Local Culture
POPULATION
Stretching over a vast landmass, Canada has a population of 36 million (as of 2016). By contrast, the United States, its geographically smaller neighbor to the south, is almost 10 times larger in population, with more than 320 million inhabitants. Nearly three-quarters of all Canadians live within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the U.S. border.
With 4.7 million residents, British Columbia is Canada’s third most populous province, after Ontario (nearly 14 million) and Quebec (8.3 million).
Vancouver is Canada’s third largest city, after Toronto and Montreal, and has approximately 2.5 million residents in the metropolitan region. Victoria is the second largest city in B.C., but with 365,000 people, it’s significantly smaller than metro Vancouver.
DIVERSITY
Canada’s major cities, including Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, are among the most multicultural on the planet. Nationwide, more than 20 percent of Canada’s population was born outside of the country, but that figure is much higher in urban areas; in Vancouver, 40 percent of residents were born outside Canada. Though the majority of Canadians have their origins in Europe, more than half of the country’s recent immigrants have come from Asia, with significant numbers arriving from the Philippines, China, and India. Other major immigrant populations include those coming from the United States, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Iran, South Korea, Colombia, and Mexico.
In Vancouver, 70 percent of the region’s recent immigrants have arrived from Asia, and overall, more than 40 percent of the population is of Asian descent, including a mix of people born in Canada and those born abroad. It’s often called the most Asian major city outside of Asia, and you’ll find Asian influences in everything from art and fashion to urban design and food.
While Victoria is becoming increasingly diverse, it’s still a far more homogenous community than Vancouver. The majority of the city’s citizens trace their roots to the United Kingdom and western Europe; 11 percent of Victoria’s population is Asian.
INDIGENOUS CULTURES
Canada has three officially recognized aboriginal groups: the First Nations, the Inuit, and the Métis. The Inuit people live primarily in Canada’s far north, while the Métis—descendants of French settlers and their First Nations spouses—have historically settled in the prairies and the west. First Nations, the largest indigenous group, is the term for aboriginal people who are neither Inuit nor Métis.
In British Columbia today, approximately 5 percent of the population is of aboriginal heritage. Two-thirds are First Nations, representing 200 different communities; most of the rest are Métis.
Of these indigenous people, one in four lives in the Lower Mainland in and around Vancouver, where the largest of the 11 First Nations are the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh. Many public events in Vancouver now begin with a statement acknowledging that they’re taking place on the traditional territory of these native communities.
Across the Strait of Georgia, Vancouver Island is home to 53 different First Nations, including the Esquimalt and Songhees near Victoria, the Saanich First Nations on the peninsula of the same name north of Victoria, and B.C.’s largest First Nation, the Cowichan, whose territory includes the present-day Cowichan Valley outside of Victoria.
FRENCH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
Ever since European explorers first landed on Canada’s shores, both English- and French-speaking colonists settled the country. As a result, Canada has two official languages: English and French. That means that any official federal government communications, from tax forms to airport signs to national park brochures, must be produced in both English and French, and products sold in Canada must contain information on their packaging in both languages.
The province of Quebec is Canada’s major francophone region, and there are numerous French-speaking communities in other parts of the country. In British Columbia, although many people can speak some French and kids study the language in school, only about 70,000 people, or 1.5 percent of the population, have French as their mother tongue. In fact, you’re more likely to hear Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, or Punjabi on the streets of Vancouver than you are to hear people speaking French.
RELIGION
Christianity is the major religion in Canada. Nearly 40 percent of Canadians are Catholic, and about a quarter are Protestant. Conversely, recent census figures indicate that nearly 25 percent of Canadians claim no religious affiliation at all.
Canada’s largest non-Christian religious group is Muslim, representing about 3 percent of the population nationwide. Other major religious groups in Canada include Hindus (1.5 percent of the population), Sikhs (1.4 percent), Buddhists (1.1 percent), and Jews (1 percent).
In British Columbia, these numbers differ somewhat from the nation’s population overall. About 45 percent of B.C.’s residents are Christians, and more than 40 percent say that they have no religious affiliation. Five percent are Sikhs, 2 percent Buddhists, just under 2 percent Muslims, 1 percent Hindus, and less than 1 percent Jews.
THE ARTS
LITERATURE
Though she’s more often associated with Ontario, where she was born (in 1931) and has lived much of her life, Canadian short-story writer and novelist Alice Munro spent the 1950s and ’60s in Vancouver and Victoria. She and her then-husband Jim opened Munro’s Books in Victoria in 1963, a classic bookstore that’s still operating today. Her many books include The Lives of Girls and Women (1971), Who Do You Think You Are? (1978), The View From Castle Rock (2006), and Dear Life (2012). Munro became the first Canadian woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, when she received the award in 2013.
Many British Columbia authors have written about the region’s Asian communities in both fiction and memoir. In his novel, The Jade Peony (1995), Wayson Choy, who was born in Vancouver in 1939, paints a portrait of life in Vancouver’s Chinatown in the first half of the 20th century. He continued to explore similar themes in a follow-up work of fiction, All That Matters, and in his memoir, Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood.
