Why "Nobody" Lives In The VAST MAJORITY Of British Columbia
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- Опубликовано: 22 янв 2024
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British Columbia is huge! In fact, outside of Alaska, it is larger than any other U.S. state. But despite its physical size, the majority of the Canadian province's population exists within the far southwest corner, mostly within the Vancouver metro area and the province's capital Victoria. This is despite the fact that the province is home to a surprisingly varied geography, including the sunnier, dryer region around Kelowna. So why is the vast majority of British Columbia so empty?
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I live in the interior of BC and the lack of people is the best part.
Yea, I was born in the Okanagan 60+ years ago, it was nice but so many from the coast moved here and then all the albertans bought up all the shoreline on both lakes, so now it sucks.
@@WaningGibbous Judging by your comment you think OK Lake and Kal is "the interior". Looks like all the self absorbed entitled douchebags found each other in Kelowna.
Saaame! And I live north of Fort St. John in the middle of beautiful nowhere.
yeah the best part is the lack of jobs & high taxes 😂
I love living in the Bush of the Interior B.C outside the Monashee Mountains.
As someone who lives in “the rest” of British Columbia (in the southern interior) I completely understand why more people *don’t* live here. There is very little infrastructure- I don’t have a family doctor in my small town so if I need medical attention, the closest walk-in clinic is over an hour away and most of the time they don’t have capacity to see me. Everything, including the only grocery store in town, closes by 6-7pm and there’s no such thing as delivery, you can’t even order a pizza if you’re at home sick or your car is broken down and you can’t get to the grocery store. The closest proper city is Kelowna and it’s an over 4 hour drive away. The climate is also extremely aggressive and if you’re not capable of shovelling/removing your snow properly and constantly, you will literally get buried alive. It’s not for the faint of heart.
Chances are, you wouldn't have a family doctor if you lived in Vancouver either....
Lol! It isn't anywhere near that bad
@@joerenner8334 it is indeed that bad for me, in my situation. Perhaps yours is different, and good for you.
The climate is extremely aggressive? I live in Kelowna, and it's still among the warmest parts of Canada except for the Coast/Island.
Lol! There is infrastructure all the way to the Yukon buddy.
As someone who grew up in northern interior BC I had to check this out
One big reason the interior is "empty" is hwy cost. Building a road is so expensive compared to other Canadian provinces. The mountains, fjords, etc. is A LOT harder to build a road on then flat land. There are basically two routes connecting south and north BC (ignoring logging roads that are mostly impassible for a good chunk of the year), each route kinda hugging the eastern and western sides with very few roads reaching in. For a landmass as big as BC, those are very few means of traversing.
I think of it as a blessing. Banff National Park, as you mentioned, has been incredibly damaged by tourists over the years. The hillsides are bare from people compacting the ground by going off trail. You can see the difference with more frequent avalanches and mudslides causing fewer big plants to grow, the hillsides look so bare compared to what it was even a decade ago. (PLEASE FOLLOW PARK RULES!)
A good portion Great Bear Rainforest was going to be clear-cut, with other extensive mining and hydro plans in the works. If it wasn't for 90s activists, one of which was almost killed over this, that beautiful and rare ecosystem would have been lost.
I miss it. I lived 35 min drive from the nearest small town. There was so little light pollution you could see the milky way at night while listening to the river sounds. Yeah, the roads washed out sometimes, small town drama is so real and stupid, and the lack of work meant I couldn't really stay. But I miss it
A good video!
In the 80s when I lived in 100 mile house we were hoping for tooth pick factory. That is funny, but at the time there was a very high unemployment problem through the province.
Jobs is the big thing and most business would rather be on the lower mainland for exports and imports cost, Thank god to many people move to the interior because they say the love but the 1st thing they do is want to change it
💯
@@corryg6403Yep, look at the twinning of the highway to the north. Destroyed much of the character of the old route.
And lets keep it that way
I was born and raised on Vancouver Island. I moved to Alberta to go to university and during the time I was away housing market exploded to the point I’ve been literally unable to move home. Sad times 😢
Same here but moved for work
I'm sorry your stuck in Alberta.
@@ML-ov7wo thanks for your condolences lol, it devastated me. Now I’m making the most of it and have bought a house so there’s a win.
Alberta is a great province. Van island is full of Karens.
@@jordanfinehair Iol call the island Karenville. I left over a year and a half ago and haven't looked back!
If you haven't actually seen it, it's very hard to grasp just how rugged most of BC is. If you go just twenty miles north of downtown Vancouver, you will find yourself in a wilderness of forests, mountains, lakes, rivers and glaciers so complex that is dangerous to anyone unfamiliar with it. Grizzly bears, wolves and cougars are everywhere --- in fact it's not unusual for cougars to poke around suburban neighbourhoods in search of a tasty pet dog. The last time I was in Nanaimo, I was riding a city bus which was delayed when it had to stop to let a herd of deer cross the street. There are several cases of airplanes disappearing and never being found not very far from Vancouver or Kamloops, or of wreckage stumbled upon by hunters decades after they crashed. When you get into the Territories, in Canada's far north, it becomes insanely wild. In one case, a large military transport plane carrying 44 crew and passengers disappeared in the north of the Yukon territory. Despite a massive search effort, no trace of it has ever been found.
This is why being from BC is great though. Normal places seem boring.
@@gencreeper6476 Yup. I lived there for awhile and was never bored. Stoned, sometimes, but not bored. Hope to go back.
20 miles? Ha go 3 miles! North shore mountains are the most rugged and dangerous on the planet
@@cherobinson6371 Yeah, but at only three miles, Sasquatch will probably pick you up and carry you to the nearest Timmy's.
Not only that, if you take Highway 1 through the fraser canyon or the Coquihalla highway, it's amazing how rugged it is. There are so many turns and steep cliffs, but it's undeniably beautiful.
A largely overlooked reason for BC's population distribution is Crown land. Around 94% of British Columbia is owned by the crown (the government) and it is almost impossible for individual persons to purchase it. This is why such a massive and empty province has such expensive land.
Crown land essentially acts as a industrial playground for logging and mineral extraction interests. This pattern is the similar across Canada except for maybe the East coast provinces.
even if you do lease land from the king of england (this is what we call "owning property" in canada.) you still do not have any rights to the land and the government can stop you from building virtually anything on your property if they want too.
@@paul.hogan720 You have pulled back the curtain just a little, and still, nobody notices, too busy watching NASA cgi and dreaming about their AI sssssex-robot wives that are just around the corner...
Pierre #Trudeau took away The Dominion Lands Act of 1872 outlined the provisions for granting homesteads to settlers: free homesteads of 160 acres were offered to farmers who cleared ten acres and built a residence within three years of a registered intent to settle a specific land claim.
It's even worse on the Island where your barred from accessing crown land by countless gates on logging roads. They don't want you to see the damage the logging has done to the ancient rainforests.
Atrum owns the biggest Antracite deposits in B.C., so how does a Foreign company own natural resources? Who'd they pay off?
I understand this is a geography video, but the real reason most of BC has no settlement is that 95% of BC is Crown Land and/or Unceeded Territory, meaning that it is not available for private ownership.
If development companies were interested in the land, the crown would have no issue selling it.
@@Malohdeka lot of it they can't legally and they would be immediately taken to court by the indigenous peoples who have rights to that land. You need to do your research and stop being so ignorant. Tons of corporations have tried to buy a LOT of BC.
@@Malohdek that's incorrect. The indigenous people still have rights to most of that land, since there was never a treaty signed between the British and the indigenous tribes.
