British Columbia of British Columbia, and Victoria became the united colony's capital. In 1871, British Columbia became the sixth province of Canada. Its Latin motto is "Splendor sine occasu" ("Splendour without Diminishment"). The capital of British Columbia remains Victoria, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for Queen Victoria who ruled during the creation of the original colonies. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, and the second-largest in the Pacific Northwest. In October 2013, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,606,371 (about 2.5 million of whom were in Greater Vancouver). The
Proposal for the Province of Toronto not be necessary if the federal and provincial government agree to split the province. With 2.6 million residents, the city of Toronto is more populous than six provinces — Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan; With a population of over 6 million, the Greater Toronto Area is more populous than those six, as well as Alberta and British Columbia. The Province of Toronto would become the second smallest in Canada by area, larger only than Prince Edward Island, whose area is 5,660 km², but would become the third most populous province in Canada