History of Vancouver
Encyclopedia
Vancouver
is a city in British Columbia
, Canada
. With its location near the mouth of the Fraser River
and on the waterways of the Strait of Georgia
, Howe Sound
, Burrard Inlet
, and their tributaries, Vancouver has, for thousands of years, been a place of meeting, trade and settlement.
The presence of people in what is now called the Lower Mainland
of British Columbia dates from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago when the glaciers
of the last ice age
began to disappear. The area, known to the First Nations
as S'ólh Téméxw, shows archeological evidence of a seasonal encampment ("the Glenrose Cannery site") near the mouth of the Fraser River that dates from that time.
The first Europe
ans to explore the area were Spanish
Captain José María Narváez
in 1791, and British
naval Captain George Vancouver
in 1792. The area was not settled by Europeans until almost a century later, in 1862. The city grew rapidly following completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway
(CPR) transcontinental line from Eastern Canada, allowing for continuous rail service in the late 1880s. Chinese
settlers were increasingly a presence in the area following completion of the CPR. Subsequent waves of immigration were initially of Europeans moving west, and later, with the advent of global air travel, from Asia
and many other parts of the world.
The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
are the original inhabitants of what is now known as Vancouver. The city falls within the traditional territory of three Coast Salish
peoples known as, Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Tsliel-waututh
and Xwméthkwyiem
("Musqueam"—from masqui "an edible grass that grows in the sea"). On the southern shores of Vancouver along the Fraser River
, Xwméthkwyiem
live with their main community. In the False Creek
and Burrard Inlet
area, Sḵwxwú7mesh currently live on numerous villages in North Vancouver, with their territory also apart of Howe Sound
and upwards towards the town of Whistler
. Further down the Burrard Inlet, Tsleil-Waututh have their main community. Xwméthkwyiem and Tsleil-Waututh historically spoke a language dialect of Halkomelem language, where as Sḵwxwú7mesh language was separate but related. Their language was more closely connected to their Shishalh
neighbors at Sechelt
. Historically the area of where Vancouver is now was all resource gathering places for food or materials.
The Xwméthkwyiem village at the mouth of the Fraser River dates back around 3,000 years. Vancouver's ecosystem
, with its abundant plant and animal life, provides a wealth of food and materials that supported these peoples for over 10,000 years. At the time of first European contact, Sḵwxwú7mesh had villages in the areas around present-day Vancouver in places like Stanley Park
, Kitsilano
and False Creek
area, as well as Burrard Inlet. Tsleil-Waututh were said to also be settled on Burrard Inlet at the time of George Vancouver's
arrival in 1792. The largest villages were at Xwemelch'stn (sometimes rendered Homulchesan), near the mouth of the Capilano River and roughly beneath where the north foot of the present Lions Gate Bridge is today, and at Musqueam. X̱wáýx̱way was a village in Stanley Park
(in the Lumberman's Arch area). The foundation of a Catholic mission at the village, called Eslha7an
, near Mosquito Creek engendered the creation of another large community of Squamish there. Along False Creek, at the south foot of Burrard Bridge, another village called Senakw
, existed at one time a large community, and during colonization was the residence of Sḵwxwú7mesh historian August Jack Khatsahlano
.
The Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast had achieved a very high level of cultural complexity for a food gathering base. As Bruce Macdonald notes in Vancouver: a visual history: "Their economic system encouraged hard work, the accumulation of wealth and status and the redistribution of wealth..." Winter villages, in what is now known as Vancouver, were composed of large plankhouses made of Western Red Cedar wood. Gatherings called potlatch
es were common in the summer and winter months when the spirit powers were active. These ceremonies were an important part of the social and spiritual life of the people.
Spanish Captain José María Narváez
was the first European to explore the Strait of Georgia
in 1791. He landed at Point Grey and entered Burrard Inlet
. In the following year, 1792, the British
naval Captain George Vancouver
(1757–1798) met the Spanish expedition of Dionisio Alcalá Galiano
and Cayetano Valdés y Flores
off Point Grey, and together further explored the Strait of Georgia. Vancouver also explored Puget Sound
in the present day Seattle
area. Vancouver, surveying in small boats with his officer Peter Puget
, arrived at the present city of Vancouver before the Spanish. They first landed at what Vancouver later named Point Grey. Puget informally called the place Noon Breakfast Point. Puget's name was officially given to the southwest tip of Point Grey in 1981.
Simon Fraser
was the first European to reach the area overland, descending the river which bears his name in 1808. Despite the influx of the Fraser Gold Rush
in 1858-59, settlement on Burrard Inlet and English Bay was almost unknown prior to the early 1860s due in large part to the lack of interest in the area as the access to the BC interior was via the City of New Westminster and the Fraser River and also due to the power of the Squamish chiefs over the area. Robert Burnaby and Moberly camped and prospected for coal in what is now Coal Haerbour in Vancouver in the summer of 1859. In general they got along fine with the native people. Robert Burnaby wrote "Our [spare] time has been occupied in exploring all the ins and outs of this Inlet , which I prophesy will become one of the greatest naval rendezvous and centres of commerce on this side of the world." . (Letter to his family August 31, 1859 Original is at Burnaby Village Museum.) The first non-native settlement in the city limits of Vancouver was at McCleery's Farm, in the area of what is now the Southlands area, in about 1862.
, now the site of Vancouver's seaport. The first sawmill began operating in 1863 at Moodyville, a planned settlement built by American lumber entrepreneur Sewell "Sue" Moody. In 1915, it expanded as a municipality and was renamed "North Vancouver"; the name Moodyville still applies to the Lower Lonsdale district, though more as a marketing term than in common usage (Moodyville proper was a few blocks to the east). The first export of lumber took place in 1865; this lumber was shipped to Australia. In 1867, the first sawmill on the south shore of Burrard Inlet, Stamp's Mill, began producing lumber at what is now the foot of Dunlevy Avenue in Vancouver. A site for the mill was originally planned at Brockton Point
in what is now Stanley Park
, but the Brockton Point site proved infeasible due to nearby currents and shoals which made docking difficult. The largest trees in the world grew along the south shores of False Creek and English Bay and provided (amongst other things) masts for the world's windjammer
fleets and the increasingly large vessels of the Royal Navy
. One famous sale of trees cut from the Jericho neighbourhood (west of Kitsilano), was a special order for the Celestial Emperor of China consisting of dozens of immense beams for the construction of The Gate of Heavenly Peace in the Forbidden City
, Beijing
. Millworkers and lumberers were from a wide variety of backgrounds - mostly Scandinavians and Nootkas - who were also brought to the inlet to help with the local whaling industry. At first, Squamish typically did not work in the mills.
A former river pilot, John (Jack) Deighton, set up a small (24' x 12') saloon on the beach about a mile west of the sawmill in 1867 where mill property and its "dry" policies ended. His place was popular and a well-worn trail between the mill and saloon was soon established - this is today's Alexander Street. Deighton's nickname, Gassy Jack, came about because he was known as quite the talker, or "gassy". A number of men began living near the saloon and the "settlement" quickly became known as Gassy's Town, which was quickly shortened to "Gastown
". In 1870, the colonial government of British Columbia took notice of the growing settlement and sent a surveyor to lay out an official townsite named Granville, in honour of the British Colonial Secretary
, Lord Granville
, though it was still popularly known as Gastown (which is the name still current for that part of the city).
The new townsite was situated on a natural harbour, and for this reason it was selected by the Canadian Pacific Railway
as their terminus. The transcontinental railway was commissioned by the government of Canada under the leadership of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald
and was a condition of British Columbia joining confederation in 1871. The CPR president, William Van Horne, decided that Granville was not such a great name for the new terminus because of the seedy associations with Gastown, and strongly suggested "Vancouver" would be a better name, in part because people in Toronto and Montreal knew where Vancouver Island
was but had no idea of where Granville was. Under its new name the city was incorporated on April 6, 1886. Three months later, on June 13, a spectacular blaze destroyed most of the city along the swampy shores of Burrard Inlet in twenty-five minutes. The Great Vancouver Fire
, which destroyed the city, was eventually considered to be beneficial, as the city was rebuilt with modern water, electricity and streetcar systems.
