49 Fun Facts About Vancouver

What was the first name of Captain Vancouver, the Royal Navy officer who explored Burrard Inlet in 1792?

George Vancouver first sailed with James Cook as a teenage midshipman, and his later survey showed no Northwest Passage existed along the coast he charted.

The settlement that became Vancouver grew around a saloon opened in 1867 by which former riverboat pilot?

Gassy Jack Deighton: legend says thirsty mill workers built his saloon in exchange for whisky, and that the district took its name, Gastown, from his nickname.

Before it was renamed Vancouver, the townsite on Burrard Inlet was officially called what?

Granville honoured Lord Granville, Britain's colonial secretary, until William Van Horne insisted the growing town take a new name.

Which company chose Vancouver as its western terminus in 1884, giving the city its name and its boom?

The Canadian Pacific Railway extended its line about 20 km past Port Moody, the official terminus, to reach a better harbour.

Weeks after Vancouver was incorporated as a city, what destroyed most of it?

A fire: a land-clearing blaze blew out of control that June, and residents began rebuilding at once.

Which three Coast Salish peoples had villages on the site of present-day Vancouver?

Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh villages stood across the area, and city workers later razed the village of Whoi Whoi to build Stanley Park's first road.

Which rock legend's grandmother Nora lived in Hogan's Alley, Vancouver's historic Black neighbourhood?

Jimi Hendrix: Nora Hendrix was a prominent figure in the neighbourhood, but much of it was razed in the late 1960s.

What is 'Vancouverism'?

The city's urban planning philosophy: planners and new zoning rules encouraged developers to build high-rise apartment towers in the West End.

Most passengers of the Komagata Maru, turned away at Vancouver in 1914, came from which part of the British Empire?

India: most were Punjabi Sikhs, and when the ship returned home, police near Calcutta opened fire, killing 20 of its passengers.

Which Indigenous artworks at Brockton Point rank among Stanley Park's most popular attractions?

Totem poles: the first ones were mostly Kwakwaka'wakw poles from up the coast, and local First Nations carvers have since added their own.

Stanley Park is named after Lord Stanley, who held which office?

Governor General of Canada Lord Stanley also donated a challenge cup for Canada's best amateur hockey club, and it became the Stanley Cup.

Vancouver's Lions Gate Bridge, opened in 1938, was financed largely by which famous brewing dynasty?

The Guinness family paid for the bridge to open up their North Shore housing development, then sold it to the province in 1955 for exactly what it had cost.

Which attraction near Vancouver was first built in 1889?

Capilano Suspension Bridge: its first span was made of hemp rope and cedar planks, and a later owner rebuilt the whole bridge in 1956.

Which Stanley Park landmark took more than half a century to build?

The Seawall: crews built it to stop tides eroding the park's shore, and it became popular with walkers and cyclists.

Vancouver's famous clock on Water Street was built in 1977 partly for what purpose?

To hide a steam vent: the clock went on to become a major tourist attraction in its own right.

Which world's fair was held to mark Vancouver's centennial?

Expo 86: its theme was transportation and communication, and the city's new SkyTrain opened just in time to carry fairgoers.

Vancouver's SkyTrain ranked among the world's longest examples of what kind of transit in 2016?

Fully automated driverless system: SkyTrain was built after worsening traffic in the 1970s turned studies toward rapid transit instead of more room for cars.

Vancouver's foot-passenger ferry across Burrard Inlet is called what?

SeaBus: a fourth ferry, the Netherlands-built Burrard Chinook, joined the fleet in 2021 so boats could sail every 10 minutes at peak times.

Who scored the overtime goal that won 2010 Vancouver Olympic men's hockey gold?

Sidney Crosby: he scored 7:40 into sudden-death overtime against the US, and the puck went to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Hours before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics opening ceremony, a luger from which country was killed in a training run?

Georgia's Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, flew off the Whistler track, and officials blamed human error rather than the course.

Which environmental organisation was founded in Vancouver in 1969-71?

Greenpeace began with a crew who sailed from Vancouver toward a US nuclear test at Amchitka, Alaska, and though they never got there, the US held no more tests on the island.

The Vancouver Canucks joined the NHL in 1970 alongside which other expansion team?

The Buffalo Sabres won the spin of a wheel for the first draft pick, so star junior Gilbert Perreault went to Buffalo instead of Vancouver.

Which team beat the Canucks in Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final?

Boston Bruins: they won 4-0 in Vancouver, and afterwards some fans rioted, burning police cars and smashing windows.

What covered BC Place when it opened in 1983?

An air-supported inflatable roof: it stayed the world's largest air-supported dome until 2010, when it was deflated for good to make way for a retractable roof.

The BC Lions' first home stadium in Vancouver was built for which 1954 sporting event?

