BC Wikipedia

The vast territory of British Columbia lies almost entirely within the great mountain system, or cordillera, that stretches along the western edge of the Americas from north of the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn, at the southernmost extremity of South America. Vancouver, the province’s largest city, serves as the headquarters of many western-based natural resource companies. Though less than 5 percent of its vast 944,735 square kilometres (364,764 sq mi) land is arable, the province is agriculturally rich (particularly in the Fraser and Okanagan valleys), because of milder weather near the coast and in certain sheltered southern valleys.

The bulk of the central and northern interior was organized into the New Caledonia district, administered from Fort St. James. Southern Interior valleys are hot in summer; for example, in Osoyoos, the July maximum temperature averages 31.7 °C (89.1 °F), making it the hottest month of any location in Canada; this hot weather sometimes spreads towards the coast or to the far north of the province. Annual snowfall on highway mountain passes in the southern interior rivals some of the snowiest cities in Canada, and freezing rain and fog are sometimes present on such roads as well. Heavy snowfall occurs in all elevated mountainous terrain providing bases for skiers in both south and central British Columbia.

Employment in the resource sector has fallen steadily as a percentage of employment, and new jobs are mostly in the construction and retail/service sectors. BC’s economy is diverse, with service-producing industries accounting for the largest portion of the province’s GDP. In 2021, 34.4 percent of the population consisted of visible minorities and 5.9 percent of the population was Indigenous, mostly of First Nations and Métis descent.

Visible minorities and Indigenous peoples

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. The Columbia District was broadly defined as being south of 54°40′ north latitude, (the southern limit of Russian America), north of Mexican-controlled California, and west of the Rocky Mountains. The establishment of trading posts by the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), effectively established a permanent British presence in the region. 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 Canadian Prairies and the Pacific. The explorations of James Cook in 1778 and George Vancouver in 1792 and 1793 established British jurisdiction over the bc game coastal area north and west of the Columbia River.

• With the agreement by the Canadian government to extend the Canadian Pacific Railway to British Columbia and assume the colony’s debt, British Columbia became the sixth province to join Confederation on July 20, 1871.
• In order to graduate with a graduation certificate, known as a Dogwood Diploma in BC, students must take a minimum of 80 course credits during grades 10 to 12.
• Vancouver Island, the largest island in the province, lies off the southwest coast and is home to the vibrant city of Victoria, the provincial capital.

Why was the BCE/CE system created?

With the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858, an influx of Americans into New Caledonia prompted the colonial office to designate the mainland as the Colony of British Columbia. In 1846, the Oregon Treaty divided the territory along the 49th parallel to the Strait of Georgia, with the area south of this boundary (excluding Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands) transferred to sole American sovereignty. 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 and Oregon).

While it is thought Francis Drake may have explored the British Columbian coast in 1579, it was Juan Pérez who completed the first documented voyage, which took place in 1774. During the 1770s, smallpox killed at least 30 percent of the Pacific Northwest First Nations. These peoples developed complex cultures dependent on the western red cedar that included wooden houses, seagoing whaling and war canoes and elaborately carved potlatch items and totem poles.

According to some, BCE / CE highlights the importance of Christ’s birth to the start of an entirely new ”common era”, while BC / AD simply refers to the event. Others ask why a well-established system should be replaced, arguing that the existence of two competing abbreviations creates confusion. In Australian education authorities in 2011, were forced to deny that such a change had been planned for national school textbooks amidst a similar controversy made by media reports. BC / AD is widely used, even though BCE / CE has been there since the 1980s. The widely accepted notion is that Jesus’ actual birth was around at least two years before AD 1 & some people feel that by linking years to an erroneous birthdate for Jesus is misleading. The main reason why Jewish academics’ adopted BCE/CE over a century ago, was religious neutrality.

British Columbia is considered part of the Pacific Northwest and the Cascadia bioregion, along with the American states of Alaska, Idaho, (western) Montana, Oregon, Washington, and (northern) California. British Columbia’s rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres (17,000 mi), and includes deep, mountainous fjords and about 6,000 islands, most of which are uninhabited. British Columbia is bordered to the west by the Pacific Ocean and the American state of Alaska, to the north by Yukon and the Northwest Territories, to the east by the province of Alberta, and to the south by the American states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, while the province’s largest city is Vancouver. British Columbia borders the province of Alberta to the east; the territories of Yukon and Northwest Territories to the north; the US states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana to the south; and Alaska to the northwest. British Columbia is Canada’s westernmost province that is sandwiched between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

British Columbia is the third largest music-producing province in Canada and the local music industry generates an estimated yearly revenue of $265 million. In the following decades, the city would undergo more artistic diversification with the emergence of conceptual art, communication art, video art, and performance art. Western styles and forms were introduced to the region through the establishment of British North American settlements in the late 18th century. Local services are limited to two regions, with TransLink providing rapid transit and commuter services in the Lower Mainland and by the Seton Lake Indian Band South of Lillooet with the Kaoham Shuttle. In the capital city of Victoria, BC Transit and the provincial government’s infrastructure ministry are working together to create a bus rapid transit from the Westshore communities to downtown Victoria. Prior to 1979, surface public transit in the Vancouver and Victoria metropolitan areas was administered by BC Hydro, the provincially owned electricity utility.

Mount Fairweather, near to the boundary with Alaska, is the tallest mountain at 15,266 feet. These ranges create barriers that contribute to the province’s distinct climatic zones. Haida Gwaii, an archipelago to the northwest, showcases Indigenous culture and history. British Columbia’s coast, stretching over 15,900 miles, features numerous inlets and fjords, providing a natural haven for marine life.