@lipschitzlyapunov Agreed, most of the land was taken.
you said a mouthful
I would love to see a heat map of the population moving out into the mountains to go camping on the weekends. The traffic in and out of the Fraser Valley on the weekends is pretty crazy.
That's because we only have 1 major highway that takes us out to Hope where you can take 3 highways to the interior. Hwy 1, Hwy 5, and Hwy 3. If you want to beat all the traffic on highway 1, you should take highway 7 to Hope. I don't believe many people know that Hwy 7 goes to hope, I've taken it several times and there's never traffic once you pass Mission and Agassiz.
@@ludicrousmodel3173 hwy 7 is so beautiful. You’re right next to the train track too. Mission to aggasiz is a fun drive too.
@@ludicrousmodel3173 local insider tip !
The Fraser Valley is just the suburbs of Metro Vancouver, we all commute to work and then drive back that’s why it’s insane.
Shhh! Don't tell people about that. We don't need the rat racers on that hwy.@@ludicrousmodel3173
I think Prince George deserves a shoutout. It’s the most Northern “big city” in the province, with a population of 90,000 people and growing fast. It’s also recognized as the hub of the North, as it caters to a lot of rural communities up there
Ever been to Dunster or McBride? I spent a few months there once long ago.
If they didn't mentions Kelowna, Kamloops or the Thompson Okanagan with 630,000 + people - they aren't going to mention Prince George lol
Yeah, omission of Prince George is a big ol fail. Clearly not fully researched, but that’s YT for ya. Gotta give him credit for the fact he’s right - the majority of the pop’n is in the lower mainland and the South Island.
@@bigamigo4863Watch the video again. The Okanagan, Kelowna, and Kamloops are mentioned.
Dude, it's canada. Everywhere is growing fast. Trudeau is brings in millions and millions of immigrants
Small correction about the desert, the desert you refer to extends up to the Thompson region which includes Kamloops and Ashcroft. The entire region I know as the Thomson-Okanagan is a rain shadow desert courtesy of the Coast Range. The rain that misses us (I live in the region) lands on the western slopes of the Monashee and Selkirk ranges giving them skiing conditions as good or better then Whistler imo.
Shhhh don’t tell them it gets better than whistler😂😂
I Heli-skied the Monashees in 1980 and there was 3m fresh snow on a 20m base with an average temp on top of -40C. Whistler hasn't had conditions like this for 15,000 years or so.
shhh dont tell them about the hidden ski gems littered all over bc
@@fourteendays544 summers gets up to 30-40c, winters sit around 0c in the lower mainland, inland can get down to -40 on occasion. sits between -5 to -15 in the interior usually. jobs? not many, our main resources are lumber and oil, hated by the world atm. housing? not enough and too much red tape, with not enough servicing everywhere. overall not the best at the moment. But it's incredible living here, and the general community in the smaller towns is great.
@@fourteendays544 weather tends to be dry, temps typically run mid 30’s in the summer and low negative teens in the winter. That’s Celsius, not Fahrenheit. Work is hard to speak to but we have most trades and white collar jobs around if you look hard enough. Housing is expensive though, renting a two bedroom place can run you two grand a month easy.
I live in that bump below Vancouver, called Point Roberts. All my life I have travelled across BC, I can guarantee you, its 'charm' is the LACK of poeple and built up areas. It is true wilderness.
I M FROM TSAWWASSEN JUMPED OVER THE LITTLE WHITE BORDER MABY TIMES
Great to see this! I'm one of the very few living in sparsely populated Kootenays. My immediate community is unincorporated, with less than 200 f/t residents. There have been days when I feel I need to live even more remotely 😂
Thank you for this video. ❤
Some of the most beautiful scenery up there. I've been lucky enough to climb some of the remote mountains accessed by helicopter. Better than the north cascades, without the crowds.
where're you at, Kimberley?
Yeah Kootenays!
Na man we got too many people in the kootneys
@billbill7894 Yeah, already overpopulated here.
I live in Alberta and frequently go to BC for road trips and outdoor recreation. One thing that didn't make it into the video that would have been interesting would be how highways are frequently blocked by landslides and avalanches due to the mountainous terrain. It can leave travelers stranded, delayed, or detouring for several hours. Many driving routes are connected by ferries which cross massive lakes, and the ferry schedule can vary depending on traffic volumes - especially when a nearby highway is closed and the ferry is the only option. I once had to wait all night for a ferry to cross West Kootenay Lake. The avalanche work that happens in Rogers Pass, as well as the railway expansion through the Kicking Horse pass are also very fascinating topics!
You forgot to mention the tourists from Alberta who come to our province and speed ,drive recklessly and litter 😢
Most of them aren’t Albertan.
Just because they moved to Alberta and now live there, doesn’t make them Albertan. Assholes exist everywhere, btw.
West Kootenay Lake? There’s no “West” Kootenay Lake that I’ve ever heard of. Only Kootenay Lake. I presume you’re talking about the free ferry from Kootenay Bay to Balfour and back.
@@JesusFriedChristthey mean west, which includes kootenay lake where the Balfour ferry runs.
@@bravewolf1572 there are many, Three cross the Arrow Lakes alone.
80% of Alberta population lives in Edmonton and Calgary area.
More than 90% of population of Ontatio lives with 200km of the US border.
64% of Saskatchewan population lives in Saskatoon and Regina metropolitan area
65% of Manitoba population lives in Winnipeg metropolitan area
More than 50%of Qubec population lives in Montreal metropolitan region.
More than 60% of British Colombia people live in Vancouver and Victoria metropolitan area.
More than 80% of Canada population lives near the border with the United States
Love Canada ❤️🍁🇨🇦
Ontario
65% of Manitoba population lives in Winnipeg metropolitan area.
Uh, thanks for the statistics, as if anyone really cares.
So close but still so far apart
Ergo, Canada's territories are the few territories where more of the population lives in one (maybe two) metro cities than anywhere else.
fun fact, Kelowna and the Okanagan were relatively isolated up until the 80's when a highway, the coquihalla (as seen in TV show Highway Thu Hell) was build for expo 86'. This lead to economic development of the okanagan through ease of transportation. Kelowna is now the fastest growing part of BC, in part due to this highway.
I live in Kelowna, hotter than hades in the summer. I hate rain, but here I sometimes beg for it.
Yes but I miss Kelowna before the growth. So many over the years have ruined it. It was once an absolute paradise, so many good memories. Now I live on the Sunshine Coast but I miss my hometowns, Kelowna and Nelson
You only have to drive the Hope Princeton BC highway, the number three highway, to scare the living crap out of most people from going north before the Coquihalla highway. :)
You know what you can do with Wacky Bennet and Kelowna. Dumbest thing ever was to refuse the construction of a "circle highway" around Kelowna. Chamber of Commerce mentality.
One thing that should be noted is that unlike the US, Canada does not have a complex interstate system. For the most part, British Columbia only has 3 major highways connecting the metro Vancouver area and lower mainland to the interior. These highways are Highway 1 (Trans-Canada highway), Highway 5 (Coquihalla highway, and Highway 3. However, Highway 1 is the only highway to leave the lower mainland before you can connect to highway 3 and 5. Due to British Columbia's mountainous terrain, there's always a risk of landslides or floods blocking off the highways.
Alberta really reminds me of the US roads. There is also only 1 hwy North of Cache Creek in BC, hwy 97 and it is often closed in winter.
When i was in my teens and early 20s i lived all over BC.
Fort St John, Bella. Coola, Williams Lake, kamloops, Greenwood, Victoria.
Bc is incredibly diverse in geography, and all of it is stunningly beautiful.
You must be my lost friend from Northern BC 🤔
Best thing of growing up in BC is the potential to live on the island, vancouver, Okanagan and Kootneys all in your 20’s. With a quick drive to California passing thru Oregon there is a ton to do and see.
