1.
British Columbia
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British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, with a population of more than four million people located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest and the Cascadia bioregion, along with the U. S. states of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, subsequently, on the mainland, the Colony of British Columbia was founded by Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Port Moody is named after him, in 1866, Vancouver Island became part of the colony of British Columbia, and Victoria became the united colonys capital. In 1871, British Columbia became the province of Canada. Its Latin motto is Splendor sine occasu, the capital of British Columbia remains Victoria, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for the Queen who created the original European colonies. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, in October 2013, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,606,371. British Columbia evolved from British possessions that were established in what is now British Columbia by 1871, First Nations, the original inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least 10,000 years in the area. Today there are few treaties and the question of Aboriginal Title, notably, the Tsilhqotin Nation has established Aboriginal title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision. BCs economy is diverse, with service producing industries accounting for the largest portion of the provinces GDP and it is the endpoint of transcontinental railways, and the site of major Pacific ports that enable international trade. Though less than 5% of its vast 944,735 km2 land is arable and its climate encourages outdoor recreation and tourism, though its economic mainstay has long been resource extraction, principally logging, farming, and mining. Vancouver, the provinces largest city and metropolitan area, also serves as the headquarters of many western-based natural resource companies and it also benefits from a strong housing market and a per capita income well above the national average. The Northern Interior region has a climate with very cold winters. The climate of Vancouver is by far the mildest winter climate of the major Canadian cities, the provinces name was chosen by Queen Victoria, when the Colony of British Columbia, i. e. the Mainland, became a British colony in 1858. The current southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, British Columbias land area is 944,735 square kilometres. British Columbias rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres and it is the only province in Canada that borders the Pacific Ocean. British Columbias capital is Victoria, located at the tip of Vancouver Island. Only a narrow strip of the Island, from Campbell River to Victoria, is significantly populated, much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast is covered by thick, tall and sometimes impenetrable temperate rainforest
2.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
3.
Provinces and territories of Canada
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Canadas geography is divided into administrative divisions known as provinces and territories that are responsible for delivery of sub-national governance. Over its history, Canadas international borders have changed several times, the ten provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. Several of the provinces were former British colonies, Quebec was originally a French colony, the three territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon, which govern the rest of the area of the former British North America. Together, the provinces and territories make up the worlds second-largest country by area, the powers flowing from the Constitution Act are divided between the federal government and the provincial governments to exercise exclusively. In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign divisions, the territories are not sovereign, but simply part of the federal realm, and have a commissioner who represents the federal government. Notes, There are three territories in Canada, unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent sovereignty and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government. They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay, the following table lists the territories in order of precedence. Prior to Confederation, Ontario and Quebec were united as the Province of Canada, over the following years, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were added as provinces. The Hudsons Bay Company controlled large swathes of western Canada referred to as Ruperts Land and the North-Western Territory until 1870, subsequently, the area was re-organized into the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. The remaining Arctic islands were transferred by Britain to Canada in 1880,1898 saw the Yukon Territory, later renamed simply as Yukon, carved from the parts of the Northwest Territories surrounding the Klondike gold fields. On September 1,1905, a portion of the Northwest Territories south of the 60th parallel north became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1912, the boundaries of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba were expanded northward, Manitobas to the 60° parallel, Ontarios to Hudson Bay, in 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status. In the middle of the Great Depression in Canada with Newfoundland facing a period of economic crisis. In 2001, it was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1903, the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbias northwestern boundary. This was one of two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. In 1999, Nunavut was created from the portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the portion of The North, while Nunavut is in the east. All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering 3,921,739 km2 in land area and they are often referred to as a single region, The North, for organisational and economic purposes
4.
