We Are Almost Twice As Old As Mickey Mouse!

While we are in a celebratory mood, I should note in passing that in White Man’s history, British Columbia is 150 years old today.  The land was created out of the mouth of Sir James Douglas in a speech he gave on a cold and wet November morning to a bunch of fur traders and trappers at Fort Langley on the Fraser River.

I shouldn’t knock it, really.  Douglas, who was Governor of Vancouver Island, saw a huge influx of American miners flood into the Interior during the Gold Rush days of the 1840s and 50s.  He realized that if the British Crown didn’t step up and make a statement, then the territory could easily become an extension of the Oregon Territory.  His proclamation on that blustery day saved us for cricket and tea parties, parliamentary supremacy, and God Save The Queen.