I live in the interior of BC and the lack of people is the best part.

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.

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!

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 😢

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 ❤️🍁🇨🇦

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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 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 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!

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

'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.

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.

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.

My favourite part about BC is all this land and yet we still have to fork over 2 million for a detached house.

A lot British Columbians are moving out of Vancouver and Victoria. The housing crisis is worsened recently.

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!!

It's also eye-wateringly expensive to live in BC in general.

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.

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.

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.

Cool video. I'm from Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley and I can assure you it's growing at a substantial rate.

Mosquitos. That's the real reason. Spent 3 weeks there, and it's beautiful, but the mosquitos were BRUTAL!

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. ❤

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.

Thank you very much, very informative and educational

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. 😊

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. 😊☔️

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.

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. 😂

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.

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!

Chilliwack is a city that’s nice. Around 80000 I believe. The problem is they have a ton of homeless hooked on fentanyl

Gorgeous video, thank you

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!

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.

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.

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.❤️

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.

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.

As someone who lives on Vancouver island, and not in Victoria. It’s nice not having to deal with ridiculous traffic almost every day, there’s more wilderness than city and it’s honestly the best part. The air feels cleaner, you can drink the water right out of the stream or lake and not worry about getting sick, and the water is glacier blue in a lot of the rivers in my area. There’s not much for night life, but if you love the outdoors, like hunting, hiking, fishing, mushroom picking, camping, etc, it’s perfect

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.

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.

Well explained your beautiful state. Thank you 🙏

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.

Burnaby BC resident here, Upper Cascadia is a vibe

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.

Thank you for this video! As a young one that RAN from a suburban town Coquitlam outside of Vancouver into the mountains of the Monashee's in the Interior, at 21, I couldnt be happier. Raised my 4 kids and nowgeyting prepared to Van life and boondock this beautiful province when my "nest is empty". Much Love from B.C.! ~ April

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.

Nobody lives there, but it’s basically just as expensive 💀

Thanks for shining a spotlight on the beautiful place where I live!

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.

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

Living in the middle of the province is heavenly. It's 2.5 hours to get to PG for city shopping. 20 minutes on dirt to the nearest town. We have electricity, but many of my neighbors don't. Running water is very rare. It's hard work sometimes, but I wouldn't have it any other way myself. Most people will never know.

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.

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.

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.

I’m from Northern British Columbia. Thank you for this great history and info. This province is huge, mountainous, and cold for most of the year. I moved away from the North to be near more opportunities, since the majority of B.C. people live where it is warmer. I’m now in the sunny, warm Interior city, Kamloops.

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...

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 .

I work in aviation. I rebuild Dehavilland beavers and Otters. Once you're airborne anywhere in BC you can look in any direction and you're blown away of the instant wild vastness of BC. It's incredible and I love it.

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

If any disaster happens, you do not want to be near Vancouver. Millions of people packed between the mountains. With only two highways out.

I live in Northeastern part of BC which has some of the most productive farm land in Canada, has some of the most productive natural gas fields in Canada, has a vast forest industry and has many human resourses as well. All this was left out of your article!

I currently live in Kelowna, it sucks, unless you like overpopulated cities where it takes 30 mins to get your Tim's, homeless problems, no room for opportunity as the job markets are heavily saturated with the new arrivals of immigrants and rich people, growing too fast with not enough road space, have fun in the summer parking or driving for that matter the roads are absolutely jam fucked with cars for 35 km from West Kelowna to Lake Country constantly

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.

good episode, well done , i like your stuff !

It was really nice to see a video about the province I live in. One of the main reasons that everybody lives in Vancouver in Vancouver Island is although the rest of the province is very beautiful this area of Vancouver and Victoria and the island is unbelievably beautiful. Yes it rains in the winter and sometimes the grey skies will get to you but then the Sun comes out and you're looking at the beautiful blue ocean with the White Cap mountains in the background and you can go skiing or scuba diving in the same day. And it's only around 0° C or 32° f as the cold part. When the rest of Canada just outside you know 100 me the other side of Chilliwack it can already be minus 20 to -50 degrees

As a British Columbian, I just wanted to offer some pronunciation tips: “Fraser” rhymes with “laser”; it misses the “i” that Kelsey Grammar’s TV show has. Also, when you say “Esquimalt”, put the emphasis on the second syllable and use the long “I” vowel sound (“e-SQUY-malt”). The hydrography of BC is truly impressive. The Peace River is nothing to sneeze at, either.

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.

Greetings from Vancouver Island B.C.Canada.I moved from New Brunswick ,to here to get away from the cold back east.Best thing I have done.The weather in Saanichton is great.Snow maybe twice a winter and it only stays maybe a couple days as aposed to 7-8 months ideas cold weather back east.I also lived in Alerts for 3 years with my daughter but wow the winters were brutal. Give me Vancouver Island any day.

My family comes from the gap of Canada i understand Canada quite well .nice video and always more nuances to many things about Canada.