The Commonwealth Games: the league had demanded a 15,000-seat stadium before granting Vancouver a team, and the Games gave the city Empire Stadium.

The Whitecaps name began with a 1974 club in which league?

NASL: that original club won the league title in 1979, then disappeared when the league itself folded in 1984.

Vancouver shares the nickname 'Hollywood North' with which city?

Toronto shares the nickname, and filmmakers were drawn to Vancouver partly by the varied natural scenery around it.

Which Vancouver-born broadcaster was interned as a child during WWII?

David Suzuki: his family had to give up most of their possessions, and he later hosted The Nature of Things for over four decades.

Which athletic-wear brand is among the lifestyle companies founded and headquartered in Vancouver?

Lululemon: founder Chip Wilson built it on yoga wear, and in 2005 sold a big stake to an American private equity firm as it geared up to expand abroad.

A 1923 federal law that hit Vancouver's Chinatown did what?

Banned most Chinese immigration: it took effect on Dominion Day, so Chinese Canadians called the day 'Humiliation Day' and refused to celebrate it for years.

The Museum of Anthropology at UBC occupies a 1976 building by which Canadian architect?

Arthur Erickson based its soaring concrete post-and-beam hall on the big houses of Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples such as the Haida.

The False Creek island with the famous public market was formerly what?

An industrial manufacturing area: the federal government built the island on a mudflat for industry, then a housing agency turned it into a public market district in the 1970s.

Vancouver International Airport sits on Sea Island in which neighbouring city?

Richmond: the airport began as the City of Vancouver's own, and the federal government later took it over from the city.

Why does North Vancouver get more rain than Vancouver's airport?

Mountains force moist air to rise, so rain increases with elevation, and North Vancouver climbs the slopes of the North Shore Mountains.

In the late 1960s, protests from Strathcona residents and Chinatown merchants stopped which planned project?

A downtown freeway: the city dropped the plan, and Chinatown was spared from being razed to make way for it.

The three North Shore Mountains ski areas near downtown are Cypress, Seymour and which?

Grouse Mountain: in 1966 the province's premier opened its Skyride, an aerial tramway built to carry visitors up to the peak.

Which Vancouver writer's 1991 debut novel popularised the term 'Generation X'?

Douglas Coupland: the book grew out of an earlier piece he had written for Vancouver Magazine.

Vancouver reached its final boundaries in 1929 by amalgamating with which two municipalities?

Point Grey and South Vancouver were suburbs, and absorbing them gave the enlarged city a big jump in population.

Which explorer and fur trader led the first known Europeans onto the site of Vancouver in 1808?

Simon Fraser followed the river now named for him all the way to its mouth, only to find it wasn't the Columbia he'd hoped for, so he turned back.

As of the 2021 census, which Metro Vancouver city was British Columbia's second most populous?

Surrey: it grew fast in the 1980s and 1990s, and SkyTrain was extended across the river to reach it in 1990.

The Indigenous village name K'emk'emelay, seen on Sea to Sky Highway signs, means what?

Place of many maple trees: K'emk'emelay was the village site where a sawmill began the settlement that grew into Vancouver.

Which Swedish twins spent their entire 17-year NHL careers with the Vancouver Canucks?

Henrik and Daniel Sedin: Vancouver traded up to draft them second and third overall in 1999, and each later led the NHL in scoring.

The 1935 On-to-Ottawa Trek of striking relief-camp workers set out from Vancouver but was stopped in which city?

Regina: police moved in to arrest the trek's leaders at a rally there on 1 July 1935, setting off the violent Regina Riot.

In 1964 the Vancouver Aquarium became only the second aquarium to capture and display which animal?

An orca: the capture of Moby Doll set off an era of orca captures, and orca shows became the aquarium's main draw for years.

Which Vancouver-based singer founded Lilith Fair, the all-female touring music festival of the late 1990s?

Sarah McLachlan named the festival after Lilith, who in Jewish legend was Adam's first wife and refused to submit to him.

Which Spanish navigator explored the coast of present-day Vancouver and parts of Burrard Inlet in 1791?

José María Narváez got there a year before Captain Vancouver, the British explorer the city was later named after.

The Vancouver Art Gallery occupies a former courthouse designed by which architect?

Francis Rattenbury also designed BC's Parliament Buildings, and years later he was murdered in England by his chauffeur, his wife's lover.

Which office tower, opened in 1930, is Vancouver's finest surviving Art Deco building?

Marine: it was built for shipping businesses as trade through Vancouver's port grew, and ships and sea creatures decorate it inside and out.

What replaced many of Vancouver's streetcar lines?

Trolley buses: streetcar ridership had been falling as buses and private cars spread, so BC Electric converted many lines to electric trolley buses.