Things recovered quickly after the fire, although celebratory Dominion Day festivities to launch the opening of the CPR were postponed a year as a result. The first regular transcontinental train from Montreal arrived at a temporary terminus at Port Moody
, in July 1886, and service to Vancouver itself began in May 1887. That year Vancouver's population was 5,000, by 1892 it reached 15,000 and by 1900 it was 100,000.
The Port of Vancouver
became internationally significant as a result of its key position in the All-Red Route
, which spanned the global trade network of the British Empire
, with the combined steamship and railway of the CPR shortening shipping times from the Orient
to London
drastically, with the new city becoming a node for major speculative investment by British and German capital. After the completion of the Panama Canal
, which although originally hurting Vancouver's shipping traffic by becoming the new preferred route from Asia to Europe, reduced freight rates in the 1920s, making it viable to ship even Europe-bound prairie grain
west through Vancouver in addition to that already shipped to the Orient.
With the opening of the Panama Canal
in 1914, Vancouver’s seaport
was able to compete with the major international ports for global trade because it was positioned as an alternative route to Europe. During the 1920s, the provincial government successfully fought to have freight rates that discriminated against goods transported by rail through the mountains eliminated, giving the young lawyer of the case, Gerry McGeer
, a reputation as “the man who flattened the Rockies.” Consequently, prairie wheat came west through Vancouver rather than being shipped out through eastern ports. The federal government established the Vancouver Harbour Commission in 1913 to oversee port development. With its completion in 1923, Ballantyne Pier was the most technologically advanced port in the British Empire
. The CPR
, lumber exporters, terminal operators, and other companies based on the waterfront banded together after World War I
to establish the Shipping Federation of British Columbia as an employers’ association
to manage industrial relations on the increasingly busy waterfront. The Federation fought vociferously against unionization, defeating a series of strikes and breaking unions until the determined longshoremen established the current ILWU
local after the Second World War. By the 1930s, commercial traffic through the port had become the largest sector in Vancouver’s economy.
The most overt expression of this may have been the 1907 riots thought to have been organized by the Asiatic Exclusion League
, a group formed under organized labour and inspired by its counterpart in San Francisco.
But discrimination was perhaps less overt than such events suggest. It could be argued that some politicians and publicists may have promoted and disseminated controversial ideologies through popular books such as H. Glynn-Ward’s 1921 The Writing on the Wall and Tom MacInnes
’s 1929 The Oriental Occupation of British Columbia. Newspapermen such as L. D. Taylor
of the Vancouver World
and General Victor Odlum
of the Star generated a glut of editorials analyzing and warning about the “Oriental Menace,” as did Danger: The Anti-Asiatic Weekly.
This determination of British Columbians to secure B.C.'s borders influenced federal politicians to pass immigration laws such as the head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act. What may be called a "climate of fear and hysteria" in the 1920s, culminated in the 'Janet Smith case', in which a Chinese national was accused of killing his young, white, female co-worker. The evidence for his guilt was perhaps based more on stereotyping than facts.
A growing population of Indians, primarily of the Sikh
religion, were also required to abide by immigration laws starting in 1908, despite the fact that they were subjects of the British Empire
. This culminated in the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, in which most of 376 immigrants on the Komagata Maru
, most of them from the Punjab
in India
were not permitted to disembark because they had not complied with immigration laws that required that they come by a continuous passage from their home country.
A group of residents of Indian origin rallied in support of the passengers. After losing a court challenge of the immigration laws, the ship remained in Burrard Inlet while negotiations continued concerning its departure. When negotiations dragged on, the head immigration officer in Vancouver arranged an attempt by the Vancouver police and other officials to board the ship, who were repelled by what the Vancouver Sun reported as “howling masses of Hindus”. Subsequently the federal government sent a naval ship and after concessions made by the federal Minister of Agriculture, an MP from Penticton, the ship departed. After returning to India, twenty of the passengers were shot by police in an incident after they refused to return to the Punjab.
, followed an “open town” policy prior to his final defeat in 1934 to Gerry McGeer. Essentially, the policy was that vice crimes such as prostitution, gambling, and bootlegging would be managed, rather than eliminated, so that police resources could be directed towards major crime.
A consequence of this, in addition to assumptions that Taylor was colluding with the criminal underworld, was the maintenance of red light districts in racialized neighbourhoods, such as Chinatown, Japantown, and Hogan's Alley
, which perpetuated the association of non-whites with immorality and vice crime. Taylor suffered the biggest electoral defeat the city had seen in 1934, largely on this issue. McGeer ran on a law and order platform, resulting in a crackdown on vice crimes, which, after years of Taylor’s “open town,” sought to clean up crime. Unfortunately, policing non-white communities was key to successfully executing the plan. Even the East End (today’s Strathcona
) had by WWI been largely vacated by English, Scottish, and Irish residents who moved to the wealthier (and whiter) new developments of the West End and Shaughnessy. The East End, the original residential district that grew up around Hasting’s Mill, was left to successive waves of new immigrants, and became associated with poverty and vice, (as the Downtown Eastside
remains today).
By the interwar years, other neighbourhoods had grown that were working class, but not especially impoverished or racially exclusive, such as Mount Pleasant
, the suburb of South Vancouver, and Grandview-Woodland
. Even the West End was becoming less exclusive. CPR developers once again established a new enclave for the city’s white and wealthy elite that would pull them from the West End and be the destination for the “coming smart set.” Point Grey
was incorporated in 1908 for this purpose, and Shaughnessy Heights would be developed exclusively for the “richest and most prominent citizens,” who were required to spend a minimum of $6, 000 on the construction of new homes, which were to conform to specific style requirements. These patterns of economic segregation were apparently secured by 1929 when Point Grey and South Vancouver were amalgamated with Vancouver. Point Grey included the current neighbourhoods of Arbutus Ridge
, Dunbar-Southlands
, Kerrisdale
and Marpole
, Oakridge
, Shaughnessy and South Cambie
, and South Vancouver included the current neighbourhoods of Cedar Cottage
, Collingwood
, Killarney
, Riley Park-Little Mountain
, Sunset
, and Victoria-Fraserview
. William Harold Malkin
was the first mayor of the new city, having defeated incumbent Louis Denison Taylor
, the champion of amalgamation, in the 1928 civic election.
and the On-to-Ottawa Trek
in 1935. Communist agitators and their supporters also led strikes in other industries, most notably the 1935 waterfront strike
, and organized a large proportion of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion
from Vancouver to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War
as Canada’s (unofficial) contribution to the International Brigades
.
The outbreak of the Second World War resulted in major changes for Vancouver. Local militia units quickly recruited extra members and Vancouver's Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, for example, had a battalion overseas in England within 4 months, and they remained in Europe fighting until the end of the war. The British Columbia Regiment, 15th Field Regiment RCA, 6th Field Engineers, HMCS Discovery and others all contributed to the war effort. Massive new spending by the governments and employment in the military and factories provided a much needed economic boost after the Great Depression of the 1930s. Among the many products and weapons for war service produced in the Vancouver area were minesweepers
and corvettes for the Royal Canadian Navy
; anti-aircraft guns in Burnaby and the Boeing
aircraft factory in nearby Richmond produced parts for B-29
bomber aircraft. The old defences for Vancouver Harbour were upgraded with coast artillery positions at Point Grey (the Museum of Anthropology is built on top of this); Stanley Park; under the Lion's Gate Bridge and at Point Atkinson. In 1942, a few months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
, Japanese Canadians were "evacuated" from the West Coast. The Americans did the same with their citizens of Japanese ancestry. Canadians of Japanese descent were placed into holding areas such as the barns at Hastings Park and then interned in camps in the interior by the federal government which evoked the War Measures Act
. Due to the fear of bombing and of poison gas attacks, a blackout was imposed on the West Coast in 1942 and school children and others were issued gas masks. Japan did indeed attack the West Coast. A Japanese submarine shelled Estevan Point
Lighthouse, Japanese soldiers invaded and held island in Alaska and Japanese balloon bombs (Fire balloon
) were floated across the Pacific Ocean on air currents to wreak their havoc on the forests and citizens of Canada and the USA. Locally these ballon bombs landed as close to Vancouver as Point Roberts, but their existence was kept a secret until very late in the war.
