Vancouver Book of Everything: Everything You Wanted to Know About Vancouver and Were Going to Ask Anyway

By Samantha Amara

The go-to book on Canada’s west coast gem—from affordable activities to crime and punishment, slang to weather, people to politics, and much more.
 
From “Gassy” Jack Deighton and the Klondike Gold Rush to the Chinese Head Tax to Japanese Internment, the Strathcona Protest, Vancouver Canucks and the 2010 Olympic Winter Games to profiles of the original “Dominic Da Vinci,” Larry Campbell, famed author Douglas Coupland, and environmentalist David Suzuki, no book is more comprehensive than the Vancouver Book of Everything. No book is more fun.
 
Well-known Vancouverites weigh in on every aspect of their beloved city. Historian Chuck Davis gives us his top five events that shaped its history; author Jen Sookfong Lee gives us her top five best things about living in Vancouver; Vancouver Sun restaurant critic Mia Stainsby gives us the city’s top five cheap eats and Global TV’s meteorologist, Mark Madryga, offers up his top five Vancouver weather events. From the city’s First People and infamous weather to its slang, heinous crimes, and the ubiquitous Japa dog, it’s all here.
 
Whether you are a lifelong resident or visiting for the first time, there is no better resource about the city of Vancouver, you’ll love the Vancouver Book of Everything.
 
“Even born-and-bred Vancouverites will doubtless find something of interest in the Vancouver Book of Everything.” —The Westender
 
“The book combines tourist elements . . . with facts that even seasoned Vancouverites may not know.” —Miss604
 
“When your friends start asking questions about the city, hand them the Vancouver Book of Everything.” —Vancouver Sun

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 15, 2008
• ISBN: 9781926916606

Book preview

Vancouver:

A Timeline

16,000 to 11,000 Before Present: The ancestors of British Columbia’s Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam, Tsawwassen, Coquitlam, Katzie and Semiahmoo First Nations settle along Vancouver’s coastlines, sustained by abundant wildlife and a hearty fishery.

1494: In the wake of news of Columbus’ North American exploits of 1492, Spain signs the Treaty of Tordesillas, claiming the West Coast of North America from northern Mexico to Alaska.

1592-1774: A century after Columbus first spies North America, the Spanish travel the continent’s West Coast, eventually settling at Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island. The Spanish legacy in the region lives on in place names such as the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Spanish Banks and city streets such as Cordova, Cardero and Valdez.

1792: Britain’s Captain George Vancouver sails into the Juan de Fuca Strait, becoming the first European to map the area. The same year Spain cedes her interest in the BC coast to Britain.

1808: Explorer and fur trader Simon Fraser, thinking he is on the Columbia River, sails into Vancouver on the river that now bears his name.

1827: The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) opens a trading post at Fort Langley on the Fraser River, marking the first permanent non-Native settlement in the area.

1858: Gold is discovered along the Fraser River, sparking the influx of thousands of prospectors.

1859: New Westminster, the region’s first urban centre, is established.

1861: Greater Vancouver’s first newspaper, the British Columbian, printed in New Westminster, is born.

1867: Gassy Jack Deighton opens a pub in his hotel on the Burrard Inlet. The establishment becomes popular with gold miners, fishers and forest workers and the area becomes known as Gastown.

1869: Gastown is incorporated as the new town of Granville.

1871: British Columbia joins Confederation.

1886: With a bustling population of about 1,000, the town of Granville is incorporated as the city of Vancouver in April. M.A. McLean is elected its first mayor.

1886: In May, a volunteer fire brigade is organized as one of the first orders of business in the newly incorporated city.

1886: In June, fire set to burn brush gets out of control, swept by sudden wind gusts. Within an hour much of city, largely built of wood, is left a smoking ruin. The fire claims 880 buildings and 22 lives and compels city officials to mandate that all new buildings be built of flame-resistant brick or stone.

1887: A Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) train makes its inaugural stop in Vancouver, the end of the line. The same year sees an anti-Chinese riot in city streets.

1888: Stanley Park officially opens.

1889: The first of three Granville Street bridges is built. The second replaces it in 1909 and the third in 1954.

1890: The city’s first electric streetcars begin rolling.

1891: Vancouver’s first public transit system takes fare-paying riders. Known as the Interurban, it consists primarily of trams.

1897-1898: The Klondike Gold Rush restores Vancouver’s lagging economy, which had succumbed to a nation-wide recession in the mid-1890s.

1898: Rocky-shored English Bay in the city’s downtown has sand shipped in to create its sandy beach.

1900: Vancouver’s population surpasses that of the provincial capital of Victoria.

1907: Anti-Japanese sentiment culminates as non-Asian Vancouverites engage in the Vancouver Riot, leaving an enduring stain on the city for its intolerance of Japanese (and Asian) immigrants.

1907: The Vancouver Stock Exchange (VSE), a predecessor of Toronto’s TSX Venture Exchange, begins operation. The VSE finances operations in the province for more than 90 years before merging with the Alberta Stock Exchange to create the Canadian Venture Exchange.

1908: The University of British Columbia is created by statute and in 1915 the institution holds its first classes.

1909: The city’s first skyscraper, the Dominion Trust Building, rises above the city.