BC, AD, CE, and BCE: Meanings and Differences Explained

Though the province’s ethnic majority originates from the British Isles, many British Columbians also trace their ancestors to continental Europe, East Asia, and South Asia. British Columbia is a diverse and cosmopolitan province, drawing on a plethora of cultural influences from its diasporas of British, European, and Asian Canadians, as well as the Indigenous population. In 1871, British Columbia entered Confederation as the sixth province of Canada, in enactment of the British Columbia Terms of Union. One of the earliest British settlements in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, which gave rise to the city of Victoria, the capital of the Colony of Vancouver Island. With an estimated population of 5.68 million as of 2025, it is Canada’s third-most populous province.

• Distinctive areas of unforested open grassland along the Fraser River, south of Williams Lake, and in the Kamloops-Meritt region south of the North Thompson River have rich pedocal soils upon which British Columbia’s ranching sector flourishes.
• Some smaller island communities, such as Gabriola Island and, formerly, Pender Island operate routes independent of BC Transit or TransLink.
• In 2007, a large maritime container port was opened in Prince Rupert with an inland sorting port in Prince George.
• The early decades of the province were ones in which issues of land use—specifically, its settlement and development—were paramount.

The building and maintenance of provincial highways is the responsibility of the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. Numerous traffic lights operate in place of interchanges on both arterials as long-term cost-cutting measures. A couple of busy intercity corridors outside Greater Vancouver feature more heavily signalized limited-mobility arterial highways that are mostly four-lane and often divided by portable median traffic barriers. There are now freeways in Greater Victoria, the Lower Mainland, and Central Interior of the province. British Columbia’s roads systems were notoriously poorly maintained and dangerous until a concentrated program of improvement was initiated in the 1950s and 1960s.

What BCE and CE mean, and how they differ from BC/AD

Her government went on to balance the budget, implement changes to liquor laws and continue with the question of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines. In 2003, Vancouver’s residents had voted in a referendum accepting the responsibilities of the host city should it win its bid. In its second term especially, the NDP government faced political scandals, such as the fast ferry scandal, that ultimately contributed to its downfall.

British Columbians and our governments

The NDP and its predecessor the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) have been the main opposition force to right-wing parties since the 1930s and have governed with majority governments in 1972–1975, 1991–2001 and since 2020 (with a minority government from 2017 to 2020). Previously, the right-of-centre British Columbia Liberal Party governed the province for 16 years between 2001 and 2017, and won the largest landslide election in British Columbia history in 2001, with 77 of 79 seats. The government of the day appoints ministers for various portfolios, what are officially part of the Executive Council, of whom the province’s premier is chair. British Columbia’s debt-to-GDP ratio is edging up to 15.0 percent in fiscal year 2019–20, and it is expected to reach 16.1 percent by 2021–22. With its film industry known as Hollywood North, the Vancouver region is the third-largest feature film production location in North America, after Los Angeles and New York City.

British Columbia is Canada’s westernmost province that is sandwiched between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. This coastal seaport city also serves as one of Canada’s most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities. The city serves as an administrative and technological center of British Columbia. Located on the southeastern edge of Vancouver Island is Victoria – the provincial capital city of British Columbia. Km, British Columbia is the 5th largest and the 3rd most populous Canadian province.

In 2020, 86 percent of students in British Columbia graduated from high school within six years of entering grade 8. Since the advent of the more robust mountain bike, trails in more rugged and wild places have been developed for them. In winter, cross-country and telemark skiing are much enjoyed, and in recent decades high-quality downhill skiing has been developed in the Coast Mountain range and the Rockies, as well as in the southern areas of the Shuswap Highlands and the Columbia Mountains. Given its varied mountainous terrain and its coasts, lakes, rivers, and forests, British Columbia has long been enjoyed for pursuits like hiking and camping, rock climbing and mountaineering, hunting and fishing.

Forest gardens on Canada’s northwest coast included crabapple, hazelnut, cranberry, wild plum, and wild cherry species. Cetacean species native to the coast include the orca, humpback whale, grey whale, harbour porpoise, Dall’s porpoise, Pacific white-sided dolphin and minke whale. Murrelets are known from Frederick Island, a small island off the coast of Haida Gwaii. Another tier of parks in British Columbia are bc game regional parks, which are maintained and run by the province’s regional districts. 12.5 percent of the province’s area (114,000 km2 or 44,000 sq mi) is considered protected under one of the 14 different designations that includes over 800 distinct areas. During El Niño events, the jet stream is much farther south across North America, making the province’s winters milder and drier than normal.