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
History of British Columbia Columbia from departing Canada. In fulfillment of the promise, the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven in Craigellachie on 7 November 1885. (No good road yet existed between British Columbia and other provinces; until the completion of the Trans-Canada Highway automobiles had to enter the United States to travel to eastern Canada.) The mining frontier in B.C. led to the creation of many mines and smelters, mostly through American investment. One of the world's largest smelters still exists today in Trail. The capital and work to be found in B.C. during the turn of the 19th century