Vancouver (Canada)

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Chief Pacific seaport of Canada, on the mainland of British Columbia; population (2001 est) 582,000, metropolitan area

(2001 est)2,078,800. A major commercial, distribution, and tourist centre, it is the terminus of transcontinental rail and road routes, and a 1,144-km/715-mi pipeline from the Alberta oilfields. It is Canada's third-largest metropolitan area. Industries include oil-refining, engineering, shipbuilding, fishing and fish-canning, brewing, timber-milling, and the manufacture of aircraft, pulp and paper, and textiles.

History
Native Canadian Coast Salish peoples originally occupied about ten villages around Burrard Inlet. The first European to visit the area was the Spanish explorer José Maria Narvaez in 1791. He was followed by others, including Captain James Cook in 1778 and in 1792 by Captain George Vancouver, who had served with Cook and claimed the region for Britain. In 1862 a brickworks was set up on the south shore of the inlet; it was soon superseded by a sawmill. The settlement of Gastown was named after ‘Gassy’ Jack Leighton, the proprietor of Leighton's House, a bar opened in 1867 to serve the area's lumber yards. The publican was nicknamed for his talkative nature. The site became known as Granville in 1870, and in 1884 the growing lumber town and port was selected as the terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway (the first train arrived from Montréal in 1887). The town was renamed on incorporation in 1886.

The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 led to an expansion of the port, and in 2002 there were 25 terminals.

Vancouver has a large ethnic Chinese population (140,000 in 1989), and is also home to thousands of immigrants from Hong Kong.

White stands for the snowy peaks of the Andes. Red symbolizes the blood shed by the freedom fighters. Blue represents the clear Andean skies. Effective date: c. 18 October 1817. >>