Vancouver is a Canadian city in the province of British Columbia. It is the largest metropolitan centre in western Canada and third largest in the country.

The city's population is 545,671 and that of the metropolitan area is 2,186,965 (2001 census). Vancouver is one of the cities of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) and of the larger geographic region commonly known as the Lower Mainland of BC. The mayor is Sam Sullivan, NPA. The Port of Vancouver is significant on a world scale, and Vancouver is also the third largest film production centre in North America after Hollywood and New York. Vancouver will be the host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2006 World Junior Hockey Championship, the 2006 United Nations World Urban Forum, and the 2007 Memorial Cup.

History

An Aboriginal settlement called Xwméthkwyiem, ("Musqueam"—from masqui "an edible grass that grows in the sea"), near the mouth of the Fraser River dates back to at least 3,000 years ago. Vancouver's ecosystem, with its abundant plant and animal life, provides a wealth of food and materials that have likely supported people for over 10,000 years. At the time of first European contact, the Musqueam and Squamish peoples had villages in the areas around present-day Vancouver. There is also evidence of a third group, the Tsleil'wauthuth, ancestors of today's Burrard Band in North Vancouver. These were Coast Salish First Nations sharing cultural traits with people in the Fraser Valley and Northern Washington. Hun'qumi'num', the downriver dialect of the Halkomelem language was the common language of the native community at Musqueam on the Fraser River on the south side of today's city. The Squamish and their kin the Tsleil-Waututh or Burrard Band, spoke a different, though related language, Skwxwú7mesh, which is similar to Sechelt and also spoken at the Squamish Nation's other main population centre at the town of Squamish. The most famous member of Vancouver's native community is indubitably the late Chief Dan George of the Burrard Band.

The Native 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 comprised of large plankhouses made of Western Red Cedar wood. Gatherings called potlatches 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 Jose Maria Narvaez was the first European to explore the Strait of Georgia in 1791. In the following year, 1792, the British naval Captain George Vancouver (1757-1798) from King's Lynn in Norfolk joined the Spanish expedition based at Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island's west coast and further explored the Strait of Georgia, as well as the Puget Sound in the present day Seattle area. Simon Fraser was the first European to reach the area overland, descending the river which bears his name in 1808.

Lumbering was the early industry along Burrard Inlet, now the site of Vancouver's seaport. The first sawmill began operating in 1863 at Moodyville (in 1915, expanded as a municipality and renamed "North Vancouver"; the name Moodyville still applies to the Lower Lonsdale district, though more as a marketing term than in common usage). The first export of lumber took place in 1865; this lumber was shipped to Australia. In 1865, the first sawmill on the south shore of Burrard Inlet, Stamp's Mill, began operations in what would later become Vancouver. 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 (i.e. of China) of a few dozen immense beams for the construction of the Great Hall of Heavenly Peace in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

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. 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. In 1870, the colonial government of British Columbia took notice of the growing settlement and sent a surveyor to lay out an official townsite known as Granville. Granville was named for the British Colonial Secretary, the Earl of Granville, though everyone still called it Gassy's Town, later shortened to Gastown.

The new town was situated on one of the best natural harbours in the world 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 wasn't such a great name for the new terminus and strongly suggested "Vancouver" would be a better name in part because people in Toronto 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.

Things recovered quickly after the fire. 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 fire which destroyed the city was eventually considered to be beneficial, as the city was rebuilt with modern water, electricity and streetcar systems.

The mild climate of the city and close proximity to ocean, mountains, rivers and lakes make the area a popular destination for outdoor recreationists.