@@koejoe the entire PNW is rad like that. Can go from desert to rainforest to skiing in under 6 hours 😆
Whenever someone asks me where I live I always say "The middle-of-nowhere British Columbia".
I live in the West Kootenays. Beautiful place to live.
True dat lol.
Me too...love the boonies, valley girl here, if you know where that is....?
Got ya beat. Peace River South. The Yukon is closer.
@Tater_the_tot.First_of_HisName yup, I lived in McLennan for a bit I the mid 80's. Worked at the bakery. Used to eat at Donnely corner all the time. Great breakfasts.
Peace River country is beautiful.
I traveled that highway from Edmonton to Hay River a lot.
Creston? Love it here!@@tracycameron2580
born and raised on vancouver island! the main reason i never left is plain and simple - the relatively mild temperatures on the island make is so i dont have to deal with months of heavy snow and i never have to know what -40C feels like LOL
As a Washington State resident I feel very much at home in British Columbia, something I don't in Florida. One resident of British Columbia suggested to me that maybe we should of divided the continent east to west and not north to south. Maybe.
I'm the same, I feel more connected with Washington State than I do with people from eastern Canada, when I was younger I use to go down there all the time not needing a passport, now it just doesn't feel right having to show one whenever I go down.
Hello from Vancouver Island, born and raised, I'm about 2 hours north of Victoria. Thank you for reminding me how beautiful it is here, I tend to forget how good we have it on these wet cool winter days.
Speaking of the 49th parallel, there is a sign on the way to Tofino marking when you cross it, it always surprises me how much of the island hangs down below.
Hello probably Parksviller. Courtenay here. Very though, - it truly is a good reminder on just how gorgeous and unique it here, even on these grey and bleak days.
For the Americans… Tofino, the surf capital of Canada.
I've considered moving to BC so many times. It looks like the most beautiful place on Earth. I'm in San Francisco, which is not a bad place to be if you love food.
Hello fellow Islander I am in Nanaimo we are in the best area in Canada
Hey born in Parksville I live in Victoria now but moving back in Summer. Love the area.
What he does not mention is that most of Washington state’s population is in the same area of Vancouver and Victoria,Vancouver’s southern suburbs are only 80 miles away from Seattles northern suburbs , , that puts around 8 million people in this corridor of the two cities
The population corridor also further extends to Portland, all the more reason we need a high speed rail line connecting these three metro hubs.
@@Yvaelle yes exactly , basically, The interstate 5 , is the corridor and that ends at the border which is were Vancouver is ,most of the west coast population is along the Interstate 5 stretch all the way from Vancouver BC to San Diego
Sorry bro, Vancouver is still a minimum of 2 hours drive from
Van, so not close at all.
@@robfromvan Surrey Vancouver’s southern suburb is right on the border , Everette is a city part of metro Seattle they are only 80 miles apart , Seattle city proper is 120 miles away , the main reason it takes 2 hours is interstate 5 driving from Everette to Down town Seattle is so congested at times slow and the border crossing
Point Roberts is a Geographic anomaly I that it's part of Washington State yet only accessible via the Pacific Ocean or boat. In order to enter Washington State residents have to travel through greater Vancouver and cross the border in the South Surrey area
I live in the geographic centre of British Columbia just West of Prince George, I operate and own the family ranch which is over 100 years old and has well over 5000 acres, and our ranch is not the largest in the area with many larger operations close by. I appreciate the fact I can go for a walk without running into inconsiderate people and garbage. I find it really disturbing when I go to more Urban places and see the garbage and disrespectful people. I thank my older generations that gave me the opportunity to be a stewart of this land.
Have you heard much about the Blackwater Rd to the new mine out Vanderhoof way? Since you are sort of a "local" out that way. I agree with you about having land to enjoy and not the "bustle" of urban areas. I live in the Cariboo, out of town, with my most frequent visitors being "my" deer family.
Holy crap you have that much land in Vanderhoof?
Is it weird living there after the serial killer thing, or did it not really affect you?
@@P0L3D4NC1NG1ZFUN there are serial killers all over? Not sure why that would force someone to move?! It’s a normal thing is PG and happens many times and year, id feel way safer in vanderhoof!
Hello from Fort St. James. I moved here from Vancouver 12 years ago and I don't regret it for a second. I own a beautiful small treed acreage here when I couldn't even nearly afford a tiny ugly apartment in noisy overcrowded traffic-choked Vancouver.
I grew up in the Okanagan, right on the lake.. The most blessed spot in the world to be raised in the 50's and 60's. I always wished, even young, that all kids could be so blessed.
If you drive from Prince George to Vancouver in 8 hrs you will see...
1. The ranched and forests of the cariboo region from from around PG to 100 mile house.
2. From here you will now go thru a semi arid desert in places like cache creek.
3. After cache creek you will now be driving in a canyon landscape. Driving thru narrow mountains roads with the mighty fraser below.
4. After this you hit the massive river plains of hope bc.
5. After hope into the fraser valley your landscape now changes to farms and very fertile green lands.
6. You finally hit the metro vancouver area with its big city skyscrapers.
This is just one drive thru BC. But please tell me where else in the world you will see 6 different landscapes in a 8 hour drive that are unique from each other?
I havent even touchrd on the okangan with its orchards and desert like weather. Or the sea to sky area with the ski hills and genuine mountian living. What about the kootenays where mountains are right next to your home? Next we have north western BC which is warm yet super rainy with its unique forest and ocean landscape. We have the far north on the other side of the rockies but still in BC which is a prairer landscape. Then you still have all of Vancouver Island which has the beauty of Victoria with its Mediterranean climate to the waves and surf of Tofino to the old growth forests of the mid island. Then you have the small islans such as salt spring.
Man we have so much in this beautiful province...
Chile and Argentina
Yes. When I lived in Australia I often described this drive. The same distance and number of hours in Australia would be mostly unvaried. They were shocked
In a lot of places, that 8 hour drive would get you through several countries.
Best drive in the world in my opinion
Great video! The “Lower Mainland” is the common description for metro Vancouver and that would include Chilliwack and Abbotsford. Prince George should have been mentioned - it’s the biggest city and regional hub referred to as “BC’s Northern Capital”. Population in the PG area is about 90,000 and it has an international airport.
Kelowna area too.
Yah, PG sure makes a stink for it's size.
😂@@darb4091
Have you smelled Kamloops?
Us guys in the Peace River area laugh at PG - our northern capital is Grand Prairie in Alberta. At least that's where the closest Costco is 😁
I drive around B.C every winter to snowboard. It's actually not all that empty... tons of small towns. Some of which are super nice. Lake Country, for example. Wouldn't surprise me to find out many movie stars and celebrities own mansions there on the water. Nelson is a nice town. Kinda seems like a love child of Sausalito (CA/Bay Area) and Truckee, CA (Lake Tahoe). Golden, Revelstoke, etc. Tons of amazing places to ski along the Powder Highway. Then you've got Terrace and Stewart up along the coast.
I agree. Traveled and lived throughout BC met people in all corners and in between areas. The lack of “metro” communities does not mean people to not live and thrive in “empty” areas.
My ex-wife's uncle owned a lakeside property in Lake Country and I recall him saying that a place a few houses down was owned by Jarome Iginla, who was captain of the Calgary Flames at the time. I have no doubt there's other places there owed by celebs and such.
Canada is empty compared to the US. Yes, lots of small towns along the highways, but the further you get from the main drags the less there actually is. You can go an hour without seeing much once you get into the Central Interior and Peace regions. For the US, I've seen long stretches of desert with nothing or next-to-nothing but once you get anywhere near a town or city there's a lot of activity.
statistically it is empty@@cherylmosher6026
Are there any good guides to skiing/snowboarding in BC that you would recommend?
