Wikipedia:Today's featured article/February 8, 2007



Vancouver is a city in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, named for George Vancouver, an English explorer. It was first settled in the 1860s as a result of immigration caused by the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, and developed rapidly from a small lumber mill town into a metropolitan centre following the arrival of the transcontinental railway in 1887. Its economy has traditionally relied on British Columbia's resource sectors: forestry, mining, fishing and agriculture. The Port of Vancouver became internationally significant after the completion of the Panama Canal and reduced freight rates in the 1920s made it viable to ship export-bound prairie grain west through Vancouver. Vancouver is part of the Greater Vancouver Regional District metropolitan area. With more than 2 million ethnically diverse residents, it is the third most populous city in Canada. Vancouver is often ranked amongst the most livable cities in the world. In 2006, the city was ranked the 56th most expensive city to live in among 144 major cities in the world and the second most expensive in Canada (after Toronto). (more...)

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