British Columbia or BC is amongst Canada’s westernmost provinces and is surrounded by Alberta, Montana Idaho Washington State border, Yukon territories and Alaska.

Some important facts of BC Canada are:

• The official flag of the province of British Columbia has a shield of arms and has a length to breadth ratio of 5:3. It is not protected by the Provincial Symbols and Honours Act but is in the public domain.

• The shield symbol contained in the flag was originally granted by King Edward VII in the year 1906. The coat of arms which is the remaining elements of the symbol was later granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1987.

• The provincial flower of British Columbia is the Dogwood and Steller’s Jay is the provincial bird. The bird is very commonly found throughout the province and has a mixed shade of vibrant blue and black and has been defined as very lively and cheeky.

• On February 18th, 1988 the Western Red Cedar Tree was officially adopted as the official tree of British Columbia due to the important and influential role it has played in the lives of the West Coast aboriginal people of the province. Even today, the Red Cedar is an invaluable resource for the people.

• British Columbia also has its own official Tartan with five colours, each representative of a particular symbol of the state. It comprises of blue symbolic of the ocean, red for Canada’s maple leaf, gold for the crown and sun found on the provincial flag and white for the dogwood flower. The tartan was officially adopted in 1974.

• The Pacific Salmon is British Columbia’s official fish.

• As of December 2012, the total population of the province amounted to 4.62 million and its demography includes people of diverse races, cultural traditions, ethnicities and religions.

• Gitxan, Haida, Nisga and Squamish are some of the Aboriginal people of the province and also include 200 First Nations.

• It has been estimated that over 34,000 immigrants shift to British Columbia from different parts of the World.

• The land area and freshwater area together amount to about 95 million hectares which means that the province of British Columbia is larger than the combined area of France and Germany.

• The government of British Columbia is very conscious about the environment and strives towards sustainable ecological development. There are a total of 1030 provincial parks and protected areas. About 84 new parks, 156 conservancies and ecological reserves have been built since 2001. The parks alone have about 20 million visitors every year.

• One of the greatest natural resources of British Columbia is water. The province utilises this to its fullest making it Canada’s third-largest generator of hydro-electricity. As a result power costs are the lowest in this region of the whole of North America.

• At present, British Columbia is North America’s fourth largest film and television production centre.

Tourism is a major contributor to the economy of the province. In 2011, the tourism sector contributed a total of $13.4 billion which is a 39% rise since 2001. The province targets to expand its revenue growth even further to as much as $18 billion by 2016. There is a lot to see and discover in this wonderful province of Canada.