Picture it:
We have been here forever –
This place in our bones and our bones in this place.
We came here from everywhere –
Seeking refuge, paying work, a new start.
They say we can sail and ski on the same day.
Maybe we never do,
But we love to gaze at the mountains, the ocean,
Walk in the rainforest,
Soak up the cultures.
All of us here together from so many places –
From right here, from so far,
Loving the land and sea that feed us –
Even if we shake our fists at the place sometimes.
We think of this B.C. Day not simply as a day off
But as a day of
Honouring, celebrating
The wild landscapes, the urban grit,
The industries that keep us rich in other ways.
The cultures woven together to create this splendour.
This B.C. Day,
Globe B.C. points back to some of the stories you have read here this past year,
And invites you to a dance with this place we call home.
Climate change has been raised during discussions about everything from this summer's wildfires to the province's push for a liquefied natural gas industry. Ballet BC's Rachel Meyer is atop a glacier at Whistler-Blackcomb.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson's pledge to eradicate street homelessness by 2015 has not been met. A city-run homeless count conducted this year found 1,746 people living on city streets or sleeping in shelters — down slightly from 1,803 in 2014. Ballet BC's Gilbert Small is in a Downtown Eastside alley off East Hastings Street.
B.C. has a rich South Asian culture. One year after the 100th anniversary of the Komagata Maru incident, in which a ship carrying passengers from India was turned away, the province is celebrating another somber anniversary. June 23 marked 30 years since the bombing of Air India Flight 182, which killed all 329 people aboard the flight. Ballet BC's Alexis Fletcher dances in her own sari behind the Sunset Community Centre in East Vancouver.
In August of last year, the tailings dam at the Mount Polley open-pit copper and gold mine in the B.C. Interior failed, sending millions of cubic metres of material into nearby waterways and prompting a local state of emergency. Ballet BC's Peter Smida is at the Britannia Mine Museum.
The effects of a landmark Supreme Court ruling in the summer of 2014, which granted the Tsilhqot'in Nation aboriginal title over a huge swath of their territorial land, continue to be felt, as other aboriginal communities prepare to use the ruling as a precedent for their own claims. Ballet BC's Andrew Bartee is behind the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.
Along with the rest of the province, Vancouver has had a hot, dry and even smoky summer, which has led to severe water restrictions in the normally rainy coastal city. Ballet BC's Racheal Prince is at one of the city's iconic beaches.
A bunker fuel spill in English Bay in April of this year raised concerns about proposed pipeline projects and the federal government's ability to respond to a marine disaster. Ballet BC's Kirsten Wicklund is in the water at Kits Beach.
Chinese immigration has been central to the growth of B.C, especially in cities such as Vancouver and Richmond. Recent headlines focusing on the region's skyrocketing housing prices have focused on the possibility — so far unproven — that foreign buyers, particularily from China, have flooded the market and are driving up home values. Ballet BC's Tara Williamson is in Vancouver's Chinatown.
Ever since the 1993 battle for Clayoquot Sound made clear-cut logging in B.C. a global issue, the cutting of a dwindling supply of old growth forests remains a hot topic. Environmental groups have raised concerns this year over logging on Vancouver Island, in the Lower Mainland, on the Sunshine Coast and in the Great Bear Rainforest. Ballet BC's Scott Fowler is in Mission, east of Vancouver.