In her novel, Obasan, Vancouver-born Joy Kogawa writes about the forced relocation and internment of Japanese Canadians in western Canada during World War II, depicted through the eyes of a young Vancouver girl. It’s based on her own experiences; Kogawa and her family were required to leave Vancouver and sent to Slocan, B.C., during the war.
Other contemporary B.C. writers include novelist and artist Douglas Coupland, who popularized the term for an entire generation with his 1991 novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture; fiction writer Caroline Adderson, who has set several of her novels, including The Sky Is Falling (2010), in and around Vancouver; and CBC radio and podcast host Grant Lawrence, who published the humorous B.C.-based Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound in 2010.
VISUAL ARTS
The visual artist whose work is perhaps most closely associated with British Columbia is the Victoria-born painter Emily Carr (1871-1945), known for her paintings of B.C.’s landscape and its indigenous people. Unusually for a woman of her time, Carr traveled—on her own—to Haida Gwaii and other remote northern communities, where she painted scenes of First Nations’ life. You can see Carr’s work at the Vancouver Art Gallery (www.vanartgallery.bc.ca) and at Whistler’s Audain Art Museum (www.audainartmuseum.com).
While Carr had no aboriginal heritage herself, another well-known B.C. artist came from mixed European and First Nations ancestry. Bill Reid (1920-1998) created more than 1,500 sculptures, carvings, and other works, most of which explore the traditions of the Haida First Nation, to which his mother belonged. Vancouver’s Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art (www.billreidgallery.ca) is dedicated to Reid’s work; you can also see his massive sculptures in the Vancouver International Airport and at the Museum of Anthropology (http://moa.ubc.ca) on the University of British Columbia campus.
Painter and naturalist Robert Bateman captured scenes of B.C.’s la
ndscapes and wildlife, which you can view at the Robert Bateman Centre (http://batemancentre.org) in Victoria. In the 1950s and ’60s, photographer Fred Herzog focused his lens on wildlife of a different sort, taking photos of Vancouver’s downtown streets.
The city of Vancouver has a significant public art program that places art around the city. Look for works like A-maze-ing Laughter, opposite English Bay in the West End, by Beijing-based contemporary artist Yue Minjun, and The Birds, two 18-foot-tall (5.5-meter) sculptures in the Olympic Village, by Vancouver’s Myfanwy MacLeod. Find a directory of local public art on the City of Vancouver’s website (http://vancouver.ca).
MUSIC
Many musicians and performers with British Columbia connections have gone on to wider acclaim.
Though born in Ontario, rock singer-songwriter Bryan Adams launched his early career in Vancouver. Canadian crooner Michael Bublé was born and raised in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby and still maintains homes in the area. Tegan and Sara, the powerhouse musical duo (and identical twins), reside at least part time in Vancouver.
Singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan, who founded the Lilith Fair tours highlighting women musicians, established the Sarah McLachlan School of Music in Vancouver, which provides free music instruction to local at-risk youth.
Singer Nelly Furtado was born in Victoria, and jazz artist Diana Krall, who’s married to fellow musician Elvis Costello, also has island roots; she hails from the city of Nanaimo.
FILM AND TV
Vancouver and Toronto vie for the title of Hollywood North, since both cities are popular filming locations for movies and TV series.
Recent movies shot in or around Vancouver include Deadpool (2015), starring Vancouver native Ryan Reynolds; Tomorrowland (2015), with George Clooney; 50 Shades of Grey (2014), based on the popular book of the same name; and Big Eyes (2014), directed by Tim Burton and starring Amy Adams.
Although the number of movies being made in Canada rises and falls with the relative strength of the U.S. and Canadian dollars (when the Canadian dollar is weaker compared to the U.S. currency, it’s cheaper to make films north of the border), it’s not unusual to stumble upon a film set as you wander around Vancouver. To increase your chances of spotting a celebrity when you’re in town, check the Creative BC website (www.creativebc.com), which lists movies and TV shows currently filming in British Columbia.
FOOD AND DRINK
What should you eat in Vancouver? As in any major North American city, Vancouver restaurants span the globe, serving meals that take cues from Italy, France, Spain, China, Japan, and more.
Vancouver is known for seafood, particularly salmon, halibut, oysters, and spot prawns, caught in regional waters. The city’s restaurants have embraced the eat local movement, so look for seasonal produce and locally raised meats. With a large Asian population, Vancouver has some of the best Chinese food in North America, as well as good Japanese and Korean fare, and many non-Asian restaurants incorporate Pacific Rim influences in their dishes.
British Columbia wines, from the Okanagan Valley or Vancouver Island, are good accompaniments to most Vancouver meals, as are regionally brewed craft beers. Plenty of bartenders have adopted a “drink local” philosophy, too, incorporating locally grown herbs, house-made bitters, and other fresh ingredients into creative cocktails and alcohol-free drinks.
