japan. The majority opted to relocate again, settling in the prairies or farther east in Ontario, although several thousand were sent to Japan. The Japanese were forbidden to return to the B.C. coast until 1949.
RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS
Another dark period in Canada’s history began in the 1880s, when the Canadian government began establishing residential schools for aboriginal children. Native students were required to attend these church-run boarding schools, where children were removed from their families. The schools’ objective was to assimilate aboriginal youth into mainstream Canadian culture. In 1920, Parliament passed the Indian Act, which made it illegal for native children to attend any educational institution other than a residential school.
While some students’ experiences at the schools were positive, the vast majority suffered through poor education, inadequate food, isolation from their families and culture, and in some cases, physical or sexual abuse. The last residential schools closed, or were turned over to aboriginal communities to operate, in the 1980s. However, the schools’ negative legacy continues to affect many aboriginal people today, with high rates of alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, and suicide plaguing many communities.
Canada’s Assembly of First Nations filed a class action lawsuit against the Canadian government in 2005 for the ongoing trauma that the residential school system had caused. When the suit was settled, and both the federal government and the churches agreed to pay compensation to survivors of the schools, the 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement became the largest class action settlement in Canadian history. In 2008, Canada’s House of Commons publicly apologized for the government’s role in creating and maintaining the residential school system.
CONTEMPORARY TIMES
In recent years, several events triggered significant changes in and around Vancouver.
In 1986, Vancouver marked its centennial, hosting Expo ’86, a World’s Fair that focused on developments in transportation and communications. This international exposition took place on a formerly derelict site along False Creek that had been redeveloped to house more than 50 pavilions. Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana were among the first visitors, and more than 22 million people visited Expo ’86 during its six-month run, with tourists continuing to arrive long after the event officially closed. Vancouver built the city’s first SkyTrain line in anticipation of the Expo, and many other city landmarks, including Canada Place, Science World, B.C. Place, and the Cambie Bridge, were constructed during this era.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, thousands of Hong Kong residents immigrated to Canada, and a large percentage settled in British Columbia. Many were afraid of how their country might change when the United Kingdom handed over Hong Kong to the Chinese government in 1997. This wave of immigration was the first of several that significantly increased Vancouver’s Asian population; many more immigrants arrived from Taiwan and mainland China, beginning in the 1990s and continuing through the present day.
In 2010, Vancouver hosted the Olympic Winter Games, which again turned the world’s attention to the region. The Olympics’ legacy included a new subway line connecting the airport and downtown, as well as the candelabra-like Olympic Cauldron, which has become a waterfront landmark. The residential buildings along False Creek where athletes lived during the Games formed the basis for a new neighborhood, known as the Olympic Village.
Government and Economy
GOVERNMENT
Canada is divided into 10 provinces and three territories. The country has a three-tiered governmental structure, with federal, provincial (or territorial), and municipal governments.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Headquartered in Ottawa, the nation’s capital, the federal government is responsible for foreign policy, defense, immigration, and other national issues. Since the country is a constitutional monarchy with roots in the British Commonwealth, Canada’s official head of state is the monarch of the United Kingdom. However, the king or queen’s role in Canada is largely symbolic; the prime minister is the country’s chief executive.
Parliament, the national legislature, has two bodies: the elected 338-member House of Commons and the appointed 105-member Senate. The major political parties, to which the House of Commons members belong, include the Liberal Party, Conservative Party, New Democratic Party (NDP), Bloc Québécois, and Green Party. Justin Trudeau, who was elected prime minister in 2015, is the leader of the Liberal Party.
By law, federal elections must now be held at least every four years. In practice, the ruling government has the power to call an election at any time. In addition, if the current government loses a confidence vote in the House of Commons, that vote brings down the government and triggers a new election. Canada’s shortest Parliament session lasted just 66 days (in 1979) before the government was brought down. The longest-serving government, from 1911 through 1917, held power for 2,152 days.
PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
The provincial governments handle health care, education, policing, and highways, among other things. The governmental structure at the provincial level parallels that of the federal government. The head of each provincial government is the premier, a position analogous to a U.S. state governor. Each province and territory has its own legislature.
Although Vancouver is British Columbia’s largest city, Victoria is the provincial capital. B.C.’s Legislative Assembly meets in the 1897 provincial Parliament Building, overlooking Victoria’s Inner Harbour. The 85 provincial representatives are known as MLAs, members of the legislative assembly. In recent years, two parties have dominated provincial politics in B.C.: the Liberals and the NDP.
Local issues, such as zoning, city police and firefighting, snow removal, garbage, and recycling, are the municipal governments’ purview. The local governments in Vancouver, Victoria, and other B.C. cities are each led by a mayor, who works with the local city council to determine local policy and regulations.
ECONOMY
Service industries dominate the economies of Vancouver and Victoria. Tourism, including hotels, restaurants, and all sorts of recreation-focused businesses, is a significant pillar of the economy, as are health care, education, financial services, trade (particularly with Pacific Rim countries), and, increasingly, technology. Due to recent changes in liquor laws, numerous craft breweries have opened in both cities.
A construction boom in both Vancouver and Victoria has kept job growth high in this industry. Outside the urban areas, other industries that contribute significantly to B.C.’s economy include agriculture, forestry (about 60 percent of the province’s land
is forested), mining, oil and gas extraction, and fishing.
Poverty, drug use, and homelessness are very visible issues on the streets of Vancouver (and to a lesser extent, in Victoria). It’s common to see people sleeping in parks, hanging out on the sidewalks, or pushing their possessions in a shopping cart across Vancouver, especially in Gastown, Chinatown, and the east side of downtown. The extent of the problem can surprise visitors, particularly because you’ll see people living on the streets, even when those streets are lined with cool restaurants and stylish shops.
While the Vancouver city government has been working on programs to reduce homelessness and increase the availability of affordable housing, those programs have not yet been particularly successful, in part because Vancouver continues to be Canada’s most expensive housing market. In early 2017, the average purchase price of a single-family detached home was over a million dollars, and buying even a one-bedroom condo would set you back over $500,000.
Rental prices have been rising steadily, too. In 2016, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported that the average monthly rent in the city of Vancouver was $1,268 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,757 for a two-bedroom unit. If you want to live downtown, you’d pay an average of $1,425 for a one-bedroom and $2,167 for a two-bedroom place.
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