History of Vancouver, British Columbia Quiz

Answer: Huron

The Huron lived much farther east, in the Great Lakes area. The term First Nations refers to Canada's non Inuit indigenous people who lived in Canada prior to the arrival of Europeans.

All three of these tribes still have reserves in or near Vancouver. The Musqueam or Xwméthkwyiem are the only tribe to have reserves within the Vancouver proper. The other two live outside city boundaries.

Answer: Spain

Jose Maria Narvaez was the sailor who first landed on the Sunshine Coast. He then traveled to Burrard Inlet, which is where Vancouver is located today. Although he sailed near Vancouver and Puget Sound, he never explored them. The year after, George Vancouver of England met up with the Spanish and explored Puget Sound and the First Nation settlements, claiming much of the land of England.

Answer: Fraser Canyon

There had been a few short gold rushes prior to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, but those did not result in any significant permanent settlement in the area. The new of the discovery of gold in the area first reached San Francisco where tens of thousands move north into the Vancouver area but most walked away empty handed.

However, the sudden influx of Americans frightened the British who made British Columbia a colony in fear that the United States would. As a result, the British started building infrastructure projects and cities, including Vancouver.

Answer: Lumber

The first lumber mill opened in 1863 by Sewell Moody, an American who later gave his name to the Moodyville neighborhood. British Columbia was and still is a heavily forested area of North America with some of the tallest trees in the world. This made it a prime location for a lumbering industry within Canada.

Other sawmills soon popped up with most of the production being exported or used in shipbuilding.

Answer: John A. Macdonald

Macdonald was the first Canadian Prime Minister who was heavily involved in the building and funding of the railway. It later came to light that members of the Liberal-Conservative Party of which Macdonald belonged had taken bribes from railway owners. Macdonald was voted out of office because of it in 1873 but was elected again in 1878.

One of British Columbia's conditions on being allowed to join the Canadian Confederation was that it must allow the terminus in Vancouver to be physically connected with the rest of Canada. At the time, most of the provinces in the Confederation were far away on the east coast as most of the prairie provinces had not been officially entered into the Confederation.

Answer: A brush fire

Vancouver was expanding rapidly and thus a decision was made to clear away forested land for developmental purposes via burning. A strong wind caused the brush fire to grow and spread until the whole city, apart from just a few buildings, was destroyed. Vancouver was quickly rebuilt and modernized.

Answer: Gerry McGeer

In 1914, the Panama Canal was completed and it was commonly believed that it would steal trade business from Vancouver. To counteract this, British Columbia proposed lowering the freight rates on goods passing through the Rocky Mountains. This proposal was rejected by the Canadian Government but British Columbia fought back with McGeer was its lawyer and won.

As a result, it remained more economically feasible for Canadian and American wheat to be shipped to Asia via Vancouver and not Panama. McGeer went on to gain popularity in politics as Mayor of Vancouver and a member of Parliament.

Answer: Chinese

An influx of Chinese immigrants had caused riots in 1907 and tensions continued on for decades. The bill, which made exceptions for students and diplomats, essentially banned all Chinese immigrants. It was passed mostly in response to the killing of Janet Smith, who was allegedly murdered by a Chinese immigrant. Today, it is believed the accusation was more based on racism than evidence.

The Chinese Immigration Exclusion Act was repealed in 1947. Prime Minister officially apologized for the act in 2006.

Answer: Fire balloons

Fu-Go or fire balloons were hydrogen balloons with bombs attached, which the Japanese would float over the Pacific in the hope that they would attack Canada and the USA. They were largely unsuccessful as only one fire balloon claimed any casualties (six people in Oregon).

The Japanese launched several balloon bombs, most of which failed to detonate, reach North America or do any damage. None of the balloons even reached Vancouver proper, but some did land close by.

Answer: Alexandre Bilodeau

Bilodeau won gold in the Men's Moguls competition, something he also did at the 2014 Games in Sochi. Canada had not won any gold medals when Montreal Calgary and hosted the games in 1976 and 1988 respectively. It did win an exhibition gold medal for curling when Calgary hosted but curling was not an official sport at the time. Overall, Canada won 14 gold medals, which set a record for the Winter Games, and won 26 medals overall.

It was the first time Canada topped the gold medal chart in history.