A crowd gathered at Queen's Park on Sunday to celebrate the
first B.C. Loyalist Day in British Columbia. The four Pacific
regional branches of the united Empire Loyalists' Association of
Canada - Vancouver, Chilliwack, Thompson-Okanagan and Victoria -
gathered to celebrate B.C. Loyalist Day. The provincial
government declared July 22 as Loyalist Day in British Columbia.
The event gave the groups a chance to celebrate their Loyalist
ancestors. "Many British Columbians are direct descendants of
the first Loyalists who arrived in what is now eastern Canada in
1783 after the American Revolution," said a press release about
the event. "Following the French settlements in Acadia and New
France in the 1600s and early 1700s, there was second major wave
of immigration starting in the 1770s. The number of Loyalists
varies depending on which historian you cite, but it is
estimated that 50,000 to 100,000 displaced Loyalists came as the
'first boat people' to what is now Canada. These were British
subjects who had origina