On the topic of naval access to Vancouver: One thing to add in is that prioir to the 1950s, the northern route out of Vancouver had to contend with Ripple Rock, which was a large undersea rock formation near Campbell River that wrecked many ships travelling near it. And I'm pretty sure the Royal Navy was well aware of this too.
I say "was" because we mined into it, filled it with explosives, and detonated the largest peacetime explosion at the time to get rid of it and open the northern sea route.
I didn't know this! I saw the lighthouse they put up across from Campbell River and that it used to be bad. But I didn't know they blasted! Thanks for sharing.
@PrivateSnow666 it's a fun bit of local history. They also broadcast the explosion on CBC
ruclips.net/video/mYzaTZ232ts/видео.htmlsi=Zozig8-aNXEdFDN8
I remember watching it on TV at the time.
I lived in Campbell River at the time. We had to listen to the countdown of the explosion on the radio and be outside away from the windows when it blew . It was such a large TNT explosion that the result of its power was unknown. Our windows stayed intact!
As an Edmontonian, I love the drive to Vancouver through the mountains and the isolated yet accessible terrain... If people are looking for cool places to live in small towns I suggest the eastern half of BC near the border... Cheaper real estate prices, great skiing and snowboarding and Alberta is a short drive away...
Cheaper meaning 500K for an apartment instead of a shack
@@nicolaszamudio8699 500k can only get you a bathroom in Vancouver (door is not included, duh!)
how cold is it up there
It is very tempting
It's the lack of good jobs. Again and again.
'constraints' are seriously understated in the video.
Vancouver is squeezed into a river delta 20 miles wide and 60 miles long, bounded by mountains, ocean and USA. The rest of Canada's west coast is a wall of mountains against the sea. It's just luck for Canada the border is 49 and not 50 degrees North Lat. because then the Fraser River delta and Vancouver would be in USA, and Canada would have only one Pacific port in Prince Rupert near Alaska.
I live in the interior desert part of BC. It's more semi-arid with summer temps reaching +40C and winter temps -30C. We even have little cactuses that grow wild outside and drought tolerant plants like sagebrush, russian olive trees and pine trees everywhere. With climate change, the weather patterns have shifted and we are starting to experience droughts in the summer with rising temperatures. I live not too far from Lytton which burned to the ground in 2021 when temps reached +52C. I also sometimes see the northern lights.
yeah it's not the winter wonderland everyone makes it out to be. Where I am summer lasted over 5 months last year. that sucked, especially when winter only last 5 weeks.
I need to get out of this region, especially when it reached 47C during summer a while ago. too hot, too dangerous.
We live in Northern BC now and in spite of the lack of city conveniences you couldn't pay is to live in Vancouver ever again. Also it was the last place in BC we could afford to buy a house.
Good for you for moving where you can succeed. Many people don't get that
Finally, I’ve always wanted to know why like 95% of British Colombia is so empty. I know it probably has a lot to do with it being too cold and mountainous, but it’s just so huge, way bigger than Texas and most other US states, that it’s kind of baffling how no major cities other than Vancouver have popped up there. This pretty much goes for the rest of Canada. It’s stupidly empty.
The very reasons are as you stated. It's entirely mountainous, excluding the Fraser River Delta. Much like Egypt, which is vastly empty except for a lush river delta, BC has an extremely fertile river delta right on the coast which allows ships to take produce immediately from the nearby ports. The only other places people live in BC are mining towns and small fertile valleys further inland
It’s not too cold. If BC was too cold then the entirety of Canada is too cold and nobody should live there and yet 40,000,000 people do.
Apart from the central interior plain, it is entirely mountainous. The town I was born in has 8,000 people in it, and it’s one of the larger towns in the region. There’s not enough room in the river valley to build huge expanses of cities like Calgary. Geography dictates demography.
Empty of people, but not animals.
The largest city inland is Kelowna , which lies in a pretty barren region with fruit the only industry of note traditionally. Even now tourism , retirees (climate ) and orchards is pretty much what it’s known for. You compare it with Spokane , which was on an important river , in a more fertile region, and early in had important mining and agricultural industries and later on, manufacturing , with great regional importance starting early on. It developed earlier and is double the population of Kelowna . So basically Vancouver is the only major city on the B.C. mainland. The rest of B.C. is just too mountainous and just has small mining or logging towns that were not able to expand due to their geography or diverse industry, unlike Spokane for instance.
If things were different Kelowna could have developed into a major city early on.
Even its growth is partly due to its favourable setting and climate in the Canadian context, if the US and Canada were one it would be even more of a blip. Washington state has even more productive wine and fruit regions for example.
Kelowna does have an amazing lake going for it though which is a big plus.
Kelowna could have done with a rich industrialist setting up a university early on, would have made a great university town , but Canada didn’t have a lot of those .
A few pronunciation fixes:
Kermode Bear - ker-MOE-dee
Chilcotin Plateau - chill-COE-tin
Esquimalt; - ess-KWHY-malt
And the reason the UK wanted to keep Victoria/Esquimalt was that it is vital to hold the choke point over the straights of Juan de Fuca; and allow access to the inside passage (which isn't reasonably accessible from the north with very tricky navigation). Victoria is a somewhat older city than Vancouver, as Vancouver didn't really jump in importance until the railway arrived.
Lastly, with the mountains blocking there are really only three routes to the entire west coast, Hwy 16 to Prince Rupert/Kitimat; Hwys 1 & 7 to Vancouver along the Fraser, and the (not paved the whole way) Hwy 20 to Bella Coola.
Also the Fraser river is pronounced like Frazer, not Frasier.
Yeah. Seriously. Check the pronunciations before holding out with ‘expert’ info.
vangcouver is just how it's said@@Lawmanxxx
@@SolarAdrift That is how it's said by lazy, incorrect people, much like Ontarians who call Toronto "Tranna."
It is sad that visitors to these places often pronounce them better than long time residents can manage.
Can also add in the original town's name-> 'Granville'.. so is it Gran-VUL or Gran-VIL ?!
have to ask the British Foreign Secretary of the time 1870 ;p
it's all because the Cdn Pac Railway needed to seek waters deeper than port moody so they pointed 14 miles west- located new spot, and then renamed the town's name to 'Vancouver' in 1886 to act as the terminus.
As a lifelong born &raised as well, Van-couver is more proper, whereas 'Vangcouver' is just more conversational jumbling the syllables together (it's the same debate as how most of us westcoasters would pronounce Toronto - you either side with the region or the origin ,sometimes it's not the same!)
Captain George was born in the UK, had a dutch father.
Was noted that "van Coevorden" denotes someone from the city of Coevorden, Netherlands. would that make the word vancouver an interpretation?
I was born in Vancouver raised on the Sunshine coast of BC. I’ve travelled most of the province. I feel fortunate to be aboriginal as well. I must say. Our community was developed by the forestry and fishing industries. I’m currently on Vancouver island and have quite the attachment to the ocean. My next big money vacation . Going to do the Canadian rail from Vancouver to Ontario. 😅 that’s my dream.
That's my dream too! Imagine the sights to be seen from the rail 😍😍
@@jono8230 raised in Gibsons . Left 8 years ago . Real estate was beyond adorable when I left. I sold there bought waterfront acreage on island before it got really bad. Now I’m selling because I’m Done with Ferry hostage . All my life ferries . No more. Parents need me now. My kids are still in Gibsons .off to Okanogan
Cool video. I'm from Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley and I can assure you it's growing at a substantial rate.
