Canada
Calgary
Edmonton
Halfax
London
Montreal
North Bay
Niagara Falls
Ottawa
Quebec
Regina
Sherbrooke
Surrey
Toronto
Vancouver
Victoria
Winnipeg
|
|
|
Canada Vancouver
Island
|
Vancouver Island is separated from mainland
British Columbia by the Strait of Georgia and
the Queen Charlotte Strait, and from Washington
State by the Juan De Fuca Strait.This page is
for the island-region of the Canadian province
of British Columbia named Vancouver Island. For
the historical Canadian federal electoral region
by that name, please see Vancouver Island.
Vancouver Island is located off Canada's Pacific
coast and is part of the Canadian province of
British Columbia. At 32,134 square kilometers
(12,407 square miles), it is the largest island
on the western side of the Americas.
The island has been inhabited by humans for some
eight thousand years. By the late 1700s, the
primary First Nations on the island were the
Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) on the west coast, the
Salish on the south and east coasts, and the
Kwakiutl in the centre of the island and the
north.
Europeans began to encroach on the island in
1774, when rumours of Russian fur traders caused
the Spanish to send a ship, the Santiago north
under the command of Juan José Pérez Hernández.
In 1775 a second Spanish expedition, under Juan
Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, was sent.
Neither actually landed.
After these first peeks, Vancouver Island came
to the attention of the wider world after the
third voyage of Captain James Cook, who landed
at Nootka Sound of the Island's western shore on
March 31, 1778 and claimed it for the United
Kingdom. The island's rich fur trading potential
led the British East India Company to set up a
single-building trading post in the native
village of Yuquot on Nootka Island, a small
island in the Sound.
The island was further explored by Spain in 1789
by Esteban José Martínez, who built Fort San
Miguel on one of Vancouver Island's small
offshore islets in the Sound near Yuquot. This
was to be the only Spanish settlement in what
would later be Canada. The Spanish began seizing
British ships and the two nations came close to
war, but the issues were resolved peacefully in
favour of the British with the Nootka Convention
in 1792. Coordinating the handover was Captain
George Vancouver from King's Lynn in England,
who had sailed as a midshipman with Cook, and
from whom the island gained its name.
Cities of Vancouver IslandThe first British
settlement on the island was a Hudson's Bay
Company post, Fort Camosun, founded in 1843.
This became the centre of an important base
during the Fraser Gold Rush, and the burgeoning
town was incorporated as Victoria in 1862.
Victoria became the capital of the colony of
Vancouver Island, then retained that status when
the island was amalgamated with the mainland in
1866. Victoria remains the capital of British
Columbia, although long since surpassed in
population by the city of Vancouver. Note that
Vancouver is not on Vancouver Island (a matter
of some confusion), and Victoria is on Vancouver
Island, not Victoria Island (a much larger
island in the Canadian Arctic). Vancouver Island
is an exception to the Oregon Treaty as the
portion of the island south of the 49th parallel
remains under Canadian control.
A British naval base was established at
Esquimalt, British Columbia in 1865, and
eventually taken over by the Canadian military.
It is the second largest Canadian naval base
after Halifax, Nova Scotia.
As of 2002, Vancouver Island had an estimated
population of 750,000. Slightly less than half
of these - 326,000 as of 2002 - live in
Victoria, British Columbia. Other major cities
on Vancouver Island include Nanaimo, Port
Alberni, Parksville, Courtenay, and Campbell
River.
Vancouver Island's economy outside Victoria is
largely dominated by the forestry industry, with
tourism and fishing also playing a large role.
Many of the logging operations are for paper
pulp, in "2nd growth" tree farms that are
harvested approximately every 30 years. In
recent years the government of British Columbia
has engaged in an advertising program to draw
more tourists to beach resorts such as Tofino.
Logging operations involving old-growth forests
such as those found on Clayoquot Sound are
controversial, and have gained international
attention through the efforts of activists and
environmental organizations.
Between Vancouver Island and the Canadian
mainland there are several AC and DC high
voltage power cables (HVDC Vancouver-Island).
Canada is the second largest country in the world in terms of area,
extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific
Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean with
claims extending to the North Pole. The
northern-most country on the mainland of North
America, Canada has land borders only with the
United States.
Governed as a parliamentary democracy and
constitutional monarchy, Canada is a federation
of ten provinces with three territories.
Initially constituted in 1867, the country's
constitution was patriated in 1982 from the
United Kingdom.