, the oldest television station in Western Canada, first went on the air in December 1953. The Oak Street Bridge
, connecting Vancouver to Richmond across the Fraser River, opened in 1957. While the Second Narrows Bridge
and the Lions' Gate Bridge
had provided a connection to the North Shore
since 1925 and 1938 respectively, the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing
followed in 1960. The last vestiges of British Columbia Electric Railway
's streetcar and interurban rail system were dismantled in 1958.
Another major bridge across the Fraser River, the Port Mann Bridge
to Surrey, opened in 1964. Two new universities were established, the British Columbia Institute of Technology
in 1960 and the Simon Fraser University
in 1965; both have satellite campuses in Vancouver. Residents of Strathcona
- most of them Chinese - formed a protest movement led by civic activist Mary Lee Chan
and prevented the construction of a freeway which would have resulted in the bulldozing of the neighbourhood. In 1967, the Greater Vancouver Regional District
was incorporated. Greenpeace
, one of the leading international environmental organizations, was founded in Vancouver in 1971.
In 1968 the Canada Council
awarded a $3,500 grant to Joachim Foikis of Vancouver "to revive the ancient and time-honoured tradition of town fool." He made a habit of attending all city council meetings in full traditional jester's outfit, adding wit, nursery rhymes and interest to the normally pedestrian meetings and bringing international attention to Vancouver.
The continuing growth of the airport on Sea Island
resulted in the construction of another bridge across the Fraser River, the Arthur Laing Bridge
which opened to traffic in 1975.
As Pacific Central Station
replaced Waterfront Station
as the main railway station in 1979, the latter was transformed into the terminal of SeaBus
and the future SkyTrain
(which opened six years later). Canada's first domed stadium, BC Place Stadium
opened in 1983. The SkyTrain and the BC Place Stadium, as well as Science World
, Canada Place
and the Plaza of Nations
, were constructed for Expo 86
. This significant international event was the last World's Fair
held in North America and was considered a success, receiving 22,111,578 visits.
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
is a city in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. With its location near the mouth of the Fraser River
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...
and on the waterways of the Strait of Georgia
Strait of Georgia
The Strait of Georgia or the Georgia Strait is a strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is approximately long and varies in width from...
, Howe Sound
Howe Sound
Howe Sound is a roughly triangular sound, actually a network of fjords situated immediately northwest of Vancouver.-Geography:Howe Sound's mouth at the Strait of Georgia is situated between West Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast. The sound is triangular shaped, open on its southeast towards the...
, Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet is a relatively shallow-sided coastal fjord in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the low-lying Burrard Peninsula from the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, home to the communities of West...
, and their tributaries, Vancouver has, for thousands of years, been a place of meeting, trade and settlement.
The presence of people in what is now called the Lower Mainland
Lower Mainland
The Lower Mainland is a name commonly applied to the region surrounding and including Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As of 2007, 2,524,113 people live in the region; sixteen of the province's thirty most populous municipalities are located there.While the term Lower Mainland has been...
of British Columbia dates from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago when the glaciers
Cordilleran Ice Sheet
The Cordilleran ice sheet was a major ice sheet that covered, during glacial periods of the Quaternary, a large area of North America. This included the following areas:*Western Montana*The Idaho Panhandle...
of the last ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
began to disappear. The area, known to the First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
as S'ólh Téméxw, shows archeological evidence of a seasonal encampment ("the Glenrose Cannery site") near the mouth of the Fraser River that dates from that time.
The first Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans to explore the area were Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Captain José María Narváez
José María Narváez
José María Narváez was a Spanish naval officer, explorer, and navigator notable for his work in the Pacific Northwest of present-day Canada. In 1791, as commander of the schooner Santa Saturnina, he led the first European exploration of the Strait of Georgia, including a landing on present-day...
in 1791, and British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
naval Captain George Vancouver
George Vancouver
Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...
in 1792. The area was not settled by Europeans until almost a century later, in 1862. The city grew rapidly following completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
(CPR) transcontinental line from Eastern Canada, allowing for continuous rail service in the late 1880s. Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
settlers were increasingly a presence in the area following completion of the CPR. Subsequent waves of immigration were initially of Europeans moving west, and later, with the advent of global air travel, from Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and many other parts of the world.
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those historical peoples. They are now situated within the Canadian Province of British Columbia and the U.S...
are the original inhabitants of what is now known as Vancouver. The city falls within the traditional territory of three Coast Salish
Coast Salish
Coast Salish languages are a subgroup of the Salishan language family. These languages are spoken by First Nations or Native American peoples inhabiting the territory that is now the southwest coast of British Columbia around the Strait of Georgia and Washington state around Puget Sound...
peoples known as, Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Tsliel-waututh
Tsleil-Waututh First Nation
The Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, also known as the Burrard Indian Band or Burrard Band, is a First Nations government in the Canadian Province of British Columbia...
and Xwméthkwyiem
Musqueam Indian Band
The Musqueam Indian Band is a First Nations government in the Canadian province of British Columbia, and is the only Indian band whose reserve community lies within the boundaries of the City of Vancouver....
("Musqueam"—from masqui "an edible grass that grows in the sea"). On the southern shores of Vancouver along the Fraser River
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...
, Xwméthkwyiem
Musqueam Indian Band
The Musqueam Indian Band is a First Nations government in the Canadian province of British Columbia, and is the only Indian band whose reserve community lies within the boundaries of the City of Vancouver....
live with their main community. In the False Creek
False Creek
False Creek is a short inlet in the heart of Vancouver. It separates downtown from the rest of the city. It was named by George Henry Richards during his Hydrographic survey of 1856-63. Science World is located at its eastern end and the Burrard Street Bridge crosses its western end. False Creek is...
and Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet is a relatively shallow-sided coastal fjord in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the low-lying Burrard Peninsula from the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, home to the communities of West...
area, Sḵwxwú7mesh currently live on numerous villages in North Vancouver, with their territory also apart of Howe Sound
Howe Sound
Howe Sound is a roughly triangular sound, actually a network of fjords situated immediately northwest of Vancouver.-Geography:Howe Sound's mouth at the Strait of Georgia is situated between West Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast. The sound is triangular shaped, open on its southeast towards the...
and upwards towards the town of Whistler
Whistler, British Columbia
Whistler is a Canadian resort town in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the province of British Columbia, Canada, approximately north of Vancouver...
. Further down the Burrard Inlet, Tsleil-Waututh have their main community. Xwméthkwyiem and Tsleil-Waututh historically spoke a language dialect of Halkomelem language, where as Sḵwxwú7mesh language was separate but related. Their language was more closely connected to their Shishalh
Shishalh
The Shishalh people, at the time of the first European contact had a population near 26,000. Shishalh women were famous for their beautiful cedar woven baskets, using materials gathered from the roots of the cedar tree, cannery grass and birch bark for the design.The Sechelt First Nations...
neighbors at Sechelt
Sechelt, British Columbia
The District Municipality of Sechelt is on the lower Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. Approximately 50 km northwest of Vancouver, Sechelt is accessible to the mainland of British Columbia via a 40 minute ferry trip between Horseshoe Bay and Langdale, and a 25 minute drive from Langdale...
. Historically the area of where Vancouver is now was all resource gathering places for food or materials.
