Lake Cowichan (

Nitinaht Ditidaht (also Nitinaht, Nitinat, Southern Nootkan) or diitiidʔaaʔtx̣ is a South Wakashan (Nootkan) language spoken on the southern part of Vancouver Island. Nitinaht is related to the other South Wakashan languages, Makah and the neighboring ...

: ʕaʔk̓ʷaq c̓uubaʕsaʔtx̣) (pop. 2,974) is a town located on the east end of

Cowichan Lake Cowichan Lake is a large freshwater lake located on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It is located along the Cowichan Valley in the Cowichan Valley Regional District, with its eastern shore about west of Duncan, British Colum ...

and, by highway, is west of

Duncan, British Columbia Duncan (pop. 5,047 in 2021) is a city on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It is the smallest city by area (2.07 square kilometres, 0.8 square miles) in Canada. It was incorporated in 1912. Location The city is about 45 kilo ...

. The town of Lake Cowichan was incorporated in 1944. The Cowichan River flows through the middle of the town. Cowichan River is designated as a Heritage River. Lake Cowichan is at the western end of the

Trans Canada Trail The Trans Canada Trail, officially named The Great Trail between September 2016 and June 2021, is a cross-Canada system of greenways, waterways, and roadways that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, Pacific to the A ...

, which, when completed, will be one of the longest trail networks in the world, almost long. Youbou, with a population of about 1,000 people; Mesachie Lake, with a population of about 800 people; and Honeymoon Bay with a population of about 600 people, are nearby communities.

Climate

Lake Cowichan is surrounded on all sides by the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

Temperate rainforest Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rain forests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate rain forests of North American Paci ...

, containing the largest, tallest, and oldest

trees In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are u ...

in the world outside of California. Lake Cowichan has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

( Cfb) with warm summers and cool winters.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Lake Cowichan had a population of 3,325 living in 1,491 of its 1,586 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 3,226. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Lake Cowichan included: *

Irreligion Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and a ...

(2,290 persons or 69.1%) *

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

(965 persons or 29.1%) *

Sikhism Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...

(25 persons or 0.8%) *

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

(10 persons or 0.3%) *Other (25 persons or 0.8%)

Politics

In the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Lake Cowichan is represented by

Sonia Furstenau Sonia Furstenau is a Canadian politician who is currently the leader of the Green Party of British Columbia. Furstenau was raised in Edmonton, the child of German immigrants. She attended McKernan Elementary/Junior-High School, where she was ...

-Green Party of British Columbia, representing the riding of Cowichan Valley. In the House of Commons of Canada, Lake Cowichan is represented by

Alistair MacGregor Alistair Bruce MacGregor (born May 4, 1979) is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 2015 Canadian federal election to represent the electoral district of Cowichan—Malahat—Langford. He is a member ...

-New Democratic Party, representing the riding of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford. The election results for the town of Lake Cowichan for the past five Federal General Elections were: 43rd Federal General Election of 2019: New Democratic Party 40.4%, Conservative Party 24.4%, Green Party 19.5%, Liberal Party 13.0%, People's Party 2.3%, Christian Heritage Party 0.4%. 42nd Federal General Election of 2015: New Democratic Party 35.94%, Liberal Party 23.77%, Conservative Party 22.81%, Green Party 16.93%, and Marxist-Leninist Party 0.55%. 41st Federal General Election of 2011: New Democratic Party 53.9%, Conservative Party 34.2%, Green Party 7.2%, Liberal Party 3.7% and Marxist-Leninist Party 0.6%. 40th Federal General Election of 2008: New Democratic Party 52.1%, Conservative Party 32.8%, Green Party 7.9%, Liberal Party 6.5% and Marxist-Leninist Party 0.6%. 39th Federal General Election of 2006: New Democratic Party 57.5%, Conservative Party 25.8%, Liberal Party 11.7%, Green Party 3.9%, Marxist-Leninist Party 0.5% and Canadian Action Party 0.4%.Elections Canada Past Elections http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=pas&document=index&lang=e

Notable residents

''See also :People from Duncan, British Columbia'' *

Brad Palmer Brad Donald Palmer (born September 14, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Minnesota North Stars and Boston Bruins between 1980 and 1983, and then spent several seasons ...

, former

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player * Brian Lundberg, former

player * Steve Lingren, former AHL,

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

hockey player *

Dan Boeckner Dan Boeckner (; born 5 February 1978) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist and podcaster. He is best known as one of the frontmen of Wolf Parade, which he helped found in 2003. Since 2013, he has also been a member of the Montreal-based ba ...

, singer, songwriter *

Fritz Perls Friedrich Salomon Perls (July 8, 1893 – March 14, 1970), better known as Fritz Perls, was a German-born psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. Perls coined the term "Gestalt therapy" to identify the form of psychotherapy that he devel ...

, co-founder of

Gestalt therapy Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility and focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist–client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, ...

* William Carpentier, flight surgeon for

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Towns in British Columbia Populated places in the Cowichan Valley Regional District Cowichan Valley