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Vancouver
Vancouver
(pronounced
/væn
ku
v
r/
) is a coastal city and major seaport located in theLower Mainlandof southwesternBritish Columbia,Canada. It is the largest city in both British Columbia andWestern Canada.Vancouver is bounded by theStrait of Georgia,Burrard Inlet, theFraser River , the city of 
 
Burnaby, and theUniversity Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after CaptainGeorge
 
Vancouver , aBritishexplorer. The name Vancouver itself originates from theDutch"van Coevorden", denoting somebody from (in Dutch: "van")Coevorden, an old city inThe  Netherlands.
[3]
 The population of the city of Vancouver is 578,041
[4]
and the population of Metro Vancouver is
 
2,116,581 (2006 Census).
[5]
Vancouver is also part of the slightly larger Lower Mainland 
 
metropolitan areawhich comprises a total population of 2,547,479,
[5]
making it the largest
 
metropolitan area inWestern Canadaand thethird largestin the country.
[6]
Vancouver is
 
ethnically diverse, with 52% of city residents
[7][8]
and 43% of residents of Metro Vancouver 
[9]
 
 
having afirst languageother thanEnglish.
 
Vancouver was first settled in the 1860s as a result of immigrationcaused by theFraser Canyon
 
Gold Rush, particularly from the United States, although many immigrants did not remain after the rush. The city developed rapidly from a smalllumber milltown into a metropolitan centrefollowing the arrival of thetranscontinental railwayin 1887. ThePort of Vancouver became
 
internationally significant after the completion of thePanama Canal, which reduced freight ratesin the 1920s and made it viable to ship export-bound prairie grainwest through Vancouver.
[10]
It
 
has since become the busiest seaport in Canada, and exports more cargo than any other port in North America.
[11]
 Theeconomy of Vancouver has traditionally relied on British Columbia's resource sectors:
 
forestry,mining,fishingandagriculture. It has diversified over time, however, and Vancouver 
 
today has a largeservice industry, a growingtourismindustry, and it has become the third-
 
largestfilm productioncentre in North America after Los Angelesand New York City, earning it
 
the nicknameHollywood North.
[12][13][14][15][16]
 
 
Vancouver is consistently ranked one of the three most livable cities in the world.
[17][18][19][20]
 
 
According to a 2008 report byMercer Human Resource Consultingfor example, Vancouver has
 
the fourth highestquality of livingin the world, after Zürich,ViennaandGenevaand ranked first
 
in a survey by magazine
The Economist 
.
[21][22]
In 2007, according to Forbes, Vancouver had the
 
6th most overpriced real estate market in the world and second in North Americaafter Los Angeles.
[23][24]
In 2007, Vancouver was ranked Canada's second most expensive city to live after 
 
Torontoand the 89th most expensive globally, and, in 2006, the 56th most expensive city inwhich to live among 143 major cities in the world.
[25]
In 2007, Vancouver was ranked as the 10th
 
cleanest city in the world byForbes.
[26]
In October 2008, the City of Vancouver was named one
 
of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in
Maclean's
 
 
newsmagazine.
[27]
 
 
The2010 Winter Olympicsand2010 Winter Paralympicswill be held in Vancouver and nearby
 
Whistler , a mountain town 125 km north of the city.
[28][29][30]
 
History 
Further information:History of Vancouver and Timeline of Vancouver history  
 
Archaeologicalrecords indicate that the presence of Aboriginal peoplein the Vancouver area
 
dates back 4,500–9,000 years.
[31][32]
The city is located in the traditional territories of 
 
Skwxwú7mesh,Xwméthkwyiem, andTseil-waututhpeoples of theCoast Salishgroup.
[33]
They
 
had villages in parts of present-day Vancouver, such as Stanley Park, False Creek, and alongBurrard Inlet. Some of these still exist in North Vancouver ,West Vancouver , and near Point Grey.The first European to explore the coastline of present-dayPoint Greyand part of Burrard Inlet 
 
wasJosé María Narváezof Spain, in 1791, although Samuel Bawlf contends thatFrancis Drake 
 
may have visited the area in 1579.
[34]
 George Vancouver explored the inner harbour of Burrard
 
Inlet in 1792 and gave various placesBritishnames.
[35]
 
 
The explorer and North West Companytrader Simon Fraser and his crew were the first
 
Europeans known to have set foot on the site of the present-day city. In 1808, they traveled fromthe east, down theFraser River perhaps as far as Point Grey, near theUniversity of British
 
Columbia.
[36]
 
 
TheFraser Gold Rushof 1858 brought 25,000 men, mainly fromCalifornia, to the mouth of the Fraser River and what would become Vancouver.
[37][38][39]
The first European settlement was
 
established in 1862 at McLeery's Farm on the Fraser River, just east of the ancient village of Musqueamin what is nowMarpole. A sawmill established at Moodyville (now theCity of North
 