The Xwméthkwyiem village at the mouth of the Fraser River dates back around 3,000 years. Vancouver's ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
, with its abundant plant and animal life, provides a wealth of food and materials that supported these peoples for over 10,000 years. At the time of first European contact, Sḵwxwú7mesh had villages in the areas around present-day Vancouver in places like Stanley Park
Stanley Park
Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectare urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was opened in 1888 by David Oppenheimer in the name of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada....
, Kitsilano
Kitsilano
Kitsilano is an upmarket neighbourhood on the West Side of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.Known colloquially as "Kits", this neighborhood is home to many yuppies, young families and students as well as yoga studios, organic markets, cafes and Vancouver's Greektown. The primary...
and False Creek
False Creek
False Creek is a short inlet in the heart of Vancouver. It separates downtown from the rest of the city. It was named by George Henry Richards during his Hydrographic survey of 1856-63. Science World is located at its eastern end and the Burrard Street Bridge crosses its western end. False Creek is...
area, as well as Burrard Inlet. Tsleil-Waututh were said to also be settled on Burrard Inlet at the time of George Vancouver's
George Vancouver
Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...
arrival in 1792. The largest villages were at Xwemelch'stn (sometimes rendered Homulchesan), near the mouth of the Capilano River and roughly beneath where the north foot of the present Lions Gate Bridge is today, and at Musqueam. X̱wáýx̱way was a village in Stanley Park
Stanley Park
Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectare urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was opened in 1888 by David Oppenheimer in the name of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada....
(in the Lumberman's Arch area). The foundation of a Catholic mission at the village, called Eslha7an
Eslha7an
Eslha7an is a Sḵwxwú7mesh village community located on the shores of North Vancouver, British Columbia. The name is from the Sḵwxwú7mesh language, translating as head bay, denoted what used to be the farthest out reaching bay enclave in the Burrard Inlet...
, near Mosquito Creek engendered the creation of another large community of Squamish there. Along False Creek, at the south foot of Burrard Bridge, another village called Senakw
Senakw
Snauq is a village site of the Indigenous Squamish peoples, located near what is now known as the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada...
, existed at one time a large community, and during colonization was the residence of Sḵwxwú7mesh historian August Jack Khatsahlano
August Jack Khatsahlano
August Jack was an Indigenous/Aboriginal chief of the Sḵwxwú7mesh. He was born in the village of Xwayxway on the peninsula that is now Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In his later years, he lived in multiple Sḵwxwú7mesh villages including Xwemelch'stn, Sta7mes, and, most...
.
The Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast had achieved a very high level of cultural complexity for a food gathering base. As Bruce Macdonald notes in Vancouver: a visual history: "Their economic system encouraged hard work, the accumulation of wealth and status and the redistribution of wealth..." Winter villages, in what is now known as Vancouver, were composed of large plankhouses made of Western Red Cedar wood. Gatherings called potlatch
Potlatch
A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and United States. This includes Heiltsuk Nation, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures...
es were common in the summer and winter months when the spirit powers were active. These ceremonies were an important part of the social and spiritual life of the people.
European exploration and settlement
José María Narváez
José María Narváez was a Spanish naval officer, explorer, and navigator notable for his work in the Pacific Northwest of present-day Canada. In 1791, as commander of the schooner Santa Saturnina, he led the first European exploration of the Strait of Georgia, including a landing on present-day...
was the first European to explore the Strait of Georgia
Strait of Georgia
The Strait of Georgia or the Georgia Strait is a strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is approximately long and varies in width from...
in 1791. He landed at Point Grey and entered Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet is a relatively shallow-sided coastal fjord in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the low-lying Burrard Peninsula from the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, home to the communities of West...
. In the following year, 1792, the British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
naval Captain George Vancouver
George Vancouver
Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...
(1757–1798) met the Spanish expedition of Dionisio Alcalá Galiano
Dionisio Alcalá Galiano
Dionisio Alcalá Galiano was a Spanish naval officer, cartographer, and explorer. He mapped various coastlines in Europe and the Americas with unprecedented accuracy, using new technology such as chronometers...
and Cayetano Valdés y Flores
Cayetano Valdés y Flores
Cayetano Valdés y Flores Bazán was a commander of the Spanish Navy, explorer, and captain general who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, fighting for both sides at different times due to the changing fortunes of Spain in the conflict...
off Point Grey, and together further explored the Strait of Georgia. Vancouver also explored Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
in the present day Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
area. Vancouver, surveying in small boats with his officer Peter Puget
Peter Puget
Peter Puget was an officer in the Royal Navy, best known for his exploration of Puget Sound.-Mr. Midshipman Puget:Puget's ancestors had fled France for Britain during Louis XIV's persecution of the Huguenots. His father, John, was a successful merchant and banker, but died in 1767, leaving Puget's...
, arrived at the present city of Vancouver before the Spanish. They first landed at what Vancouver later named Point Grey. Puget informally called the place Noon Breakfast Point. Puget's name was officially given to the southwest tip of Point Grey in 1981.
Simon Fraser
Simon Fraser (explorer)
Simon Fraser was a fur trader and an explorer who charted much of what is now the Canadian province of British Columbia. Fraser was employed by the Montreal-based North West Company. By 1805, he had been put in charge of all the company's operations west of the Rocky Mountains...
was the first European to reach the area overland, descending the river which bears his name in 1808. Despite the influx of the Fraser Gold Rush
Fraser Canyon Gold Rush
The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River. This was a few miles upstream from the Thompson's confluence with the Fraser River at present-day Lytton...
in 1858-59, settlement on Burrard Inlet and English Bay was almost unknown prior to the early 1860s due in large part to the lack of interest in the area as the access to the BC interior was via the City of New Westminster and the Fraser River and also due to the power of the Squamish chiefs over the area. Robert Burnaby and Moberly camped and prospected for coal in what is now Coal Haerbour in Vancouver in the summer of 1859. In general they got along fine with the native people. Robert Burnaby wrote "Our [spare] time has been occupied in exploring all the ins and outs of this Inlet , which I prophesy will become one of the greatest naval rendezvous and centres of commerce on this side of the world." . (Letter to his family August 31, 1859 Original is at Burnaby Village Museum.) The first non-native settlement in the city limits of Vancouver was at McCleery's Farm, in the area of what is now the Southlands area, in about 1862.
Early Growth
Lumbering was the early industry along Burrard InletBurrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet is a relatively shallow-sided coastal fjord in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the low-lying Burrard Peninsula from the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, home to the communities of West...
, now the site of Vancouver's seaport. The first sawmill began operating in 1863 at Moodyville, a planned settlement built by American lumber entrepreneur Sewell "Sue" Moody. In 1915, it expanded as a municipality and was renamed "North Vancouver"; the name Moodyville still applies to the Lower Lonsdale district, though more as a marketing term than in common usage (Moodyville proper was a few blocks to the east). The first export of lumber took place in 1865; this lumber was shipped to Australia. In 1867, the first sawmill on the south shore of Burrard Inlet, Stamp's Mill, began producing lumber at what is now the foot of Dunlevy Avenue in Vancouver. A site for the mill was originally planned at Brockton Point
Brockton Point
Brockton Point is located in Vancouver harbour at the east end of Stanley Park. It is named after Francis Brockton. Brockton Point Lighthouse, an automated light, is located at the point....
in what is now Stanley Park
Stanley Park
Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectare urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was opened in 1888 by David Oppenheimer in the name of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada....
, but the Brockton Point site proved infeasible due to nearby currents and shoals which made docking difficult. The largest trees in the world grew along the south shores of False Creek and English Bay and provided (amongst other things) masts for the world's windjammer
Windjammer
A windjammer is the ultimate type of large sailing ship with an iron or for the most part steel hull, built to carry cargo in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century...
fleets and the increasingly large vessels of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. One famous sale of trees cut from the Jericho neighbourhood (west of Kitsilano), was a special order for the Celestial Emperor of China consisting of dozens of immense beams for the construction of The Gate of Heavenly Peace in the Forbidden City
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum...
, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. Millworkers and lumberers were from a wide variety of backgrounds - mostly Scandinavians and Nootkas - who were also brought to the inlet to help with the local whaling industry. At first, Squamish typically did not work in the mills.
A former river pilot, John (Jack) Deighton, set up a small (24' x 12') saloon on the beach about a mile west of the sawmill in 1867 where mill property and its "dry" policies ended. His place was popular and a well-worn trail between the mill and saloon was soon established - this is today's Alexander Street. Deighton's nickname, Gassy Jack, came about because he was known as quite the talker, or "gassy". A number of men began living near the saloon and the "settlement" quickly became known as Gassy's Town, which was quickly shortened to "Gastown
Gastown
Gastown is a national historic site in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the northeast end of Downtown adjacent to the Downtown Eastside. Its historical boundaries were the waterfront , Columbia Street, Hastings Street, and Cambie Street, which were the borders of the 1870 townsite survey, the proper...
". In 1870, the colonial government of British Columbia took notice of the growing settlement and sent a surveyor to lay out an official townsite named Granville, in honour of the British Colonial Secretary
Secretary of State for the Colonies
The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies....
, Lord Granville
Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville
Granville George Leveson Gower, 2nd Earl Granville KG, PC FRS , styled Lord Leveson until 1846, was a British Liberal statesman...
, though it was still popularly known as Gastown (which is the name still current for that part of the city).
The new townsite was situated on a natural harbour, and for this reason it was selected by the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
as their terminus. The transcontinental railway was commissioned by the government of Canada under the leadership of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
and was a condition of British Columbia joining confederation in 1871. The CPR president, William Van Horne, decided that Granville was not such a great name for the new terminus because of the seedy associations with Gastown, and strongly suggested "Vancouver" would be a better name, in part because people in Toronto and Montreal knew where Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
was but had no idea of where Granville was. Under its new name the city was incorporated on April 6, 1886. Three months later, on June 13, a spectacular blaze destroyed most of the city along the swampy shores of Burrard Inlet in twenty-five minutes. The Great Vancouver Fire
Great Vancouver Fire
The Great Vancouver Fire was a conflagration that destroyed most of the newly incorporated city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 13 June 1886. The fire began as a brush fire to clear land between present-day Main and Cambie Streets that was spread out of control by a strong gale...
, which destroyed the city, was eventually considered to be beneficial, as the city was rebuilt with modern water, electricity and streetcar systems.
Things recovered quickly after the fire, although celebratory Dominion Day festivities to launch the opening of the CPR were postponed a year as a result. The first regular transcontinental train from Montreal arrived at a temporary terminus at Port Moody
Port Moody, British Columbia
Port Moody is a small, crescent-shaped city in Metro Vancouver, located at the east end of Burrard Inlet in British Columbia, Canada. Port Moody is the smallest of the Tri-Cities, bordered by Coquitlam on the east and south, and Burnaby on the west. The villages of Belcarra and Anmore, along with...
, in July 1886, and service to Vancouver itself began in May 1887. That year Vancouver's population was 5,000, by 1892 it reached 15,000 and by 1900 it was 100,000.
The Port of Vancouver
Port of Vancouver
The Port of Vancouver was the name of the largest port in Canada, the largest in the Pacific Northwest, and the largest port on the West Coast of North America by metric tons of total cargo, with 76.5 million metric tons...
became internationally significant as a result of its key position in the All-Red Route
All-Red Route
An All-Red Route was, originally, a steamship route used by Royal Mail Steamers during the heyday of the British Empire.Initially the term was used to apply only to steamship routes , particularly to India via the Suez Canal - a route sometimes referred to as the British...
, which spanned the global trade network of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, with the combined steamship and railway of the CPR shortening shipping times from the Orient
Orient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
drastically, with the new city becoming a node for major speculative investment by British and German capital. After the completion of the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
, which although originally hurting Vancouver's shipping traffic by becoming the new preferred route from Asia to Europe, reduced freight rates in the 1920s, making it viable to ship even Europe-bound prairie grain
Canadian Prairies
The Canadian Prairies is a region of Canada, specifically in western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions, natural or political. Notably, the Prairie provinces or simply the Prairies comprise the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as they are largely covered...
west through Vancouver in addition to that already shipped to the Orient.
Economy
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
in 1914, Vancouver’s seaport
Port of Vancouver
The Port of Vancouver was the name of the largest port in Canada, the largest in the Pacific Northwest, and the largest port on the West Coast of North America by metric tons of total cargo, with 76.5 million metric tons...
was able to compete with the major international ports for global trade because it was positioned as an alternative route to Europe. During the 1920s, the provincial government successfully fought to have freight rates that discriminated against goods transported by rail through the mountains eliminated, giving the young lawyer of the case, Gerry McGeer
Gerry McGeer
Gerald Grattan McGeer was a lawyer, populist politician, and monetary reform advocate in the Canadian province of British Columbia...
, a reputation as “the man who flattened the Rockies.” Consequently, prairie wheat came west through Vancouver rather than being shipped out through eastern ports. The federal government established the Vancouver Harbour Commission in 1913 to oversee port development. With its completion in 1923, Ballantyne Pier was the most technologically advanced port in the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. The CPR
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
, lumber exporters, terminal operators, and other companies based on the waterfront banded together after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
to establish the Shipping Federation of British Columbia as an employers’ association
Employers' organization
An employers' organization, employers' association or employers' federation is an association of employers. A trade union, which organizes employees is the opposite of an employers' organization...
to manage industrial relations on the increasingly busy waterfront. The Federation fought vociferously against unionization, defeating a series of strikes and breaking unions until the determined longshoremen established the current ILWU
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is a labor union which primarily represents dock workers on the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii and Alaska, and in British Columbia, Canada. It also represents hotel workers in Hawaii, cannery workers in Alaska, warehouse workers throughout...
local after the Second World War. By the 1930s, commercial traffic through the port had become the largest sector in Vancouver’s economy.
Social Controversies
Although the provincial resource-based economy allowed Vancouver to flourish, it was nonetheless not immune to the vagaries of organized labour. Two general strikes were launched by labour groups during the years following the First World War, including Canada’s first general strike following the death of a trade unionist, Ginger Goodwin. Major recessions and depressions hit the city hard in the late 1890s, 1919, 1923, and 1929, which, aside from creating hardship also may have likely fuelled social tensions. In particular, members of the new and growing Asian population were subjected to discrimination as well as periodic upsurges of more physical objections to their arrival.The most overt expression of this may have been the 1907 riots thought to have been organized by the Asiatic Exclusion League
Asiatic Exclusion League
The Asiatic Exclusion League, often abbreviated AEL, was a racist organization formed in the early twentieth century in the United States and Canada that aimed to prevent immigration of people of East Asian origin.-United States:...
, a group formed under organized labour and inspired by its counterpart in San Francisco.
But discrimination was perhaps less overt than such events suggest. It could be argued that some politicians and publicists may have promoted and disseminated controversial ideologies through popular books such as H. Glynn-Ward’s 1921 The Writing on the Wall and Tom MacInnes
Tom MacInnes
Thomas Robert Edward MacInnes was a Canadian poet and writer whose writings ranged from "vigorous, slangy recollections of the Yukon gold rush" to "a translation of and commentary on Lao-tzu’s philosophy"...
’s 1929 The Oriental Occupation of British Columbia. Newspapermen such as L. D. Taylor
L. D. Taylor
Louis Denison Taylor was elected the 14th mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, he was elected seven times between 1910 and 1934, serving a total of 11 years....
of the Vancouver World
Vancouver Daily World
The Vancouver Daily World was a newspaper once published in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was founded in 1888 by John McLagan, the editor of the paper. In 1901, when John McLagan died, his widow, Sara Anne McLagan, became the first woman publisher of a daily newspaper in Canada...
and General Victor Odlum
Victor Odlum
Victor Wentworth Odlum, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. was a Canadian journalist, soldier, and diplomat. He was a prominent member of the business and political elite of Vancouver, British Columbia from the 1920s until his death in 1971...
of the Star generated a glut of editorials analyzing and warning about the “Oriental Menace,” as did Danger: The Anti-Asiatic Weekly.