My father's from Kelowna and growing up we would visit every year. I returned to visit on vacation a couple years ago after over a decade away and I'm certain it had at least tripled in size in my absence. I thought I knew the city pretty well and couldn't recognise most of it.
The coastline of BC is incredibly rugged, shaped by both glaciers and the coastal mountain range. Big mountains rising straight out of the sea combined with fjords carved by repeated glacial maximums make road building not economically viable. Add in a wet temperate climate creating dense rainforests and you have a place highly resistant to human development. The rest of the province follows the Canadian norm of hugging the southern border with small communities centered around resource extraction industries and outdoor recreation.
Lewis and Clark had maps that guided them to the Pacific via the Columbia River. David Thompson wrote those maps. He was British and worked for the Hudson's Bay company. Spain, Great Britain and Russia all had claims on different parts of BC before the US even existed. The main reason its considered "empty" is because it is covered in mountains. Also Esquimalt was mispronounced.
🤓
He got Fraser pronunciation wrong , too.
and Chilcotin
yeah David Thompson was an amazing cartographer.
I am of the opinion that Washington state should have been a part of Canada because it was explored by DAVID THOMSON many years before lewis and clark.
I was a forestry technician out of Houston, B.C. in the '80's. The interior forest is a green ocean, but threatened by global warming and pathogens. I regularly ran into three or four bears a day as I walked through the bush. Why do most people live in the lower mainland? I don't know, it's crowded and expensive compared to the interior. Prince George is a large city, for a Canadian bushman, almost dead centre in the province. It has a university and hospital with all the amenities with a large lumber mill. The climate can be a tad cool in the winter (-50 at times) and I once refused to go and snowshoe through the bush when the temperature was -53 C since a busted snowshoe would have been a death sentence even with my advanced bush skills. Also, if I was dropped off by helicopter in the morning, I literally saw nobody until the chopper came back as the sun went down. Yeah it's empty, but for a Canadian, that's perfect. If you can see your neighbour's smoke on the horizon, it's time to move because the area is getting crowded. Most folks live on the southern boundary but there is always somebody up north, no matter where you go. And let's face it, there are a lot of places on the earth that are best left alone, for the entire planets sake. So, is the BC interior totally empty? No, it just depends on how you look at it.
Agreeds. North B.C is awesome, its to bad that beetle ran through all the forests though...
Threatened by global warming.
Plants love Co2. 2:06
Lots of MAGA Karenzillas out here in Koots. People are as miserable and Alcholics in rural BC
Well given Canada's current housing crisis, British Columbia and Ontario been the most affected by lack of housing for Canadians it's definitely a reasonable concern. The issue for BC it's following American urban planning wish needs extensive land to accommodate suburbia. BC should of followed other ways of create cities like they do in Europe.
@@punkinhootClear up the dead forests and build homes
as a northern Bc'er, it really sucks having most of the voting population in the Vancouver area, it means our vote in the north means nothing. We the north should be part of Alberta or the Yukon, we are not like the coast, and have different values politically. It really creates division, even though most people from the coast are oblivious of anything north of Prince George.
My favourite part about BC is all this land and yet we still have to fork over 2 million for a detached house.
😢. $2,000,000 is truly the price of residential property in the lower drainland. Any housing in Canadian cities with a population of > 75,000 includes multi services and a wide range of employment opportunities.
It is VERY possible to buy a lovely 4 bedroom home with at least an acre of land for less than $500,000 all over Canada - just not in the Emerald City or the Golden Horseshoe. I'm so tired of hearing the whining about the high cost of housing in the only Canadian city where you can go golfing in the morning then take public transit to a world class ski resort for an afternoon or evening torch lit ski experience. Supply and demand. It is this whining that is responsible for the moisture and foggy weather in Vancouver.
I live in a village of around 500 people in South Central BC with two international airports and five hospitals within a 90 minutes drive. Most people work away, or in the service industry in a nearby town. Family housing ranges from $200,000 to $2,000,000. Taxes are tied to services.
We have pretty much no services in our village that we don't fund raise for ourselves, and my annual property taxes for my 900 sq ft house are $350.00 and unmetered water for around the same.
It is not possible to have the most and pay the least, by city standards. However, by my personal standards, I truly have it better than most. I can walk out my door and within three blocks be on crown land. There are ten lakes within ten miles. I know most of the names of the 120 kids attending our five classroom K - 8 elementary school. Many stop by my place for gardening advice, seeds or food and flowers from my garden.
It's true that I can't order pizza for delivery, or hire an uber. So what.
I know the local guy that makes awesome custom made pizza, and any of my neighbors would gladly give me a lift home from the pub that's a block away, as are most things here!
Life is good in rural Canada, for the most part. Politicians and police get worse as you get further from the Big Smoke. We are more likely to handle things here ourselves, which serves me fine.
@@PlanetEarthLifeSkills Piss off. The median house price in Canada is almost 800 grand.
That's a major problem regardless of spineless apologists like you.
@@PlanetEarthLifeSkills The median house price in Canada is almost 800 grand. Thats unacceptable regardless of where you live, dummy.
Really loved this video on British Columbia!
The way the author delves into the province's history, from First Nations to European colonization, is not just informative but also engaging.
The visuals showcasing BC's diverse geography, from coastlines to mountains, are truly captivating.
The connection drawn between historical events like the Oregon Treaty and its impact on present-day population distribution is fascinating.
It's a great mix of storytelling and educational content that keeps you hooked.
Big thumbs up to the author for making complex details so accessible. Excited for more videos like these!
The Alaskan panhandle is also an interesting compromise between US, Canada and Britain (which sided with the US.)
chatGPT?
No, I'm a human@@GOAT_GOATERSON
SEND the immigration that are Coming to US there!!!! LOTS OF Room for Them
1. Minor correction. The Salish Sea surrounds Vancouver Island, not the Strait of Georgia. The Strait of Georgia among other bodies of water is located within the Salish Sea.
Minor correction to your minor correction. The Salish sea "includes the Strait of Georgia, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, and an intricate network of connecting channels and adjoining waterways." It does NOT include any (other) part of the Pacific ocean, so it doesn't surround Vancouver island, it only exists on one side of it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salish_Sea
Hi Geoff. I truly enjoyed this video, my first experience on your channel. I am now a subscriber and shall indulge my students to view your content.
Love your channel. British Columbia is beautiful! I lived in the west end of Vancouver’s downtown region for almost for a time back in the 90s. Wonderful place to be. So glad I had the opportunity. Was able to walk almost everywhere with good public transportation when needed. Didn’t need a car! Amazing nature, plant life, night life, restaurants, museums, library, concert/theater, and friendly people. A ton of festivals and parades during the summer. Also has a very large China town. Best pork buns! Even better than what I had in San Francisco. I think it’s the second largest in North America? So scenic with the north shore mountains, Stanley Park, Robison street. Ugh too much to mention! The only 2 downsides in my opinion was the RAIN and the panhandlers. You learn quickly, don’t leave the house without an umbrella or water resistant clothes and good water proof shoes. 😊☔️
Yea, that was before covid, vastly different today.
@@dennisexplorer487 not really, I was there recently and been plenty of times prior to covid, it ain't much different
I lived in the Vancouver/lower mainland in the 90's to 2019. Got away during Covid. The place has turned into an unrecognizable shithole compared to what it once was. No sense of community. Foreign influence has changed the entire value system of the population. People have turned cold and unfriendly. Its dirty. The mindset there is socialist bordering on communist. Never mind that normal working class can't afford to live there. And who the hell would want to spend that kind of money to live in that place?
@@dennisexplorer487
It's no different from before covid.