Vancouver ) in 1863 began the city's long relationship withlumbering. It was quickly followed
 
 by mills owned by Captain Edward Stamp on the south shore of the inlet. Stamp, who had begunlumbering in thePort Alberniarea, first attempted to run a mill atBrockton Point, but difficult currents and reefs forced the relocation of the operation to a point near the foot of Gore Street,known asHastings Mill. This became the nucleus around which Vancouver formed. The mill's
 
central role in the city waned after the arrival of theCanadian Pacific Railway(CPR) in the
 
1880s. It nevertheless remained important to the local economy until it closed in the 1920s.
[40]
 Vancouver is among British Columbia's youngest cities.
[41]
The settlement of Gastowngrew up
 
quickly around the original makeshifttavernestablished by “Gassy”Jack Deightonin 1867 on
 
the edge of the Hastings Mill property.
[41][42]
In 1870, thecolonial governmentsurveyed the
 
settlement and laid out a townsite, renamed “Granville,” in honour of the then-BritishSecretary
 
of State for the Colonies,Lord Granville. This site, with its natural harbour, was eventually selected as the terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway to the disappointment of Port Moody,
 
 New Westminster andVictoria, all of which had vied to be the railhead. The building of the railway was among the promises made for British Columbia joiningConfederationin 1871, but
 
due to thePacific Scandaland arguments over the use of Chinese labour delayed constructionuntil the 1880s.The City of Vancouver was incorporated on 6 April 1886, the same year that the firsttranscontinental train arrived. The name, honouring George Vancouver, was chosen by CPR  presidentWilliam Van Horne, who arrived in Port Moody to establish the CPR terminusrecommended byHenry John Cambie.
[41]
Amassive "slash burn" (clearing fire)broke out of 
 
control on 13 June 1886, razing the entire city. It was quickly rebuilt, and theVancouver FireDepartmentwas established that same year.
[40]
From a settlement of 1,000 people in 1881,
 
Vancouver's population grew to over 20,000 by the turn of the century and 100,000 by 1911.
[44]
 
 
During the 1898Klondike Gold Rush, Vancouver merchants sold a great deal of equipment to prospectors.
[37]
One of those merchants, Charles Woodward, had opened the firstWoodward's store at what is now Georgia and Main Streets in 1892 and, along withSpencer'sand the
 
Hudson's Bay Companydepartment stores, formed the dominant core of the city's retail sector 
 
for decades.
[45]
 The economy of early Vancouver was dominated by large companies such as the CPR, whichhad the capital needed for the rapid development of the new city. Some manufacturing diddevelop, but the resource sector was the backbone of Vancouver's economy, initially withlogging, and later with exports moved through theseaport, where commercial traffic constituted
 
the largest economic sector in Vancouver by the 1930s.
[46]
 
 
The dominance of the economy by big business was accompanied by an often militantlabour movement. The first major sympathystrikewas in 1903 when railway employees struck against the CPR for union recognition. Labour leader Frank Rogers was killed while picketing at thedocks by CPR police during that strike, becoming the British Columbia movement's firstmartyr.
[47]
Canada's first general strike occurred following the death of another labour leader,
 
Ginger Goodwin, in 1918, at theCumberlandcoal mines onVancouver Island.
[48]
A lull in
 
industrial tensions through the later 1920s came to an abrupt end with theGreat Depression.
 
Most of the 1930s strikes were led byCommunist Partyorganizers.
[49]
That strike wave peaked
 
in 1935 when unemployed men flooded the city to protest conditions in the relief camps run bythe military in remote areas throughout the province. After two tense months of daily anddisruptive protesting, therelief camp strikersdecided to take their grievances to the federal
 
government and embarked on theOn-to-Ottawa Trek ,
[50]
but their commandeered train was met by a gatling gun atHatzic, just east of Mission City, and the strikers arrested and interned in
 
work camps for the duration of the Depression.
[51]
 
 
Other social movements, such as thefirst-wave feminist, moral reform, andtemperance
 
movementswere also influential in Vancouver's development.Mary Ellen Smith, a Vancouver 
 
suffragistand prohibitionist, became the first woman elected to a provincial legislaturein Canada
 
in 1918.
[52]
Alcohol prohibition began in theFirst World War and lasted until 1921, when the
 
 provincial government established its control over alcohol sales, which still persists today.
[53]
 Canada's firstdrug lawcame about following an inquiry conducted by the federalMinister of 
 
Labour and futurePrime Minister ,William Lyon Mackenzie King. King was sent to investigate
 
damages claims resulting from a riot when theAsiatic Exclusion Leagueled a rampage through
of 00

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