Lifestyle

The city of Vancouver has developed a reputation as tolerant city that is open to social experimentation and alternative lifestyles as well as being willing to explore alternative drug policies. The city has adopted a Four Pillars Drug Strategy, which combines harm reduction (e.g. needle exchanges, supervised injection sites) with treatment, enforcement, and prevention. The strategy is largely a response to endemic HIV and hepatitis C among injection drug users in the city's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. The area is characterized by entrenched poverty, the commercial sex trade, and an AIDS epidemic that in the 1990s became the worst in the developed world. Some community and professional groups—such as From Grief to Action and Keeping the Door Open—are fostering public dialogue in the city about further alternatives to current drug policies. The former mayor, Larry Campbell, came to office in 2002 in part because of his willingness to champion alternative interventions for drug issues, such as supervised injection sites. Although it is technically illegal, Vancouver police generally do not enforce marijuana possession laws, allowing several "marijuana cafes" to open. This has prompted some to nickname Vancouver the Amsterdam of Canada, or Vansterdam.

Vancouver has a bustling music and art scene, and one of the largest gay communities in North America. The city is relatively free of racial tension; every ethnic group is represented in every social class. One result is a relatively high rate of intermarriage; trans-ethnic couples are unremarkable in any neighbourhood.

About half the population is of Christian background, one of the lowest rates in the country. The vast majority of them being technically Protestant, although Vancouver, like the rest of British Columbia, has a very low rate of church attendance compared to the rest of the continent and the vast majority of the population does not practice religion seriously. Around 5% are Sikh, 3.7% Buddhist, 2.6% Muslim, and 1.4% Hindu. Within the growing Muslim population there is a large contingent of Ismaili Muslims who have settled in the area following their expulsion from Uganda.

Geography and climate

Vancouver is situated at 49°16′N 123°7′W, in the Pacific Time Zone (UTC-8), and the Pacific Maritime Ecozone. It is adjacent to the Strait of Georgia, a body of water that is shielded from the Pacific Ocean by Vancouver Island. The city itself forms part of the Burrard Peninsula, lying between Burrard Inlet to the north and the Fraser River to the south.

Some unfamiliar with the region find it disconcerting that Vancouver does not lie on Vancouver Island. However, both the city and the island (and their U.S. counterpart) are named after Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver of Great Britain, who explored the region in 1792.

Vancouver has an area of 114.67km² (44 sq. miles), including both flat and hilly ground. Vancouver has a wet climate and is surrounded by water; while early records show that there may have been as many as fifty creeks and streams in the area, currently only four are left.

Outdoor Activities

The mild climate of the city and close proximity to ocean, mountains, rivers and lakes make the area a popular destination for outdoor recreationists.

Vancouver has over 2,700 acres (11 km²) of parks, with Stanley Park being the largest. The municipality also has several large beaches, many flowing into each other, with the largest groups extending from the coast of Stanley Park before reaching False Creek, and on the other side of English bay, starting in the Kitsilano neighborhood all the way to the University Endowment Grounds, which are seperate from Vancouver. The generous coastline provides for every type of water sport, and the city is a popular destination for boating enthusiasts.

The nearby North Shore mountains are home to three ski hills - Cypress Bowl, Grouse Mountain, and Mount Seymour - each within 20 to 30 minutes of downtown Vancouver. Mountain bikers have created world-renowned trails across the North Shore. Three rivers - Capilano River, Lynn Creek, Seymour River - each within 20 minutes of downtown provide opportunities to whitewater enthusiasts during periods of rain and spring melt.

Vancouver also attracts cannabis-oriented tourists because of the reputation of its indigenous drug culture, high-strength hydroponically-grown marijuana, and non-restrictive policing of drug use. Some coffee shops in Vancouver, notably near Gastown in the Downtown Eastside, and on Commercial Drive, allow marijuana and hashish to be smoked inside their walls.

Nightlife in Vancouver had, for years, been seen as restricted in comparison to other "world class" cities, with early closing times for bars and night clubs, and a reluctance by authorities to allow for further development. However, Vancouver has, in the past few years, experimented with later closing hours and relaxed regulations, and an effort has been made to develop the Downtown core even further as an entertainment district, especially on and around Granville St.