I too lived in Vancouver's west end in the 90's, and absolutely loved it! :)
I find it interesting that you put Chilliwack and Abbotsford in the 'interior' of B.C. when in reality it's all the same area as the Lower Mainland. When I drive from Alberta to the west coast I consider everything Hope and west to be all a part of the metro Vancouver region.
I live in Chilliwack. This guy didn’t research very well. It’s in the Fraser Valley, about 100 kms east of Vancouver. Very much NOT interior.
While there's some errors in this video, that ain't one of them. He didn't include all of the Lower Mainland in the 60 per cent figure, just the Metro Vancouver Regional District portion.
@@bryan89wr let's get technical here.....Langley and Pitt Meadows should have been included in the term of 'interior' along with the area east of the Green Timbers Reverve in Surrey around Guildford.
@@carlfalt174 Sorry, I'm confused. Why are you saying Langley and Pitt Meadows SHOULD be included the Interior? Timestamp for reference?
@@bryan89wr both of them are as far inland as Abbotsford as there within a couple miles of each other.
Thanks for your very informative lecture on BC. The vast Peace River area, the Site C dam, oil and gas industry and huge agricultural potential of the Peace River region also deserve mention.
Living outside of Greater Vancouver and Greater Victoria means your life is like being sent into remote exile in terms of jobs, resources, services, and opportunities. 😂
It's a great place to live if you have no ambition or drive and just want to exist.
@@ML-ov7wo What? Everyone needs a hunger, burning desire, obsession for ever more wealth, power, fame, influence, thrills, a game objective, to feel motivated. Living without a driving force to spur on your every thought and action is like lving in a retirement home and staring at the walls every day. 😬
@@exposingproxystalkingorgan4164 you don't speak for everyone, buddy. What makes sense to you, and what fulfills you does not necessarily apply to another person
A lot British Columbians are moving out of Vancouver and Victoria. The housing crisis is worsened recently.
Great video! I love your channel and was very excited to see you make a video about my home province (I am from Victoria). You nailed the historical fact about the naval base at Esquimalt being a key reason for the island's exemption from the 49th parallel directive. Just one note, however - Esquimalt is pronounced "is-KWAI-malt". That said, for a person not from the area, it's understandable to get that one not quite right. And more importantly, you nailed the history - well done and thank you!
I pointed this out too but video creators shouldn't get a pass for not knowing. The internet provides free pronunciations of every word in existence. Another geography channel I follow makes it a point to look up pronunciations of every unique word and it doesn't take any extra effort.
I also had a chuckle when I heard how he pronounced the name. It wasn’t as bad as my buddy from P.G. thought the name was pronounced. 😂
I loved this Geoff! A couple of pronunciation corrections I would make on local spots here but I will continue to watch your channel. Where are you situated in the States?
Chilliwack is a city that’s nice. Around 80000 I believe. The problem is they have a ton of homeless hooked on fentanyl
My parents and I drove from NY state,
up to Toronto, and west to Vancouver,
BC, in September, 1986, and then down
to Seattle, and back to the east through
western US. About 7,000 miles, over a
three week trip.
My wife and I went to Alaska in July
2002, and passed VancouverIsland,
on the inner passage to Vancouver.
😊
Family Expo 86 trip maybe?
@@2dogsgaming Yes, Expo 86.
Thanks for coming. @@raymondmartin6737
Quite the trip nice
I remember you! I saw your plates when you drove by and I waved!!
Do you remember?
We were the ones in the Hyundai 😊
Mosquitos. That's the real reason. Spent 3 weeks there, and it's beautiful, but the mosquitos were BRUTAL!
Come to the lower mainland, we do mosquitoe management and I've never lived anywhere with less mosquitoes.
Something you may not have known, Chilliwack is actually older than Vancouver. Especially if you refer to the history of the Chilliwack steam boat landing, it's clear that this was one of the first settled areas in the province. Vancouver was basically just a logging camp until they decided to run the rail line there.
Fort Langley is older and being the capital of the province before it moved to the island. :)
@@dennis2376 New Westminster was the capital of BC before the 1866 merger with Vancouver Island. Fort Langley was the provisional colonial capital from 1846 to 1859.
Thank you very much, very informative and educational
I lived in Anacortes, Washington for a while and lived in Washington State most of my life. I was told (for whatever that's worth) by someone that in exchange for the portions of Vancouver Island below the 49th parallel that the US received the San Juan Islands. And side note, look the Pig Wars on San Juan Island, Washington. The tension about borders was real!
As a vancouverite I can tell yo I’m the pig story is real haha
If not for John Jacob Astor (Astoria) doing an end run around the horn and planting the American flag in Oregon, Canada's British boundary would have been the mighty Columbia: all of Washington State would be in BC. !!!
The Oregon Treaty’s wording ended up being ambiguous when it came to the San Juan Islands, hence the border dispute. San Juan Island was subject to joint military occupation for years until the USA and the British Empire had Germany arbitrate the dispute (the Kaiser awarded the islands to the USA).
Rather have had Alaska - dang British messed that one up.@@user-zp7jp1vk2i
The Pig War was real. Crazy Sir James Douglas, Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island, wanted to invade and re-conquer all the territory to San Francisco stolen from the British by Yankee traders and squatters while the United States was preoccupied by the Civil War. There was never any exchange of territories: ownership of the San Juan Islands were actually decided by Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany. There were actually three distinct British colonies here: the Colony of Vancouver Island (1849), causing the Hudson Bay Company to relocate its capital from Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River (modern day Vancouver, WA) to Victoria, BC. The Colony of British Columbia (1858-1866) had its capital in New Westminster on the Fraser River. In 1866, both colonies were united by the British Parliament to create one colony with its capital in New Westminster. In 1871, the Province of British Columbia was created when British Columbia joined Canada in return for a transcontinental railroad and payment of its debts. Victoria, BC, was selected as the capital of this new province so that Americans could not try and annex the territory, as well as its strategic naval importance controlling the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The only reason Point Roberts, WA, exists is because a few shrewd British businessmen from Victoria, BC, argued that it was below the 49th Parallel, and created it as a legal fiction in order to evade paying taxes: a tradition which continues to today.
Love the video on British Columbia! You answered questions that I had on why there wasn't much cities in the vast province. Learning the geography explained it all.
I lived in Fort St. John BC for a bit. There is actually a sliver of North Eastern BC that is prairies and it stays on the same time zone all year long meaning for part of the year it's on Pacific time and the other part is on Mountain time.
"Nobody"
Thanks.
I was born and have spent most of my life in the BC interior from the Kootenays, to the north to central BC and now in the south.
We don't think of BC as being mostly empty, we see the Lower Mainland as being over crowded.
Hey Jeff! Loved this video! You did a good job explaining why all of Vancouver Island is in Canada, but I wish you would have touched on why so much of Alaska extends southward along British Columbia. Perhaps in a future video. Thanks for your work.
Gorgeous video, thank you
Most of his videos I find Geoff repeating the same things for 5 minutes while actually covering 3 minutes of "new" info throughout a 12 minute video
For the longest time, there's been next to no work outside of the lower mainland and South Vancouver Island. That's because British Columbia was a resource focused economy until about the 1980's, and some might argue that it still is, but around the 70's to the 90's, the majority of pulp mills, mines, and fisheries closed down due to the economic and environmental situation at the time. Because of that, smaller towns emptied of younger populations who all moved to the cities. From the 90's right through to the 2010's, BC's economy stagnated with not much more than 1-2% growth per year, and only recently have we started seeing a resource boom that's bringing populations back to the interior. In the future, I can see Kamloops, Kelowna, and Prince George growing to be large cities, as the economic incentive outside of a boom and bust resource economy is now there. I can see them developing as logistics, manufacturing, and technology hubs that afford workers an easier cost of living than Greater Vancouver.