This determination of British Columbians to secure B.C.'s borders influenced federal politicians to pass immigration laws such as the head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act. What may be called a "climate of fear and hysteria" in the 1920s, culminated in the 'Janet Smith case', in which a Chinese national was accused of killing his young, white, female co-worker. The evidence for his guilt was perhaps based more on stereotyping than facts.
A growing population of Indians, primarily of the Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
religion, were also required to abide by immigration laws starting in 1908, despite the fact that they were subjects of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. This culminated in the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, in which most of 376 immigrants on the Komagata Maru
Komagata Maru
The Komagata Maru incident involved a Japanese steamship, the Komagata Maru, that sailed from Hong Kong to Shanghai, China; Yokohama, Japan; and then to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1914, carrying 376 passengers from Punjab, India. The 356 of passengers were not allowed to land in...
, most of them from the Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
were not permitted to disembark because they had not complied with immigration laws that required that they come by a continuous passage from their home country.
A group of residents of Indian origin rallied in support of the passengers. After losing a court challenge of the immigration laws, the ship remained in Burrard Inlet while negotiations continued concerning its departure. When negotiations dragged on, the head immigration officer in Vancouver arranged an attempt by the Vancouver police and other officials to board the ship, who were repelled by what the Vancouver Sun reported as “howling masses of Hindus”. Subsequently the federal government sent a naval ship and after concessions made by the federal Minister of Agriculture, an MP from Penticton, the ship departed. After returning to India, twenty of the passengers were shot by police in an incident after they refused to return to the Punjab.
Vice and Politics
Vancouver’s longest serving and most often elected mayor, L. D. TaylorL. D. Taylor
Louis Denison Taylor was elected the 14th mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, he was elected seven times between 1910 and 1934, serving a total of 11 years....
, followed an “open town” policy prior to his final defeat in 1934 to Gerry McGeer. Essentially, the policy was that vice crimes such as prostitution, gambling, and bootlegging would be managed, rather than eliminated, so that police resources could be directed towards major crime.
A consequence of this, in addition to assumptions that Taylor was colluding with the criminal underworld, was the maintenance of red light districts in racialized neighbourhoods, such as Chinatown, Japantown, and Hogan's Alley
Hogan's Alley (Vancouver)
Hogan's Alley was the local, unofficial name for Park Lane, an alley that ran through the southwestern corner of Strathcona in Vancouver, British Columbia during the first six decades of the twentieth century...
, which perpetuated the association of non-whites with immorality and vice crime. Taylor suffered the biggest electoral defeat the city had seen in 1934, largely on this issue. McGeer ran on a law and order platform, resulting in a crackdown on vice crimes, which, after years of Taylor’s “open town,” sought to clean up crime. Unfortunately, policing non-white communities was key to successfully executing the plan. Even the East End (today’s Strathcona
Strathcona (Vancouver)
Strathcona is Vancouver, British Columbia's oldest residential neighbourhood. It is bordered by Chinatown to the west, Clark Drive to the east, Burrard Inlet on the north, and Canadian National Railway and Great Northern Railway classification yards to the south.-History:Over 8,000 people now live...
) had by WWI been largely vacated by English, Scottish, and Irish residents who moved to the wealthier (and whiter) new developments of the West End and Shaughnessy. The East End, the original residential district that grew up around Hasting’s Mill, was left to successive waves of new immigrants, and became associated with poverty and vice, (as the Downtown Eastside
Downtown Eastside
The Downtown Eastside is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is known as "Canada's poorest postal code"....
remains today).
Property/Neighbourhood Development
The first act of City Council at its first meeting in 1886 was to request that the 1000 acres (4 km²) military reserve be handed over for use as a park. Historians have pointed out that this may seem a strange priority for the nascent city as there was an abundance of green space at the time. The West End, however, was designated to be an upscale neighbourhood by speculators with connections to the CPR., They did not want the scattered settlements on this property to grow into another industrial, working class neighbourhood. This act also signaled the beginning of the process that would see the remaining inhabitants of various origins evicted as squatters in the 1920s for the creation of a seemingly pristine park. It has been suggested that perhaps the new Stanley Park would over time be purged of any trace of native occupation. However over time the Parks Board has begun to refill it with Native artifacts.By the interwar years, other neighbourhoods had grown that were working class, but not especially impoverished or racially exclusive, such as Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant (Vancouver)
Mount Pleasant is a neighbourhood in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, stretching from Cambie Street to Clark Drive and from Great Northern Way and 2nd, to 16th and Kingsway...
, the suburb of South Vancouver, and Grandview-Woodland
Grandview-Woodland
Grandview-Woodland, also commonly known as Grandview-Woodlands, is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to the east of the downtown area, stretching south from the shores of Burrard Inlet and encompassing portions of the popular Commercial Drive area...
. Even the West End was becoming less exclusive. CPR developers once again established a new enclave for the city’s white and wealthy elite that would pull them from the West End and be the destination for the “coming smart set.” Point Grey
West Point Grey
West Point Grey is a neighbourhood on the western side of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is bordered by 16th Avenue to the south, Alma Street to the east, English Bay to the north, and Blanca Street to the west...
was incorporated in 1908 for this purpose, and Shaughnessy Heights would be developed exclusively for the “richest and most prominent citizens,” who were required to spend a minimum of $6, 000 on the construction of new homes, which were to conform to specific style requirements. These patterns of economic segregation were apparently secured by 1929 when Point Grey and South Vancouver were amalgamated with Vancouver. Point Grey included the current neighbourhoods of Arbutus Ridge
Arbutus Ridge
Arbutus Ridge is an affluent residential neighbourhood in Vancouver's West Side. It is bordered by 16th Avenue in the north, 41st Avenue in the south, Mackenzie Street in the west, and East Boulevard in the east. The neighbourhood is characterized by larger than average lot sizes, with stately...
, Dunbar-Southlands
Dunbar-Southlands
Dunbar-Southlands is a neighbourhood in the City of Vancouver that stretches north from the Fraser River across much of the peninsula between the mouth of the Fraser and English Bay...
, Kerrisdale
Kerrisdale
Kerrisdale is a neighbourhood in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.Kerrisdale is a neighbourhood featuring a mix of newer houses and older bungalows as well as various low and mid-rise rental and condo apartment buildings in its northern section. The neighbourhood is an ethnic mix of...
and Marpole
Marpole
Marpole is a mostly residential neighbourhood of 22,400 located on the southern edge of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, immediately northeast of Vancouver International Airport. It is approximately bordered by Angus Drive to the west, 57th Avenue to the north, Main Street to the east and...
, Oakridge
Oakridge (Vancouver)
Oakridge is a neighbourhood in the City of Vancouver with a multicultural residential and commercial area. It had a population of 11,795 in 2001, 50 percent of which claimed Chinese as their mother tongue.- Geography :...
, Shaughnessy and South Cambie
South Cambie
South Cambie is a neighbourhood in the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, that is generally considered one of the smallest neighbourhoods in the city, both in size and in population. It is wedged between one of the city's largest parks and the upscale neighbourhood of Shaughnessy, and is...
, and South Vancouver included the current neighbourhoods of Cedar Cottage
Kensington-Cedar Cottage
Kensington-Cedar Cottage is one of the most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in east Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The neighbourhood, which is 7.23 square kilometres in area, is bordered by Fraser St. on the west, Nanaimo St. on the east, 41st Avenue on the south and 16th Avenue and...
