Gibsons is a coastal community of 4,605 in southwestern

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada on the Strait of Georgia. Although it is on the mainland, the Sunshine Coast is not accessible by road. Vehicle access is by

BC Ferries British Columbia Ferry Services Inc., operating as BC Ferries (BCF), is a former provincial Crown corporation, now operating as an independently managed, publicly owned Canadian company. BC Ferries provides all major passenger and vehicle ferr ...

from Horseshoe Bay in

West Vancouver West Vancouver is a district municipality in the province of British Columbia, Canada. A member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District, West Vancouver is to the northwest of the city of Vancouver on the northern side of English Ba ...

, a 40-minute crossing; or by a ferry from Powell River to Earls Cove, north of Sechelt. The town is also accessible by water, by float plane to the harbour, and by small aircraft to Sechelt Airport, approx. 20 km to the northwest. Gibsons is best known in Canada as the setting of the popular and long running CBC Television series ''

The Beachcombers ''The Beachcombers'' is a Canadian comedy-drama television series that ran on CBC Television from October 1, 1972, to December 12, 1990. With over 350 episodes, it is one of the longest-running dramatic series ever made for English-language Canad ...

'', which aired from 1972 to 1990. The storefront "Molly's Reach" (now a cafe), the restored tug ''Persephone'', and a display about the series at the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives are popular attractions. Other films that have used Gibsons as a location include '' Charlie St. Cloud'' (2010), starring

Kim Basinger Kimila Ann Basinger ( ; born December 8, 1953) is an American actress and former fashion model. She has garnered acclaim for her work in film and television, for which she has received various accolades including an Academy Award, a Golden Glo ...

and Zac Efron (as a stand-in for

Marblehead, Massachusetts Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts, along the North Shore. Its population was 20,441 at the 2020 census. The town lies on a small peninsula that extends into the northern part of Massachusetts Bay. Attache ...

); and ''

Needful Things ''Needful Things'' is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is the first novel King wrote after his rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. It was made into a film of the same name in 1993 which was directed by Frase ...

'' (1993), starring

Max von Sydow Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...

and

Ed Harris Edward Allen Harris (born November 28, 1950) is an American actor and filmmaker. His performances in ''Apollo 13'' (1995), '' The Truman Show'' (1998), '' Pollock'' (2000), and '' The Hours'' (2002) earned him critical acclaim and Academy Award ...

History

The land currently known as Gibsons has been inhabited by First Nations people since time immemorial. It is part of the traditional and ancestral lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, which also includes parts of Greater Vancouver and the Squamish River watershed. Sḵwx̱wú7mesh oral history tells that the region around Gibsons was the birthplace of the Squamish people after what is called ''The Great Flood''. The European settlement town of Gibsons was established in 1886 by George Gibson and his sons. It was incorporated in 1929 as Gibson's Landing, and in 1947 was renamed Gibsons at the residents' request. The town two main sections are: * Lower Gibsons, the mostly residential seaside area that include
Gibsons Marina
Molly's Reach, and Winegarden Park, with an auditorium that hosts live performances in the summer. It also has shops and restaurants catering mostly to vacationers. * Upper Gibsons, along the Sunshine Coast Highway ( BC Highway 101), with commercial areas includin
Sunnycrest Mall
the town's two major supermarkets, a variety of fast food restaurants, the largest elementary school, and the high school. Gibsons is the first town in British Columbia to accept styrofoam at its recycling facility, th
Gibsons Recycling Depot
Its staff has traveled widely to promote styrofoam recycling; founder Buddy Boyd was invited to address an international Zero Waste conference in Florianopolis, Brazil.

Economy

The Sunshine Coast has seen a three-decade transition from a forestry- and fishing-based economy to a more diverse one with construction trades, business services, retail and tourism becoming prominent. Gibsons is a popular retirement destination. It has also attracted artists and musicians, professionals who commute by ferry into nearby Vancouver, and remote workers. Between 2001 and 2006, its population grew 7.1% compared with BC's overall growth rate of 5.3%. In 2006, the median resident age was 50.2 years, compared with the provincial median of 40.8 years.

Climate

Gibsons is in a temperate coastal climate, with mild, rainy winters and warm, dry summers. The regions's landscape is in a

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 ...

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Gibsons had a population of 4,758 living in 2,282 of its 2,482 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 4,605. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. 2021-11-26 01 Gibsons Marina, BC Canada

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Gibsons 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 ...

(2,810 persons or 61.4%) *

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 ...

(1,515 persons or 33.1%) *

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

(75 persons or 1.6%) *

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 t ...

(30 persons or 0.7%) *

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 ...

(30 persons or 0.7%) *

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

(25 persons or 0.5%) * Islam (25 persons or 0.5%) *Other (75 persons or 1.6%)

Notable people

Ryan Dempster Ryan Scott Dempster (born May 3, 1977), is a Canadian former professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, and Boston Red Sox. Dempster batted and t ...