Deglobalization will make those small natural resource extraction based cities valued again as we rebuild the North American economic system, if you believe Peter Zeihan.
I think with the "gen Z" age weve largely come full circle with the "moving to the cities" thing because the lower mainland is out of the question for us to be able to afford to pack up and move to places like Kelowna and Kamloops are too and most of us dont really want to leave to a different province Alberta no longer pays enough and no longer has a low enough living cost to be worth it and everywhere else is too far away.
@@gencreeper6476as a lower mainland kid I completely agree, but would say Kelowna isn’t off the table yet, and is actually quite a nice place to live outside the lml
Yeah, as soon as the government started exporting raw logs, a huge amount of good paying jobs got flushed away with them.😢
Bc towns need better urban planning policy specially outside of metro Vancouver.
One of the reasons not recognized by an American looking at it is the concept of "Crown Land". Crown land ownership remains with the province. Looking at the areas of most of Oregon and Washington State's interiors, you have small landholders, forestry and mining companies own huge tracts of lands. One on the BC border but on the Washington side stripped all the resources clean, did none of the required reforestation and left with hundreds of million dollars, but lived up to none of their responsibilities.
Excellent posting. I live just north of Victoria on Vancouver Island and know how incredibly lucky I am. You couldn’t pay me to live anywhere else.❤️
The Fraser River stays 8 miles above the 49th Parallel at its closest approach, and Vancouver is about 20 miles North. A close shave when the international border was settled.
Yup, though I imagine the 49th Parallel came into effect AFTER Vancouver was founded and was not an accident. Even so, if the British had held onto the Oregon territory, having access to the whole Fraser Valley would have been a huge benefit for Canada.
@@ryanprosper88
The most logical boundary would have been along the Columbia river.
@@ryanprosper88 The 49th Parallel was reckoned as a border because it is an excellent approximation of the boundary between the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay watersheds, and thus a division between French Louisiana that the USA purchased from France in 1808 and the Hudson Bay Company lands, which reached from the namesake bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is coincidental that Vancouver City and the Fraser river lie just north of the line. Although it is probable that if Vancouver City had been a little south of it, the border might have been bent down the way it was for Vancouver Island.
Get rid of Quebec first! Then rest of Canada and US should unite! To become a superpower!
@@TommyHilfnigga007 no thank you!...you guys are crazy!!!
BC is one of the most beautiful and diverse areas on the planet. You have the rockies, some of the best rugged coastline in the world, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, an amazing big island, wine country, pure wilderness, etc etc.
and it is the only location in North America with both Tundra and Desert. My favorite province also.
and it is one of the few locations in the world with an interior rain forest as opposed to its better-known coastal rain forest.
But has the worst drivers in Canada!
Everyone doing 140-150kph in 120kph zones and God forbid anyone actually follows speed limits they get harassed lol.
Yes, well, the distances can be vast and if you need to get there by 'tomorrow morning' it's a bit pedal to the metal. Just don't roll - you'll be fine.@@Powerstroke431
Vancouver IS beautiful. It's the residents.
I live in Prince George.
Smack dab in the middle of BC.
B.C. has every climate in the word in one place;
Desert, Arctic, Costal, Rainforest, Mountain Ranges, Prairies.
It might look inhospitable in some places at times but it is vast in resources and a virtual paradise.
Almost, you have to go west to get to the middle, which is Vanderhoof. :)
The craziest experiment to do is, imaginging that almost every single tree you see in BC is less than 200 or so years old. We completely deforested BC, right up to the peaks of the mountains. There are logging/mining roads everywhere, it makes BC an amazing 4x4 adventure. But the greatest advantage and blessing is our geography. It is a persistent reminder that no matter what humans do, sometimes nature is immovable to all but the greatest of forces. You can pile upon it, break upon it, but she holds strong.
If you're sticking to the main highways of BC, any trees outside the main residential areas are closer to 20-40 years old. Most of BC forests have always been young forest thanks to continuous fires. That changes on the coast (rainforest) and other specific areas (ancient forest), but holds true for most of the Interior.
Chilcotin has a hard O sound, like coat, Esquimalt, while showing it's enunciation online as how you pronounced it, no one in my 60+ years has ever pronounced it that way, actually. We all say Ess kwhy malt, with the accent on kwhy. Fraser is like laser, not Dr. Frasier Crane. Ker moe dee bear. And oh, what the heck: Neil Peart is pronounced Neil PEERT, not Neil PERT. lol
yooo interior BC guy checking in! I consider Kamloops to be a "big city" lol. In regards to the Texas comparison, I've often heard BC is so mountainous, that it has more "mountain area" than Texas has area, in general.
Hello neighbor!
Interior BC is a W
Hey neighbors~
Thanks for shining a spotlight on the beautiful place where I live!
Well explained your beautiful state. Thank you 🙏
If any disaster happens, you do not want to be near Vancouver. Millions of people packed between the mountains. With only two highways out.
a local secret , People who are locals to Vancouver know the Big one is coming ! earthquake or tidal wave
@@11TruthAssassin It's no secret. I live in Ohio and it's an obvious fact.
It already happened in 2021 when Highway 1 was closed for two weeks.
You really don't want to live your life on the basis of a disaster happening. Life is short enough anyway. Better to risk it and live in a beautiful place than to play it safe and live in Butt Ugly Ville.
@@11TruthAssassin Yeah? When?
Love this history lesson! Born and raised in British Columbia and not until this nice presentation did I fully appreciate "The Oregon Treaty" ... and yes, Point Roberts is a real oddity. Especially sad for those folks when the pandemic and travel restrictions were in full swing. Haven't visited recently but the folk's residing there are really wonderful people.
And you know - push come to shove, they are neighbours.
good episode, well done , i like your stuff !
beautiful scenery. hope it never gets ruined.
Thank you for the wonderful deep dive into my home province, Geoff!
When it comes to Canada I've only visited Vancouver and BC (including the South Kootenays and the Sunshine Coast. However while I'm sure I'll really like Quebec, Nova Scotia, Alberta and other provinces/territories whenever I visit, I'm fairly certain British Columbia will remain my favorite.
excellent choice
Sunshine Coast
@@lennyjoyner9600 Corrected. Thanks.
I hope you do an episode on Point Roberts Washington. I grew up in Tsawwassen, BC just across the border from it!
Cool video! I just want to point out one minor correction. The dates given for the migration to Canada of the first nations are off by approximately ten thousand years. At least one of these nations, the Heiltsuk were in the area during the depths of the ice age, sheltering on some islands that never froze. Archaeological excavations confirmed this a couple years ago on Triquet Island, when they uncovered many artifacts from an ancient coastal village dating from 14,000 years ago.
Also, BC (or any other Canadian province or territory) is not "empty". Its quite full, even brimming. Full of trees, animals, water, scenery, fresh air, snow (lots of snow), just not full of humans. You want "full"? Try Mexico City, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Lagos, Mumbai or one of the other scenic tourism hotspots.
Canadians like empty.
Some Canadians like empty. I live in Kamloops right now and they're destroying all of the beauty in favour of tourism and more multi-housing. It's just an ugly, crammed, crime-ridden "city" now.
A look at a BC topographical map says a lot. Very rugged mountains running north/south on each side makes it's difficult to traverse Canada east/west.
I lived on Haida Gwaii for a couple years. It really is stunning. There was only 800 people in the village. 7 hour ferry ride from Prince Rupert, It's definitely 'very' isolated.
