Vancouver
A glacial fjord became a lumber port, then the CPR's terminus, then Canada's Pacific gateway. In 2024, moved 158M tonnes—more than Canada's next five ports combined. By 2026: stress-testing as trade reroutes.
Vancouver exists because glaciers carved a fjord. Burrard Inlet, formed during the last Ice Age, created one of the finest natural harbours on the Pacific coast—deep enough for ocean vessels, sheltered from Pacific storms, with the Fraser River providing a corridor to the interior. The Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples understood this geography for over 10,000 years before Europeans arrived.
The modern city began with sawdust. In 1863, a sawmill opened at Moodyville on the north shore, followed by Hastings Mill on the south. By November 1864, the three-masted barque Ellen Lewis departed with 277,000 feet of lumber bound for Australia—the first international shipment from what would become Canada's Pacific gateway. The city grew around Gassy Jack's tavern in Gastown, was renamed Vancouver through a deal with the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1886, and burned to the ground within months. It rebuilt faster than it had burned.
Two infrastructure decisions created modern Vancouver. The CPR chose this terminus over Port Moody in 1886, guaranteeing that all transcontinental rail traffic would flow through the city. Then the Panama Canal opened in 1914, making it suddenly economical to ship grain and lumber to Europe. Vancouver became the obvious routing point: prairie wheat went west to reach eastern markets. The city's economy inverted its geography—facing Asia while shipping to Europe.
Today, Vancouver handles more cargo than Canada's next five largest ports combined. In 2024, the port moved a record 158 million tonnes, with China accounting for 46 million tonnes—a 20% surge. The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in 2024 sent crude oil exports up 365%, with 60% flowing to China. The first half of 2025 saw another 13% increase. Roughly 80% of the port's trade is with countries other than the United States—making Vancouver Canada's Pacific lung, breathing in Asian manufactured goods and exhaling Canadian commodities.
By 2026, Vancouver's role as Canada's Asia gateway will face a stress test. As US-China trade tensions redirect shipping patterns, the city that exists because of a glacial fjord may find itself handling an even larger share of Pacific commerce—if its port infrastructure can keep pace with the redirected flows.