British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, located on the west coast in the Pacific Northwest. BC became the sixth province of Canada in 1871, and today has a population of approximately 4.6 million people. While Vancouver is the largest city, the capital of British Columbia is Victoria, situated on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, which is separated from the B.C mainland by the Strait of Georgia. The First Nations people were the original inhabitants of the land, with archeological evidence tracing their history back to at least 13,800 years – in the Haida Gwaii islands off the coast of Northern BC.
The Causeway in the Inner Harbour in Victoria, with the stately Empress Hotel on the left and the copper-domed BC Legislative Building in the top right corner. In the background are the Olympic Mountains in the US State of Washington across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