, Collingwood
Renfrew-Collingwood
Renfrew–Collingwood is a large neighbourhood that lies on the eastern side of Vancouver, on its boundary with Burnaby and encompassing an area that was one of the earlier developed regions of the city. It is a diverse area that includes a substantial business community in several areas, as well as...
, Killarney
Killarney (Vancouver)
Killarney is a neighbourhood in East Vancouver East-End, British Columbia with a population of over 25,000 and lies in the extreme southeast corner of the city...
, Riley Park-Little Mountain
Riley Park-Little Mountain
Riley Park–Little Mountain is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its boundaries are 41st Avenue in the south, 16th Avenue in the north, Cambie Street in the west and Fraser Street in the east. The main commercial thoroughfare of the neighbourhood is Main Street.-Parks:Little Mountain...
, Sunset
Sunset (Vancouver)
Sunset is one of the most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in south-east Vancouver, British Columbia.-Geography:Sunset lies between E 41st Avenue, Ontario St, Knight St and the Fraser River.Rich in ethnic diversity, it is home to the Punjabi Market....
, and Victoria-Fraserview
Victoria-Fraserview
Victoria-Fraserview is a neighbourhood in the City of Vancouver, set on the south slope of the rise that runs north from the Fraser River and encompassing a large area of residential and commercial development...
. William Harold Malkin
William Harold Malkin
William Harold Malkin was the 21st mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia from 1929 to 1930, after serving as Chairman of the Vancouver Board of Trade in 1902...
was the first mayor of the new city, having defeated incumbent Louis Denison Taylor
Louis Taylor
Louis Taylor is an American professional mixed martial arts fighter. He currently fights for Combat USA.-The Ultimate Fighter:Taylor was at the tryouts for The Ultimate Fighter 13 on November 4, 2010...
, the champion of amalgamation, in the 1928 civic election.
The Depression
BC was perhaps the hardest Canadian province hit by the depression. Although Vancouver managed to stave off bankruptcy, other cities in the Lower Mainland were not so lucky, such as North Vancouver and Burnaby. Vancouver also happened to be the target destination for thousands of transients – unemployed young men – who traveled across Canada looking for work, often by hopping on boxcars. This was the end of the line and had for years been a “Mecca of the Unemployed” because, as some cynically joked, it was the only city in Canada where you could starve to death before freezing to death. “Hobo jungles” sprouted up in the earliest days of the depression, where men built make-shift shanty towns out of whatever they could find (or steal). The largest of these was shut down allegedly for being unsanitary. Vancouver was also the launching pad for the Communist-led unemployed protests that frequented the city throughout the decade, culminating in the relief camp strikeRelief Camp Workers' Union
The Relief Camp Workers' Union was the union into which the inmates of the Canadian government relief camps were organized in the early 1930s. It was affiliated with the Workers' Unity League, the trade union umbrella of the Communist Party of Canada...
and the On-to-Ottawa Trek
On-to-Ottawa Trek
The On-to-Ottawa Trek was a long journey where thousands of people had unemployed men protesting the dismal conditions in federal relief camps scattered in remote areas across Western Canada. The men lived and worked in these camps at a rate of twenty cents per day before walking out on strike in...
in 1935. Communist agitators and their supporters also led strikes in other industries, most notably the 1935 waterfront strike
Battle of Ballantyne Pier
Ballantyne Pier was the site of a docker's strike in Vancouver, BC, in June 1935. It was a federally owned dock built by the National Harbours Board In 1923, and named for the head of the Harbours Board. There were ongoing strikes on the West Coast of North America in the Depression and it led to...
, and organized a large proportion of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion
Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion
The Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion or Mac-Paps were a battalion of Canadians who fought as part of the XV International Brigade on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Except for France, no other country gave a greater proportion of its population as volunteers in Spain than Canada. The...
from Vancouver to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
as Canada’s (unofficial) contribution to the International Brigades
International Brigades
The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....
.
Civic Celebrations
Vancouver was the site of major celebrations in 1936, in part to bolster civic spirit in the midst of the depression, as well as to celebrate Vancouver’s Jubilee. Mayor McGeer provoked considerable controversy by organizing expensive celebrations at a time when the city was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and civic employees were working at a significantly reduced pay rate. Nevertheless, he did find a great deal of support from those that agreed a celebration would ultimately be good for the city’s prosperity. While some large expenditures were roundly criticized – for example, the “ugly” fountain erected in Stanley Park’s Lost Lagoon – others drew significant financial and public support, such as the construction of a new (and the current) city hall on Cambie Street. The next major civic celebration was the 1939 visit of the King to mark the end of the depression and the onset of another world war.World War II
- See the related article Japanese Canadian internmentJapanese Canadian internmentJapanese Canadian internment refers to confinement of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia during World War II. The internment began in December 1941, following the attack by carrier-borne forces of Imperial Japan on American naval and army facilities at Pearl Harbor...
The outbreak of the Second World War resulted in major changes for Vancouver. Local militia units quickly recruited extra members and Vancouver's Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, for example, had a battalion overseas in England within 4 months, and they remained in Europe fighting until the end of the war. The British Columbia Regiment, 15th Field Regiment RCA, 6th Field Engineers, HMCS Discovery and others all contributed to the war effort. Massive new spending by the governments and employment in the military and factories provided a much needed economic boost after the Great Depression of the 1930s. Among the many products and weapons for war service produced in the Vancouver area were minesweepers
Minesweeper (ship)
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...
and corvettes for the Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...
; anti-aircraft guns in Burnaby and the Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
aircraft factory in nearby Richmond produced parts for B-29
B-29 Superfortress
The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...
bomber aircraft. The old defences for Vancouver Harbour were upgraded with coast artillery positions at Point Grey (the Museum of Anthropology is built on top of this); Stanley Park; under the Lion's Gate Bridge and at Point Atkinson. In 1942, a few months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
, Japanese Canadians were "evacuated" from the West Coast. The Americans did the same with their citizens of Japanese ancestry. Canadians of Japanese descent were placed into holding areas such as the barns at Hastings Park and then interned in camps in the interior by the federal government which evoked the War Measures Act
War Measures Act
The War Measures Act was a Canadian statute that allowed the government to assume sweeping emergency powers in the event of "war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended"...
. Due to the fear of bombing and of poison gas attacks, a blackout was imposed on the West Coast in 1942 and school children and others were issued gas masks. Japan did indeed attack the West Coast. A Japanese submarine shelled Estevan Point
Estevan Point
Estevan Point is a lighthouse located on the headland of the same name on the Hesquiat Peninsula on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada....
Lighthouse, Japanese soldiers invaded and held island in Alaska and Japanese balloon bombs (Fire balloon
Fire balloon
A , or Fu-Go, was a weapon launched by Japan during World War II. A hydrogen balloon with a load varying from a incendiary to one antipersonnel bomb and four incendiary devices attached, they were designed as a cheap weapon intended to make use of the jet stream over the Pacific Ocean and wreak...
) were floated across the Pacific Ocean on air currents to wreak their havoc on the forests and citizens of Canada and the USA. Locally these ballon bombs landed as close to Vancouver as Point Roberts, but their existence was kept a secret until very late in the war.
1950 - Present
CBUTCBUT
CBUT-DT is the CBC's television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the flagship CBC Television station for the Pacific Time Zone. The station transmits its main terrestrial signal from a tower atop Mount Seymour....
, the oldest television station in Western Canada, first went on the air in December 1953. The Oak Street Bridge
Oak Street Bridge
The Oak Street Bridge is a four-lane bridge crossing the Fraser River connecting Vancouver to Richmond in British Columbia. The main spans are heavy steel deck plate girders continuous over three spans of 60.9, 91.4 and 60.9 metres. The bridge is a part of Highway 99.- History :The Oak Street...
