When did British Columbia join Confederation?

British Columbia joined Confederation on July 20, 1871 as the sixth province of Canada. Entry was conditional on a federal commitment to build a transcontinental railway connecting British Columbia to the existing Canadian railway network within ten years. The colony of British Columbia had been formed in 1866 by the merger of the colonies of Vancouver Island (founded 1849) and British Columbia (founded 1858 in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush). British Columbia's entry doubled the area of Canada from coast to coast.

The colony's union with Canada was driven by several factors. British Columbia faced economic decline after the gold-rush boom subsided. The colony had a debt of about 1 million pounds sterling. Annexation to the United States was actively discussed, particularly after the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. The British Colonial Office encouraged Confederation as the preferred alternative. Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald was eager to add British Columbia to Confederation to forestall American annexation and complete the transcontinental vision.

The Yale Convention of September 1868 brought together a Confederation League of British Columbians who wanted to negotiate union with Canada. The colonial government appointed a three-member delegation (Joseph Trutch, J.W. Trutch, and John Sebastian Helmcken) to negotiate terms in Ottawa in May to July 1870. The delegation's demands included a transcontinental railway, responsible government, and Dominion assumption of the colonial debt. The Canadian government agreed.

The Terms of Union were approved by the British Columbia colonial legislature on January 20, 1871 and by the Canadian Parliament on April 14, 1871. The Order in Council admitting British Columbia to Canada was issued on May 16, 1871 with effect from July 20, 1871. The province's first premier was John Foster McCreight (November 13, 1871). The transcontinental railway promise was honoured (after political controversy and delays) by the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Craigellachie, BC on November 7, 1885. British Columbia is now Canada's third-most-populous province (about 5.5 million people) and the only province with a Pacific coastline. Vancouver and Victoria (the capital) are major Canadian cities. Indigenous land claims remain a defining feature of British Columbia politics, with most of the province being unceded territory of First Nations (treaties were signed only in the northeast and in modern treaty processes since 1992).