British Columbia (BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. In the 2016 Census, the province's recorded population was 4,648,055, making it Canada's third-most populous province. The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for Queen Victoria, who ruled the British Empire during the creation of the original British colonies in Canada. 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, Greater Vancouver had an estimated population of approximately 2.5 million. Since 2017, the province has been governed by the New Democratic Party, led by John Horgan, first with a minority government elected in 2017 and subsequently with a majority government elected in 2020.
