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A British Columbia Primer
25 BC MILESTONES OF THE 20TH CENTURY
- 1903, June--The election of Premier Richard McBride and his Conservatives marks the introduction of party politics to the BC legislature.
- 1913--Rock slides in the Fraser Canyon, caused by railway construction, nearly block the river at Hells Gate, cutting off the annual salmon migration and decimating the fishery; it is one of the worst environmental disasters in BC history, not rectified until the 1940s.
- 1914, May-June--South Asian migrants aboard the Komagata Maru in Vancouver harbour are refused entry to Canada and the ship is sent back to India. A landmark in the history of BC race relations.
- 1917, April--BC women win the right to vote in provincial elections.
- 1919--Development of the differential flotation system by engineers at the Cominco smelter in Trail allows it to become the largest lead-zinc producer in the world and gives BC its most enduring heavy industrial site.
- 1922, Oct 28--The Great Trek from downtown Vancouver out to Point Grey pressured the provincial government to move ahead with construction of a new site for the University of British Columbia, which opened three years later.
- 1925--The Victoria Cougars defeated Montreal to win the Stanley Cup, the last time a team from BC won the Cup.
- 1927, Nov-Dec--The paintings of Emily Carr achieve national recognition at a major show in Ottawa.
- 1935, May-June--Striking relief camp workers descend on Vancouver to protest conditions in the camps, leading to the notorious On-to-Ottawa Trek.
- 1942, Jan-Mar--All persons "of the Japanese race" are relocated from the BC coast to camps and communities in the Interior and to other provinces in one of the worst violations of human rights in Canadian history.
- 1945--The report of the Sloan Commission leads to the introduction of a new forest tenure system that profoundly influences the development of forest policy and the forest industry in the province.
- 1952--Mungo Martin is hired as chief carver at the provincial museum's Thunderbird Park; the appointment is symbolic of an explosive renaissance of aboriginal culture in BC.
- 1952, June--Social Credit wins the provincial election, inaugurating 20 years of Socred government under Premier W.A.C. Bennett.
- 1958--BC celebrates its centennial.
- 1959--The Union Steamship Company is sold, ending 70 years of passenger and freight service along the BC coast.
- 1962--The provincial government creates BC Hydro to undertake massive hydroelectric projects on the Columbia and Peace rivers.
- 1962--Using money won on a television game show, Gray Campbell publishes his first book, inaugurating Gray's Publishing and a subsequent explosion of BC literary culture.
- 1965--Vancouver City College opens its doors, the first of a series of community colleges that were part of a rapid expansion of post-secondary education in BC.
- 1971, Sept--The voyage of the Phyllis Cormack from English Bay launches the environmental organization Greenpeace.
- 1972, Aug--The election of BC's first New Democratic Party government ends W.A.C. Bennett's 20-year run as premier.
- 1982--The appearance of Phillip Borsos's award-winning film The Grey Fox announces the maturation of a BC-based film industry.
- 1983, July-Nov--the Solidarity movements organizes the largest political demonstrations in BC history to protest the government's austerity program.
- 1986--Vancouver celebrates its centennial by hosting Expo 86, attracting over 22 million visitors.
- 1993--The establishment of a BC Treaty Commission marks a new departure in provincial government policy on aboriginal land claims.
- 1999--The sale of MacMillan Bloedel, BC's largest forest company, to the American timber giant Weyerhaeuser, marks the end of an era.
What milestones or major events would you add to this list? Let us know!
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