Portal:Vancouver/Articles/November 2006

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Vancouver (pronounced: [vænˈkuːvɚ]) is a city in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is named after Captain George Vancouver, an English explorer. Vancouver is part of the Greater Vancouver Regional District metropolitan area. With a population of 2,208,300 (2005 estimate), it is the largest metropolitan area in western Canada and the third largest in the country. Vancouver has a very ethnically diverse population: more than half of its residents have a mother tongue other than English. The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver and nearby Whistler.

The city is located between the Strait of Georgia and the Coast Mountains. Its economy has traditionally relied on British Columbia's resource sectors: forestry, mining, fishing and agriculture. It was first settled in the 1860s as a result of immigration caused by the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, and developed rapidly from a small lumber mill town into a metropolitan centre following the arrival of the transcontinental railway in 1887. The Port of Vancouver became internationally significant after the completion of the Panama Canal and reduced freight rates in the 1920s made it viable to ship export-bound prairie grain west through Vancouver. It has since become the busiest seaport in Canada and exports more cargo than any other port in North America. The economy of Vancouver has become more diverse over time, however. Vancouver has a growing tourism industry, for example, and has become the third largest film production centre in North America, after Los Angeles and New York. (Read More...)