, connecting Vancouver to Richmond across the Fraser River, opened in 1957. While the Second Narrows Bridge
Second Narrows Bridge
The Second Narrows Bridge is a vertical lift railway bridge that crosses the Burrard Inlet and connects Vancouver with the North Shore. As the name suggests, it is located at the second narrowing of the Burrard Inlet....
and the Lions' Gate Bridge
Lions' Gate Bridge
The Lions Gate Bridge, officially known as the First Narrows Bridge, is a suspension bridge that crosses the first narrows of Burrard Inlet and connects the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, to the North Shore municipalities of the District of North Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, and...
had provided a connection to the North Shore
North Shore (Greater Vancouver)
"Vancouver's North Shore" is a term commonly used to refer to several areas adjacent to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:*the District of West Vancouver;*the City of North Vancouver;*the District of North Vancouver; and...
since 1925 and 1938 respectively, the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing
Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing
The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, also called the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, is the second bridge constructed at the Second Narrows of Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada...
followed in 1960. The last vestiges of British Columbia Electric Railway
British Columbia Electric Railway
The British Columbia Electric Railway was a historic Canadian railway which operated in southwestern British Columbia.Originally the parent company, and later a division, of BC Electric, the BCER operated public transportation in southwestern British Columbia from its establishment in the...
's streetcar and interurban rail system were dismantled in 1958.
Another major bridge across the Fraser River, the Port Mann Bridge
Port Mann Bridge
The Port Mann Bridge is a steel tied arch bridge that spans the Fraser River connecting Coquitlam to Surrey in British Columbia near Vancouver. The bridge consists of three spans with an orthotropic deck carrying five lanes of Trans-Canada Highway traffic, with approach spans of three steel plate...
to Surrey, opened in 1964. Two new universities were established, the British Columbia Institute of Technology
British Columbia Institute of Technology
The British Columbia Institute of Technology , is a public, coeducational, academic institution of higher education in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The polytechnic has five campuses located in the Metro Vancouver region, with the main campus in Burnaby...
in 1960 and the Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
in 1965; both have satellite campuses in Vancouver. Residents of Strathcona
Strathcona (Vancouver)
Strathcona is Vancouver, British Columbia's oldest residential neighbourhood. It is bordered by Chinatown to the west, Clark Drive to the east, Burrard Inlet on the north, and Canadian National Railway and Great Northern Railway classification yards to the south.-History:Over 8,000 people now live...
- most of them Chinese - formed a protest movement led by civic activist Mary Lee Chan
Mary Lee Chan
Mary Lee Chan was a civic activist in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, who is noted for leading the opposition to the bulldozing of the Strathcona neighbourhood in the late 1960s. She helped establish the Strathcona Property Owner and Tenants Association , going door to door to canvass...
and prevented the construction of a freeway which would have resulted in the bulldozing of the neighbourhood. In 1967, the Greater Vancouver Regional District
Greater Vancouver Regional District
Metro Vancouver is the brand name of the board of the inter-municipal administrative body known as the Greater Vancouver Regional District , a regional district in British Columbia, Canada...
was incorporated. Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
, one of the leading international environmental organizations, was founded in Vancouver in 1971.
In 1968 the Canada Council
Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It funds Canadian artists and...
awarded a $3,500 grant to Joachim Foikis of Vancouver "to revive the ancient and time-honoured tradition of town fool." He made a habit of attending all city council meetings in full traditional jester's outfit, adding wit, nursery rhymes and interest to the normally pedestrian meetings and bringing international attention to Vancouver.
The continuing growth of the airport on Sea Island
Sea Island, British Columbia
Sea Island is located in the city of Richmond, British Columbia, directly across the river from Vancouver and fifteen kilometres from Vancouver's downtown core. The island is in the estuary of the Fraser River, giving it a unique ecological environment...
resulted in the construction of another bridge across the Fraser River, the Arthur Laing Bridge
Arthur Laing Bridge
The Arthur Laing Bridge is a four-lane, high-level bridge carrying Grant McConachie Way over the North Arm of the Fraser River between Vancouver and Richmond, British Columbia's Sea Island where the Vancouver International Airport is located. Two parallel independent unpainted steel box girders...
which opened to traffic in 1975.
As Pacific Central Station
Pacific Central Station (Vancouver)
Pacific Central Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is a railway station that acts as the western terminus of Via Rail's cross-country The Canadian to Toronto and the northern terminus of Amtrak’s Cascades to Seattle, Portland, and Eugene, Oregon...
replaced Waterfront Station
Waterfront Station (Vancouver)
Waterfront Station is a major intermodal public transportation facility and the main transit terminus in Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.-Location:...
as the main railway station in 1979, the latter was transformed into the terminal of SeaBus
SeaBus
The SeaBus is a passenger-only ferry service in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It crosses Burrard Inlet to connect the cities of Vancouver and North Vancouver. The SeaBus is owned and operated by the Coast Mountain Bus Company and is an important part of TransLink's integrated public...
and the future SkyTrain
SkyTrain (Vancouver)
SkyTrain is a light rapid transit system in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. SkyTrain has of track and uses fully automated trains on grade-separated tracks, running mostly on elevated guideways, which helps SkyTrain to hold consistently high on-time reliability...
(which opened six years later). Canada's first domed stadium, BC Place Stadium
BC Place Stadium
BC Place is a multi-purpose stadium located at the north side of False Creek, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the home field for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League and the Vancouver Whitecaps FC of Major League Soccer . Originally opened on June 19, 1983 as the...
opened in 1983. The SkyTrain and the BC Place Stadium, as well as Science World
Science World at TELUS World of Science
Science World at Telus World of Science, Vancouver is a science centre run by a not-for-profit organization in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada...
, Canada Place
Canada Place
Canada Place is a building situated on the Burrard Inlet waterfront of Vancouver, British Columbia. It is the home of the Vancouver Convention Centre, the Pan Pacific Hotel, Vancouver's World Trade Centre, and the world's first permanent IMAX 3D theatre . The building's exterior is covered by...
and the Plaza of Nations
Plaza of Nations
The Plaza of Nations was an entertainment complex located on the northeast shore of False Creek in Vancouver, British Columbia.It was part of the British Columbia Pavilion during Expo '86, and along with Science World, Canada Place, and the Roundhouse Community Centre is one of the remaining...
, were constructed for Expo 86
Expo 86
The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo '86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from Friday, May 2 until Monday, October 13, 1986...
. This significant international event was the last World's Fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
held in North America and was considered a success, receiving 22,111,578 visits.
See also
- Timeline of Vancouver historyTimeline of Vancouver history-18th century:*1791 – José María Narváez explores the Strait of Georgia.*1792 – Captain George Vancouver spends only one day on the site which, almost 100 years later, would bear his name...
- History of TorontoHistory of TorontoThe Toronto area was home to a number of First Nations groups who lived on the shore of Lake Ontario. At various times, the Neutral, Seneca, Mohawk and Cayuga nations were living in the vicinity of Toronto. The first permanent European presence was the French trading fort Fort Rouillé, which was...
- History of MontrealHistory of MontrealThe human history of Montreal, located in Quebec, Canada, spans some 8,000 years. At the time of European contact, the area was inhabited by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, a discrete and distinct group of Iroquoian-speaking indigenous people. They spoke Laurentian...
- History of OttawaHistory of OttawaThe History of Ottawa, capital of Canada, was shaped by events such as the construction of the Rideau Canal, the lumber industry, the choice of Ottawa as the location of Canada's capital, as well as American and European influences and interactions...
- History of Quebec CityHistory of Quebec CityQuebec City is one of the oldest European settlements in North America.-French rule:Quebec City was founded on July 3, 1608, by Samuel de Champlain. Champlain named his settlement after a local native word meaning “the river narrows here.” Champlain's settlement was located at the foot of Cap...
- History of WinnipegHistory of Winnipeg-Before incorporation:Winnipeg lies at the confluence of the Assiniboine River and the Red River, known as The Forks, a historic focal point on canoe river routes travelled by Aboriginal peoples for thousands of years. The name Winnipeg is a transcription of a western Cree word meaning "muddy...