Arrow Lakes
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The Arrow Lakes in British Columbia, Canada, divided into Upper Arrow Lake and Lower Arrow Lake, are widenings of the Columbia River. The lakes are situated between the Selkirk Mountains to the east and the Monashee Mountains to the west, beachland is fairly rare, and is interspersed with rocky headlands and steep cliffs. Mountain sides are heavily forested, and rise sharply to elevations around 2,600 metres, damming the Lower Arrow Lake resulted in water rising 12 metres above natural levels. As a result of water, the valley lost 2/3 of its arable land. The lake stretches from just north of Castlegar in the south to Revelstoke in the north, another hydroelectric development Whatshan Dam, diverted Whatshan Lake from the Whatshan River directly into the Arrow Lakes, just north of the Needles-Fauquier Ferry. There is also the Arrow Park Ferry, a ferry connecting East Arrow Park. The Arrow Lakes are part of the traditional claims of the Sinixt, Okanagan and Ktunaxa peoples, though at the time of contact. Source, included with note On our passage up the Columbia to the Boat Encampment, the Brigade had a spell and a smoke at this place. I recollect the boats were right under a high & perpendicular wall of rock, mr. Duncan Finlayson asked me in chinook if I wanted the arrows. I told him yes, he took up his shot gun & fired, I recollect there was something said of a large war party of Lake Indians or Upper Columbia River Indians invading the Kutanays or Mountaneirs. They had defeated the Mountaneirs and had captured a quantity of arrows & having no further need of them expended them in those holes to commemorate the action. I am sure the spot is at the Lower Lake, I have made several enquiries of miners, boat-men and others, and strange to say not one of them ever saw. I then began to think that I was mistaken, however questioned Big head Edward the chief of the Lake Indians and he told me there was such a place, but not speaking language I could get no further information. Source, included with note In the days before Columbus was born and it was customary for the west Kootenay Indians to winter along the southern Columbia and to ascend the stream every summer, to the lakes where hunting was good. As the tribes in the Slocan were always on the alert for war, one summer the scouts returned from the Lakes with news that a particularly large force of warriors were going up the river. So the Slocan tribes prepared for war and crossed the mountains in force to Nakusp, on embarking from their canoes at Nakusp they noticed signs of a great storm having passed. On proceeding up the lake for some distance they came upon the force of the enemy, there were none to resist them, for the great storm had apparently come suddenly upon them and there was nothing left but a heaving mass of canoe wreckage and dead bodies. Because of the vast wealth of arrow heads that fell to the bottom of the lake that day, source, BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BCs Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office
5.
Kootenays
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The Kootenay region comprises the southeastern portion of British Columbia. It takes its name from the Kootenay River, which in turn was named for the Ktunaxa First Nation first encountered by explorer David Thompson. The Kootenays are more or less defined by the Kootenay Land District, the strictest definition of the region is the drainage basin of the lower Kootenay River from its re-entry into Canada near Creston, through to its confluence with the Columbia at Castlegar. S. A. This region also includes part of the Flathead River drainage basin. an area to the southwest encompassing the Columbias drainage from the Kootenay confluence south to the U. S, border plus the Salmo River basin. The Columbia drainage between the Rogers Pass and the Eagle Pass, in and around the town of Revelstoke. In actuality, the settlement of the Boundary Country predates development in either of the regions it is now attached to, in some descriptions, the Boundary Country includes Osoyoos and Oliver in the South Okanagan. The Boundary Country is In the event of its inclusion, the Kootenays could be described as the complete Canadian portion of the Columbia Basin minus lands drained by the Okanagan River. Contingent on the boundaries, the Kootenays are commonly split either into East and West, or East, Central. The usual East-West separator is the leg of the Kootenay River with the Duncan River as a northern extension. This places Creston and points east in the East Kootenay and Kaslo, the usual East-Central-West separators are the Purcell Mountains splitting East from Central and the Selkirk Mountains splitting Central from West. It remains unclear why both Kootenay and Kootenays are used interchangeably to describe the area. The plural form is in reference to The Kootenays, both East and West, the singular is in reference to the Kootenay Region, a number of Community Radio stations have developed in the region, most notably CJLY-FM in Nelson and CIDO-FM in Creston. These stations usually operate either as Cooperatives or as a non-profit Societies, Kootenay National Park Kootenay Kootenay Rockies Tourism Board website West Kootenay EcoSociety website
6.
Regional District of Central Kootenay
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The Regional District of Central Kootenay is a regional district in the province of British Columbia, Canada. As of the 2006 census, the population was 55,883, the area is 22,130.72 square kilometres. The administrative centre is located in the city of Nelson, statistics Canada 2006 Community Profile, Central Kootenay RDCK website
Canada
British Columbia
