New Westminster

In 1859, New Westminster was selected as the first capital of the new colony of British Columbia by Queen Victoria, who named the city after her favourite part of London. From this naming by the Queen, the City gained its nickname, "The Royal City", and became the first incorporated city in Western Canada. A year later it became the first City to have an elected municipal government. It became a major outfitting point for prospectors coming to the Cariboo gold rush.

In 1866, the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island united as "British Columbia" with New Westminster as capital. However, Victoria, located across the Strait of Georgia on Vancouver Island, soon replaced New Westminster as the capital of the newly amalgamated colony of British Columbia (and became the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871). With the completion of the trans-continental railway in 1886, trade began to shift to nearby Vancouver. Nonetheless, New Westminster weathered the loss, and remained an important industry and transportation centre.

While always having a mix of industrial sectors, the economy of New Westminster has evolved over the years, from a reliance on the primary resources of lumber and fishing in the 1800s, to heavy industry and manufacturing in the first half of the 1900s, to retail from the mid 1950s to the '70s, to professional and business services in the '90s, and finally to high tech and fiber optic industry in the early 2000s.

Amongst New Westminster's natives are actor Raymond Burr, race car driver Greg Moore, and magician Leon Mandrake.