– major league baseball

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Bruno Gerussi Bruno Santos Gerussi (7 May 1928 – 21 November 1995) was a Canadian stage and television actor, best known for the lead role in the CBC Television series '' The Beachcombers''. He also performed onstage at the Stratford Festival, worked in rad ...

- actor, ''

'' * Peter Trower - poet and novelist * Ken Bell - Canadian photographer during WWII * Lyn Vernon – mezzo-soprano (later dramatic soprano), conductor, teacher *

Paul George Paul Clifton Anthony George (born May 2, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "PG-13", he is a seven-time NBA All-Star and six-time member of th ...

– environmentalist * Todd Bentley – evangelist * J.S. Woodsworth - politician, founder of the Canadian Commonwealth Foundation (predecessor to the New Democratic Party) * Grace MacInnis – politician and feminist * Paul Rudolph – cyclist and former guitarist & vocalist with the

Pink Fairies Pink Fairies are an English rock band initially active in the London (Ladbroke Grove) underground and psychedelic scene of the early 1970s. They promoted free music, drug use, and anarchy, and often performed impromptu gigs and other stunts, ...

* Don S. Davis – actor known for his roles as General George S. Hammond on ''

Stargate SG-1 ''Stargate SG-1'' (often stylized in all caps, or abbreviated ''SG-1'') is a military science fiction adventure television series within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's ''Stargate'' franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, ...

'' and Major Garland Briggs on ''

Twin Peaks ''Twin Peaks'' is an American mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. The show returned in 2017 for ...

''. *

Devin Townsend Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...

– musician and frontman for

Strapping Young Lad Strapping Young Lad was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver in 1994. The band started as a one-man studio project; Townsend played most of the instruments on the 1995 debut album, '' Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing ...

, Devin Townsend Project, and Devin Townsend Band. * Celso Machado - Brazilian guitarist and multi-instrumentalist * Garth "GGGarth" Richardson - music producer and recording engineer * Aristazabal Hawkes – bassist for the English indie rock band, a Mercury Music Prize, BRIT Awards and NME Awards nominee Guillemots (band) * Silas White – publisher, musician and politician * Skye Wallace - singer-songwriter *

Warne Livesey Warne Livesey (born 12 February 1959) is an English/Canadian music producer, mixing engineer, songwriter and musician. He has produced Midnight Oil, The The, Matthew Good Band and Deacon Blue. Life and career Warne Livesey started his career in ...

- music producer and recording engineer for Midnight Oil and

Matthew Good Matthew Frederick Robert Good (born June 29, 1971) is a Canadian musician. He was the lead singer and songwriter for the Matthew Good Band, one of the most successful alternative rock bands in Canada during the 1990s and early 2000s. Since the ...

* Joey Cramer – actor *

Velcrow Ripper Velcrow Ripper (born October 20, 1963, in Gibsons, British Columbia) is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, writer, and public speaker, best known for his Genie Award-winning 2006 film ''Scared Sacred'' and his newest feature documentary, '' Fierce ...

- filmmaker

Awards

Gibsons has won a number of awards: In February 2005, Gibsons won the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting contest, coming first in the world. In October 2009, the town was declared the "Most Liveable Community in the World" (under 20,000 population) at the international Livcom Awards. Endorsed by the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...

, the LivCom competition focuses on best practices for local environmental management. In 2009 Gibsons won an Energy & Climate Action Award for Community Planning and Development from the Community Energy Association

A major factor in the award was a new housing development, which will be heated by Canada's first publicly owned

geoexchange A ground source heat pump (also geothermal heat pump) is a heating/cooling system for buildings that uses a type of heat pump to transfer heat to or from the ground, taking advantage of the relative constancy of temperatures of the earth through ...

system. * World's Most Livable Community of under 20,000 (2009), United Nations-endorsed International Awards for Liveable Communities (LivCom). Gibsons also received First Place among all world cities in LivCom's "Planning for the Future" category. * Energy & Climate Action Award in Community Planning and Development (2009), awarded by the Community Energy Association for development of the Upper Gibsons Neighbourhood Plan. * Communities in Bloom awards – 2008 Provincial Champions; 2007 Provincial Champions award for Environmental Awareness; 2006 Provincial Champions for best floral displays. * Best in the World Municipal Water (2005) award, Berkeley Springs Winter Festival of the Waters. * OCP award, SmartGrowth BC, 2007 * National Research Council award for environmentally-sensitive development (2006)

References

External links

* * {{Coord, 49, 24, 10, N, 123, 30, 13, W, scale:60000, display=title Populated places on the British Columbia Coast Towns in British Columbia Populated places in the Sunshine Coast Regional District Populated places established in 1886 1886 establishments in British Columbia