British Columbia (Canada) Flag Beer Stein

British Columbia, also commonly referred to by its initials BC or B.C., (French: Colombie-Britannique, C.-B.) is a province located on the West Coast of Canada. British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest, along with theU.S. states of Oregon and Washington.[ The province's name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858, reflecting its origins as the British remainder of the Columbia District of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada. ItsLatin motto is Splendor sine occasu ("Splendour without Diminishment"). The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for the Queen that created the Colony of British Columbia. 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 2012, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,622,573 (about two and a half million of whom were in Greater Vancouver).