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Prince George is roughly 3,449 km from Parliament Hill as the crow flies. It would take 45 hours to drive from Parliament Hill.
This riding encompasses a large swath of northeastern B.C. stretching from the Yukon and Northwest Territories to the north, the province of Alberta to the east and the community of Valemount to the south. It includes Prince George’s city centre, and the communities of McBride and Fort Ware, as well as larger cities like Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.
About 8% of the riding’s population are immigrants, with some of the largest populations born in the Philippines, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
German and Tagalog are the most common non-official mother tongues in the riding.
Approximately 15% of the riding’s population identify as Aboriginal.
Average individual income is $54,071.
With proximity to several provincial parks and Jasper National Park just over the provincial border, the constituents in this riding have access to a number of outdoor activities like skiing, hiking, snowmobiling, camping, fishing, boating and adventure tourism.
There are two competing explanations as to how the city of Prince George received its name: Grand Trunk Railway’s vice-president Morley Davidson said it was named after King George V (whose name as Prince of Wales was Edward) and the president of the company claimed they chose the name to distinguish it from all of the other towns in the area with George in their name (and to give it the company’s stamp of approval).
The riding’s largest employers include retail trade, construction, mining, quarrying, oil and gas extraction, and health care and social assistance. Around 45% of the workforce in the riding has a postsecondary education of some kind, and the unemployment rate in 2011 was 7.9%.
Two of the biggest environmental issues facing Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies are the controversial Site C dam, and fracking, a method of natural gas extraction. Building the Site C hydroelectric dam will mean flooding the Peace River valley, prime agricultural land.
Fort St. John is considered to be one of the oldest European settlements in British Columbia. It began life as a trading post in 1794 as part of the fur trade. The original settlement no longer exists, as it had shifted location a number of times before it was shut down in 1805. The structure itself eventually burnt down. The community grew sporadically, but experienced a boom after the discovery of oil in the region in the 1950s, which is one of the reasons it is nicknamed the “Energetic City.”
Indigenous communities in this riding include:
Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council
Treaty 8 Tribal AssociationFort Nelson First NationProphet River First NationBlueberry River First NationsDoig River First NationHalfway River First NationWest Moberly First NationsSaulteau First Nations
Council of Kaska Chiefs Kwadacha
McLeod Lake
Lheidli T'enneh
Tsay Keh Dene
Fort St. John Métis Society
North East Métis Association
Moccasin Flat's Métis Society