BC isn’t very cold by continental standards-and it’s getting warmer. But having worked in the woods all over the southern half of BC and Albetar for about 30 years, I can tell y’all that this region, vast as it is, has been substantially settled during this time. Yes, the settlement is sparse -actually the main attraction-but all those lonely logging roads open up opportunities for rugged wilderness types-mostly retirees from Albetar, but also Americans and, surprisingly, Germans.
This is hardly densification of population, rather it is densification of road networks along which these single-home establishments are scattered. And this has more ramifications than one might think. First of all, it affects wildfire policy because improved property, livestock (lots of low productivity ranching), and human life and limb have to be protected or evacuated at huge cost (because of distances) per rescue. Another factor is that half of wildfires are human-caused, adding to the increased occurrence of lightning storms and generally drier summers.
Certainly there will be infill because the accesses are there. It’s really the northern half of BC-with the exception of the Great Plains region east of the Rockies in BC’s northeast where there’s lots of natural gas development-that is truly wilderness: less roads, colder climate, more rugged terrain means way less people. Why settle way up there when there’s so much to infill opportunities in the southern half? Believe me, virtually nobody in the south has ever been, or will ever go to the northern half. It is truly vast.
It is incorrect to say BC has geographic constraints to population growth distinct from than the rest of Canada. Look at the population map and notice the density goes further north the more west you look. The Peace River valley in what people call “northern Alberta” (likewise, it’s not really all the way north, only about halfway) is one of the highest latitude productive agricultural land (tillable, grain and fodder-growing) in the world-hence the further north the population density, such as it is.
I must say, however, there are plenty of surprisingly sparsely settled regions of the lower 48. I’m always amazed that California has almost the same population as the whole of the second-largest country in the world. And, despite the very high-density coastal areas of the southern half, it’s pretty easy to drive somewhere that’s almost as sparse and remote as many places in Canada.
Thnx. One more thing. Your map suggested those nations (we call then “First Nations,” not “tribes”) are scattered through the Interior of BC when in fact they are all Coastal except for the Interior Salish in the southern desert areas of central BC (yes, Canada has deserts). The Coast Salish include many First Nations on the Lower Mainland Coast (or “Sunshine Coast”) and eastern Vancouver Island-indeed, the former Strait of Georgia was recently renamed the Salish Sea.
Yeah, the First Nations he mentioned were predominantly southern (except Haida) and didn't touch on any of the Nations in the Interior.
Great summary of the province. Long time BC resident here and I learned new things . Also great you included a bit about the Oregon treaty . Most people are blown away to hear that in another timeline Canada and Mexico could have had a border or Canada might have ended at the Rockies and had no Pacific coast .
Is there a trailer for the premier? 😆 This is exciting. Love learning more about Canada
You did a great job explaining 👏
I'm glad you mentioned Port Roberts at the end. It's quite an odd enclave of the US I encountered during my last to BC.visit.
Most of the coast is completely isolated from the interior. Vancouver near the southern border and Prince Rupert near the Alaskan panhandle are literally the only places on the coast with road or rail links to the interior of the province. None of the towns on the coast between them have any road connections to anywhere else. Vancouver and Prince Rupert are 450 miles apart, and it's an eighteen hour drive because the only road between the two goes more than halfway to Alberta
best is to go by boat!
lots of shore nothing easy about it then there is the interior 10 miles in. you need to be a bushwhacker will some serious skills to live more them 6 months off the grid!
Question about that… does the climate make building a straighter road impossible? Or is it just terrain?
Many of the highways that cross the Coast Range in Oregon require extra expense because the soil gets more than its share of rain, so stabilization is required. I’m thinking that the same would be an issue in coastal BC.
@PCSPounder It is probably an issue to some degree, but the main one would be extremely deep fjords
@@PCSPounderpartially; a large portion is temperature change from summer to winter which along with the rain destroys roads really quickly. The next big reason is we don’t have the money or reason to spend that much money to build a highway that leads to less than 15% (give or take) of the provinces population
@@DeannaGilbert616 Kitimat and stewart as well.
Most of BC was never ceded by the indigenous peoples, which means practically any development is fraught with legal problems and added payments to those peoples.
Ceded? They were conquered hence they deserve no payments
Over half of the BC coastline is blocked by Alaska for some reason. Vancouver island is a small exception. Would love to see a video on that!
The Yukon, Canadas most north west territory doesn’t even have access to the Pacific Ocean 😢
I first explored B.C. in 2002 when I worked for Werner Enterprises. I discovered that there are pristine lakes & rivers that are emerald/crystal clear and amazing. I later explored extreme northern B.C. when working for a company that hauled freight to Alaska and I realized that the Northern Rockies(coastal mountain ranges) and the Stewart/Cassier Hwy were spectacularly beautiful. I'm working local now for 15 years but I'll *always* treasure the experience of driving all through the British Columbia province!!
I grew up in the heart of the okanagan valley and can confirm it is absolutely beautiful. You really feel the dryness though, especially in august when everything turns brown and the risk for forest fires goes way up. Also thanks to the mountains inbetween the interior and the coast, road trips to vancouver are especially treacherous in the winter. I kinda love it though, and really wish I could afford to live in in BC independently still. To explore from vancouver, to the rockies, haida gwaii and all the way to Alaska is still a dream of mine.
But you do have the Peach Festival - Penticton mid August preceded by the Regatta -- Kelowna in July.
When I was growing up, forest fires were something that happened every few years... but now it just feels like summer is "fire season". I read an article that was saying that the excessive fur trapping of beavers from 100+ years ago has been slowly changing the climate. Beavers create wetlands which keep the forests hydrated through the dry summers, but there just aren't enough beavers anymore so the whole interior has dried up. Repopulating the area is difficult because it's been in a decline for so long. Also, rivers have had their banks straightened which has prevented salmon and other fish from being able to spawn in the pools that are usually caused by winding rivers. We've moulded the land to suit us without knowing the long term ramifications. I don't blame those people for it though, they didn't know any better. But we need to continue to make an effort if we don't want the whole province to go up in flames.
oooooh lord!; THE HEAT my family and I had just finished our camping trip down at Fintry on Okanagan Lake last summer when the fires started. gut wrenching. But Beautiful HUGE campground with an amazing history.. never have I seen SO many dispensaries along the way and SO close together. I lost count.
@@commenter5901 More likely explanation is that forest stewardship has changed. Forestry used to keep up on controlled burnings and thinning underbrush. From what I've heard from some people that's largely been done away with now.
Burnaby BC resident here, Upper Cascadia is a vibe
I'm in the lower mainland by Kamloops. To give a.scale of how big BC is I was planning a trip to Alaska. From where I am to Anchorage is 3200km one way and would cost thousands in gas alone. So I decided on a 7-day cruise to Alaska that is half the cost of driving.
Nobody lives there, but it’s basically just as expensive 💀
Born & raised in British Columbia & I have lived in many parts of this beautiful province. From the north east to the north coast, from Vancouver Island to the Okanagan it is just a beautiful place.
Great video thanks for posting, you pronounced Esquimalt wrong it’s (Es-qui-malt)
and Chilcotin. :)
I live in the northern interiors Cariboo region, city populations get skewed up here because people don't consider the vast number of rural residents living just outside the city limits. You can pretty much double or even triple the population numbers up here, for example, I live less than 10min from downtown but I'm not considered a resident, there for I'm not counted as part of the population. It is all about taxes and maintaining regional districts, it also waters down our votes so that rural canadians have less political influence, leaving the big cities making laws over areas they have no idea what it's like to live in, it also makes our crime rates look quite bad because our pool for potential criminals is 2-3 times larger than the listed populations of the town the crimes occure in...