British Columbia

C

The Gold Rush

In 1858 gold was discovered in the central Fraser River Valley and the Cariboo Mountains. A rush to the area began, with miners flocking north from San Francisco. As a result, the British Colonial Office created a new colony of British Columbia on the mainland. Douglas, who remained governor of Vancouver’s Island, was also named governor of British Columbia. In the early 1860s, the rowdy boomtown of Barkerville was the center of the Cariboo mining population; at its peak it had a population of 25,000. New Westminster, on the north bank of the Fraser River just above its delta, was proclaimed capital of the new colony. Access to the interior was greatly improved when the Royal Engineers built a road through the Fraser River canyon. In order to control the northward movement of the gold miners, the territory of Stikine was added to British Columbia in 1862.

After the easy-to-find alluvial gold was exhausted, the excitement of the search subsided, and the gold-seeking population of the interior drifted out of the colony or migrated to the coast. In 1866 the mainland and island colonies were merged into a single entity, with New Westminster as capital; in 1868, however, the capital was reestablished in the older settlement of Victoria.

D

Confederation

When British Columbia joined the Dominion of Canada in 1871, it was on the condition that the province be connected to central Canada by railroad. Delays in construction angered provincial leaders, who at times threatened secession, but in 1886, the first trains reached the west coast. The location of the western terminal became the city of Vancouver.

E

Economic Development

The province grew slowly until the 1890s, and it was only after the turn of the century that the population began to increase dramatically. The population rose from about 179,000 in 1901 to 525,000 in 1921; by this time Vancouver had become Canada’s third largest metropolitan area. Economic expansion began after World War I (1914-1918) with additional railroad connections, the development of steamship lines, and an influx of foreign capital. The eastern ports of the United States and Canada were opened to the products of British Columbia via the Panama Canal, which connected the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Trade also developed with countries across the Pacific, and the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company brought a fleet of steamships to exploit this, extending a so-called “all red” (British) route to Asia.

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British Columbia’s economy was largely based on the exploitation of natural resources through mining, lumbering, and fisheries, which produced a range of goods for export. This economy was quickly dominated by large-scale enterprises employing many workers, a situation that gave rise to serious class tension, militant trade unions, and socialist movements. The provincial legislature, however, remained dominated by individuals and parties committed to rapid growth.

Class tensions were increased by the presence of Asian immigrants, who first came to British Columbia with the gold rush. Their numbers later swelled with the arrival of laborers hired by the railroads. After 1890 the Chinese were joined by Japanese newcomers who soon became important in the fishing industry. Pressured by the white labor force and by anti-Asian riots, the provincial governments first moved to restrict immigration themselves and then successfully lobbied the federal government to enact restrictions. The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 and other federal legislation eventually cut off immigration from Asia. The significant Asian population that remained in the province continued to be the target of white hostility. During World War II (1939-1945), the federal government interned Japanese Canadians and appropriated their property (more than 40 years later the Canadian government apologized for this action). Provincial voting rights were not extended to Chinese and Japanese citizens until 1949. See also Ethnic Groups in Canada.

Although about 70 percent of British Columbia’s population has lived in the southwestern corner of the province, attempts to develop the interior accelerated after 1947. New roads and rail connections were completed. With irrigation, agriculture expanded in the Okanagan Valley and elsewhere, but until recently—and still to a substantial degree—the province’s fortunes have remained tied to the export markets for minerals, fish, lumber, and energy. The Columbia River Treaty with the United States in 1961, and a 1963 agreement with the federal government, opened up development of the Columbia River and Peace River hydroelectric dam projects. Hydroelectric power is now exported to the state of Washington. Since 1970 new money has come from Japan and Hong Kong to assist the exploitation of natural resources, especially in the interior. Partly as a result of these developments, the population of British Columbia has grown from about 818,000 in 1941 to more than 3.9 million in 2001.

In 2003 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Vancouver would host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The city narrowly beat out Pyeongchang, South Korea, in bidding for the event. The Olympics is expected to bring millions of dollars in tourism to British Columbia.

F

Political Development

Provincial politics has been dominated for long periods by governments favoring business. Provincial politicians aligned themselves with federal political parties early in the 20th century, when Richard McBride assumed office under the Conservative Party. Liberals formed their first government in 1916 under H.C. Brewster and were replaced 12 years later by Simon Tolmie’s Conservatives. Reflecting the interests of workers, the Labour Party managed to elect a few members to the legislature in the 1920s.

During the Great Depression, the hard times of the 1930s, the Liberal Party led by T. Dufferin Pattullo came to power. Elected in 1933, they attempted to introduce social welfare programs like those of the New Deal in the United States. However, provincial resources were insufficient to support these initiatives. Pattullo’s government was replaced in 1941 by a Liberal-Conservative coalition formed to meet the threat of the powerful socialist opposition of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), which took 31 percent of the vote in 1933 and held its support during the hard times that followed.

When this coalition deteriorated, W. A. C. Bennett led a new party supporting free enterprise, the Social Credit Party, to power in 1952. For the next 20 years the party, under his leadership, retained power with its anti-Socialist position and predictions of continued prosperity. In 1972 the New Democratic Party (NDP), successor to the CCF, won office and launched a series of economic and social reforms. This move was reversed in 1975 when a revitalized Social Credit Party, led by William R. Bennett, son of the former premier, was swept back into power. Bennett worked to make the province a haven for free enterprise. He resigned as premier in 1986 and was succeeded by William Vander Zalm. Vander Zalm’s government was constantly troubled by accusations of mismanagement and scandals, and he resigned under a cloud of conflict-of-interest charges (of which he was later acquitted). Rita Johnston succeeded Vander Zalm in April 1991 to become the first female premier in Canadian history, but lost her position after only seven months in an election that returned the NDP, led by Michael Harcourt, to power.

In its first four years, Harcourt’s NDP government began treaty negotiations to resolve the issue of the land rights of indigenous peoples. In 1993 the British Columbia Treaty Commission was created by agreement of the provincial and federal governments and the First Nations Summit, a negotiating body representing a number of indigenous peoples. The agreement supports the inclusion of self-government as a negotiation topic, along with land and resource rights, with the goal of implementing the indigenous peoples’ recognized inherent right of self-government.

To address environmental concerns, the government established the Commission on Resources and the Environment, formulated new guidelines for forest exploitation, and made a commitment to expand British Columbia’s protected areas (including national parks) to 12 percent of the land base by 2000. In 1995, 106 new fully protected parks, encompassing 2.4 million hectares (5.9 million acres), were established by an act of the legislature.

Harcourt resigned in February 1996 amid allegations that the NDP had misused charity funds for political purposes. The NDP appointed Glen Clark, the provincial employment and investment minister, as acting premier. One of Clark’s first acts as premier was to reduce the size of the cabinet and eliminate about 1,500 jobs from the provincial government. The NDP returned to power with a reduced majority following elections in May 1996, and Clark continued as premier.

Clark resigned as premier and party leader in 1999 after authorities revealed that he was under criminal investigation for allegedly helping a group of investors obtain a casino license. Deputy premier Dan Miller acted as interim premier until early 2000, when provincial attorney general Ujjal Dosanjh became premier after being elected the NDP’s new leader. In elections in 2001 the Liberal Party overwhelmingly defeated the NDP, and the party’s provincial leader, Gordon Campbell, became premier. Campbell won reelection in 2005, but the Liberals went from a 77-2 advantage over the NDP in the Legislative Assembly to a margin of 46-33.

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