British Columbia

Question 1

What percentage of Canada’s population does BC account for?

Answer 1

13%

Question 2

How much of Canada’s GDP does BC produce?

Answer 2

12.7%

Question 3

How much of Canada’s landmass does BC consist of?

Answer 3

9.5%

Question 4

What two physiographic regions are found in BC?

Answer 4

Cordillera

Interior Plains

Question 5

Which four countries account for 85% of exports/imports which move through BC ports?

Answer 5

US

China

Japan

South Korea

Question 6

What are BC’s four main exports?

Answer 6

Lumber

Pulp

Gas

Coal

Question 7

What is BC’s population?

Answer 7

4.8 million, which is 13% of Canada’s population

Question 8

What contributes to the Centralist/Decentralist fault-line that BC has with Ottawa?

Answer 8

Pro-environmental and anti-oil sands residents

BC residents feel more of a connection and like-mindedness with the Pacific Northwest region of the US.

BC feels isolated geographically from the rest of Canada due to the mountains

Question 9

Where and how does precipitation fall in BC?

Answer 9

Easterly systems move upwards from the coastal mountains, creating orographic precipitation. Westerns slopes get more precipitation than eastern slopes

Question 10

How much of BC’s land is considered cropland?

Answer 10

5%

Question 11

What Land Commission Act was implemented in 1973 by the BC Government?

Answer 11

The Provincial Agricultural Land Commission (ALC)

Question 12

What are BC’s two climactic zones?

Answer 12

Pacific Climate

Cordillera Climate

Question 13

How many oil tankers pass through Vancouver’s port annually?

Answer 13

Over 400

Question 14

What three tectonic plates pose a threat for a major earthquake in BC?

Answer 14

Pacific

North American

Juan de Fuca

Question 15

Where and when did the Exxon Valdez accident occur?

Answer 15

1989 in Prince William Sound, Alaska

Question 16

Who was the first European settler in BC, and when did he arrive?

Answer 16

James Cook, 1781. He sailed into Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island

Question 17

What was the first profitable fur-trading animal discovered in BC?

Answer 17

Sea Otter pelts. They were highly valuable in China

Question 18

When did the Cariboo Gold Rush attract people to the Fraser River?

Answer 18

It brought 25,000 prospectors from California up to the Fraser. Barkerville was a town established near Quesnel which had a peak population of 10,000 (biggest in BC at the time)

Question 19

When did BC join confederation?

Answer 19

1871

Question 20

Why did confederation not initially benefit BC?

Answer 20

The Canadian Pacific Railway didn’t exist yet, making the region geographically isolated from the rest of the country.

BC continued to rely on it’s trade fo goods with San Francisco and London

Question 21

What percentage of British Columbians live in the Lower Mainland?

Answer 21

60%

Question 22

What are some technical economic spearheads in BC?

Answer 22

Filmmaking

Seaspan Shipyard

Advanced Drilling Techniques (horizontal drilling)

Question 23

Which rivers offer hydroelectric sites for the province?

Answer 23

Columbia, Fraser and Peace

Question 24

What is BC’s main mineral resource?

Answer 24

Coal, with Natural Gas set to eventually surpass it

Question 25

What is the wealthiest industry in BC?

Answer 25

Agriculture

Question 26

List BC’s natural resources…

Answer 26

Fish, Forests, Petroleum, Minerals, Water power, Physical beauty (tourism)

Question 27

Roughly how many First Nations groups live in BC?

Answer 27

~198

Question 28

When did Britain and the US agree to set the boundary at 49 degrees parallel?

Answer 28

1846

Question 29

What type of soil is in the Rocky Mountains?

Answer 29

Cryosolic soils which grow grass, moss and lichens

Question 30

What type of soil and vegetation is on the coast of BC?

Answer 30

Huge trees in coastal rain forest grow in Podzolic soils

Question 31

How many different mountain ranges exist in BC?

Answer 31

10; with the Rockies and Coastal Mountains being the main two.

Question 32

What are the two fault-lines prevalent in BC?

Answer 32

Centralist/decentralist

Aboriginal/Non-Aboriginal

Question 33

How much of BC is covered in forests?

Answer 33

Over 60%

Question 34

What type of forest is the Coast Rainforest?

Answer 34

Coniferous.

It’s regarded as the most luxuriant forest of it’s kind in the country. Composed primarily of Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, and Western Red Hemlock

Question 35

What are the two principal salmon-spawning rivers in BC?

Answer 35

Skeena River

Fraser River

Question 36

When was the Pacific Salmon Treaty signed by the US and Canada?

Answer 36

1985

Question 37

What makes the construction and approval of the Site C Dam controversial?

Answer 37

When completed, it will flood 55sq/km’s of river valley, which could affect the wildlife that local Treaty 8 First Nations harvest

Question 38

Who were the next settlers to arrive in BC after Europeans?

Answer 38

Chinese, Japanese, and East Indian

Question 39

What was the Komagata Maru?

Answer 39

A ship from East India, which arrived in Vancouver Harbour in 1914.

It carried 376 people, mostly from Punjab, that were technically subjects of Britain. This led them to believing that they could settle anywhere in the British Empire.

They were anchored for 60 days before being turned away by the government. This was a highly controversial act and situation that is ultimately a scar on BC’s history.

Question 40

What led to the settling of many Chinese immigrants in BC?

Answer 40

The gold rush brought ~30,000 Chinese to BC after things settled down in California (1840s).

It was difficult for them to settle because of the predominant pre-existing European settlements already in BC. White men were in power, and had full control over them. They placed a lot of pressure on East Indians, Chinese, Japanese immigrants.

The Chinese were the ones who ended up doing more dangerous and dirty work, including the infamous construction of the CPR running through BC.

White Labour vs. Chinese Labour. Chinese were paid less than half of what whites were paid.

Question 41

What did the government do to make settlement difficult for immigrants in BC?

Answer 41

Chinese immigration act of 1858 and 1932 In that time, it was $50/person to get in (Which is $1500/person in today’s value!) This was a huge make or break factor, government knew this, and hoped that it would turn some people away.

There were also laws preventing Chinese form doing provincial works. Disenfranchisement was also happening. This meant you couldn’t vote, be a part of democracy, or work in certain industries. Pure discrimination.

Question 42

When were immigrants given the right to vote in BC?

Answer 42

1948

Question 43

What kind of Moral Panic was experienced by the government in relation to immigration?

Answer 43

Boats showing up to the BC shorelines which were carrying tons of refugees

The government felt pressured to implement policy to only take limited people in, by high standards.

Question 44

What was the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923?

Answer 44

It was passed by the government of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, in response to continued demands for more prohibitive regulations to limit Chinese immigration

Commonly referred to as the “Chinese Exclusion Act,” the legislation virtually restricted all Chinese immigration to Canada by narrowly defining the acceptable categories of Chinese immigrants

It was repealed in 1946

Question 45

What was the Japanese “Enemy Alien” ordeal?

Answer 45

On 24 February 1942, Cabinet ordered Japanese Canadians to move 100 miles inland from the Pacific Coast

The order led to the expulsion of some 22,000 Japanese Canadians from their homes. Sixty-five per cent were Canadian born. Many were housed in isolated areas and had their activities severely restricted

As well, the Canadian government confiscated and later sold Japanese Canadians’ property and pressured them to accept mass deportation after the war ended

BC put many of them into immigration style camps, including some in the Kootenay’s and other parts of interior BC