ESSENTIALS
Getting There
Getting Around
Visas and Officialdom
Health and Safety
Travel Tips
Recreation
Getting There
AIR
Vancouver International Airport (YVR, 3211 Grant McConachie Way, Richmond, 604/207-7077, www.yvr.ca) is a major international gateway with flights from across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. The airport is south of the city center in the suburb of Richmond. It’s 25 minutes from the airport to downtown by public transit, taxi, or by car. All the major car rental companies have offices at the Vancouver airport.
To get to most Vancouver destinations from the airport by taxi, you’ll pay a flat rate by zone ($31-37). The Canada Line branch of the SkyTrain subway network stops at the airport. One-way adult fares ($7.75-9) from the airport to downtown vary by time of day. Returning to the airport from downtown costs $2.75-4.
hiking on Whistler Mountain
TRAIN
Pacific Central Station (1150 Station St.), near the intersection of Main and Terminal Streets on the edge of Chinatown, is Vancouver’s main rail depot. It’s also the city’s long-distance bus station.
AMTRAK
Amtrak (800/872-7245, www.amtrak.com), the U.S. passenger rail carrier, runs trains to Vancouver from Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. You can make connections in either Seattle or Portland to U.S. points farther south or east. Trains from Seattle (5.5 hours) operate twice a day; the direct Portland-Vancouver train (8 hours) runs once a day in each direction. These trains have electrical outlets and free Wi-Fi in both standard economy and business classes; the latter seats give you additional legroom.
Tip for cyclists: You can walk your bike onto the Seattle or Portland trains for a fee of US$5.
VIA RAIL
Canada’s national passenger rail carrier, VIA Rail (514/989-2626 or 888/842-7245, www.viarail.ca), runs cross-country trains to Vancouver from Toronto. The major stops along the Toronto-Vancouver route of The Canadian, VIA Rail’s flagship train, are Winnipeg (Manitoba), Saskatoon (Saskatchewan), Edmonton and Jasper (Alberta), and Kamloops (British Columbia).
If you do the 2,775-mile (4,466-kilometer) Toronto-to-Vancouver rail trip nonstop, it’s a four-night, three-day journey. The Canadian operates three times a week in each direction from May through mid-October, and twice a week from mid-October through April. It’s possible to get off en route and continue your journey on a subsequent train. For example, you could take the train from Toronto to Jasper in the Canadian Rockies, get off the train for two or three days, and catch the next train onward to Vancouver.
VIA Rail offers several classes of service on The Canadian. In Economy class, the cheapest option, you have a reclining seat and access to a washroom (but no shower). Meals aren’t included, although you can buy meals and snacks on the train or outside the train during a few brief stopovers.
A more comfortable alternative is Sleeper Plus class, which offers several choices of accommodations. The least expensive is a berth, which is a seat by day that converts into a bunk, shielded by a heavy curtain, at night; the bunks can be either a lower or upper unit. Berth passengers have access to men’s and women’s restrooms and private shower rooms in the corridor.
Another Sleeper Plus option is a cabin, which can sleep 1-4 people. Cabins have their own toilets and sinks, and passengers can use the shower rooms in the corridor. Note that in the one-person cabin, the bed folds down over the toilet, so if you need to use the facilities during the night, you have to fold up your bed or use the restroom in the hallway.
The top-end sleeper accommodations are in Prestige Sleeper class, which offers a more modern cabin with a private bathroom and shower. These units have an L-shaped leather couch by day with a Murphy bed for two that folds down at night.
All the Sleeper class fares include three meals a day in the dining car, nonalcoholic drinks, and access to a window-lined viewing car. You can also sit in the bar-snack car, with complimentary coffee, tea, fruit, and cookies.
Outside of the busy summer travel season, VIA Rail frequently offers discounts of up to 50 percent off their standard fares. Check their website or sign up for their newsletter to find out about seat sales. They also offer occasional last-minute travel deals, which are posted on the VIA Rail website (www.viarail.ca).
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINEER
The Rocky Mountaineer (1755 Cottrell St., at Terminal Ave., 604/606-7245 or 877/460-3200, www.rockymountaineer.com, mid-Apr.-mid-Oct.) is a privately run luxury train that offers rail trips between Vancouver, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper
, and Calgary. You can travel round-trip from Vancouver to the Canadian Rockies and back, or you can book a one-way journey through the Rockies from Vancouver to Calgary (or vice versa). Another route starts in Seattle and stops in Vancouver before continuing to the Rockies. Rocky Mountaineer trains travel during the day and stop overnight in Kamloops, where you stay in a hotel, en route to or from the Rockies.
Unlike a standard train trip, many Rocky Mountaineer packages include activities that range from gondola rides to helicopter tours, as well as accommodations along the way. It’s also possible to book a Rocky Mountaineer holiday that covers rail fare and accommodations only; for example, they offer two-day train trips between Vancouver and Lake Louise, Banff, or Jasper. Rail packages start at $1,741 per person and depend on the destinations, number of travel days, and the level of service and accommodations.
Rocky Mountaineer trains do not use Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station, where VIA Rail and Amtrak trains depart; they have a separate depot nearby.
BUS
Greyhound (800/661-8747, www.greyhound.ca) runs buses to Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station (1150 Station St.) from across Canada and from many U.S. cities, including direct service from Seattle.
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