Canada's head of state is its monarch, currently
Queen Elizabeth II, who is represented in Canada
by the Governor General, presently Michaëlle
Jean. The head of government is the Prime
Minister, currently Paul Martin; his minority
government recently lost a vote of
non-confidence in the Canadian House of Commons,
and the Governor General agreed to his request
that Parliament be dissolved and a federal
election be called for January 23, 2006.
Canada's official languages are English and
French. As of December 2005, its official
population estimate is approximately 32.4
million [1].
Overview
The capital city is Ottawa, Ontario, the seat of
Canada's Parliament. The Governor General, the
Prime Minister, the Leader of the Loyal
Opposition, and the Speaker of the House of
Commons have official residences in the National
Capital Region.
Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario.Originally a
union of British colonies with significant
French influence and entitled as a "dominion",
Canada is a founding member of the United
Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, and La
Francophonie. Canada defines itself as a
bilingual and multicultural nation:
English is the official (and majority) language
in most provinces of Canada.
French is the official language of Quebec, an
official language of New Brunswick, and is
spoken in various areas throughout the country.
Several Aboriginal languages have official
status in the Northwest Territories; Inuktitut
is the majority language in Nunavut and has
official status there.
Canada is a technologically advanced and
industrialized nation. It is a net exporter of
energy because of its large fossil fuel
deposits, nuclear energy generation, and
hydroelectric power capacity. Its diversified
economy relies heavily on an abundance of
natural resources and trade, particularly with
the United States, with which it has had a long
and complex relationship.
Canada is almost unimaginably vast. It stretches
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the
latitude of Rome to beyond the Magnetic North
Pole. Its archetypal landscapes are the Rocky
Mountain lakes and peaks, the endless forests
and the prairie wheatfields, but Canada holds
landscapes that defy expectations: rainforest
and desert lie close together in the southwest
corner of the country, while in the east a short
drive can take you from fjords to lush orchards.
What's more, great tracts of Canada are
completely unspoiled - ninety percent of the
country's 28.5 million population lives within
100 miles of the US border.
Like its neighbour to the south, Canada is a
spectrum of cultures, a hotchpotch of immigrant
groups who supplanted the continent's many
native peoples. There's a crucial difference,
though. Whereas citizens of the United States
are encouraged to perceive themselves as
Americans above all else, Canada's concertedly
multicultural approach has done more to
acknowledge the origins of its people, creating
an ethnic mosaic as opposed to America's
"melting-pot". Alongside the French and British
majorities live a host of communities who
maintain the traditions of their homelands -
Chinese, Ukrainians, Portuguese, Indians, Dutch,
Polish, Greek and Spanish, to name just the most
numerous. For the visitor, the mix that results
from the country's exemplary tolerance is an
exhilarating experience, offering such widely
differing environments as Vancouver's huge
Chinatown and the austere religious enclaves of
Manitoba. Canadians themselves, however, are
often troubled by the lack of a clear
self-image, tending to emphasize the ways in
which they are different from the US as a means
of self-description. The question "What is a
Canadian?" has acquired a new immediacy with the
interminable and acrimonious debate over Québec
and its possible secession, but ultimately there
can be no simple characterization of a people
whose country is not so much a single nation as
a committee on a continental scale. Pierre
Berton, one of Canada's finest writers, wisely
ducked the issue; Canadians, he quipped, are
"people who know how to make love in a canoe".
The typical Canadian might be an elusive
concept, but you'll find there's a distinctive
feel to the country. Some towns might seem a
touch too well-regulated and unspontaneous, but
against this there's the overwhelming sense of
Canadian pride in their history and pleasure in
the beauty of their land. Canada embraces its
own clichés with an energy that's irresistible,
promoting everything from the Calgary Stampede
to maple-syrup festivals and lumberjacking
contests with an extraordinary zeal and
openness. As John Buchan, writer and
Governor-General of Canada, said, "You have to
know a man awfully well in Canada to know his
surname."
|
|
Background:
|
A
land of vast distances and rich natural resources,
Canada became a self-governing dominion in 1867
while retaining ties to the British crown.
Economically and technologically the nation has
developed in parallel with the US, its neighbor to
the south across an unfortified border. Its
paramount political problem continues to be the
relationship of the province of Quebec, with its
French-speaking residents and unique culture, to the
remainder of the country. |
|
Population:
|
32,507,874 (July 2004 est.) |
|
Languages:
|
English 59.3% (official), French 23.2% (official),
other 17.5% |
|
Currency:
|
Canadian dollar (CAD)
|
|
Currency code:
|
CAD
|
|
Exchange rates:
|
Canadian dollars per US dollar - 1.4 (2003), 1.57
(2002), 1.55 (2001), 1.49 (2000), 1.49 (1999) |
|
|
|
|
|
