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Photo by Photo: Courtesy of City of New Westminster

As Western Canada’s oldest city, New Westminster also was, for a time, the Lower Mainland’s forgotten town. If Vancouverites thought of the city at all, it was probably as a waystation to points further east.

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But in recent years the city has seen a rise in development. Today, New West is attracting people from all over the Lower Mainland to live, work and play.

“It’s definitely gone through a transformation over the past 15 years,” says Mayor Jonathan Coté. “It was a community that was off the radar for many folks. But a lot of its charm has been discovered over the past decade. We’ve seen a lot of new residents move into the community, and a new vibrancy coming into the city.”

Photo by Photo Courtesy of City of New Westminster

Located on the north bank of the Fraser River, between Burnaby and Coquitlam, New West has a long and storied history.

The land was already inhabited by the Qayqayt First Nation when, in 1858, Major-General Richard Moody founded a town there as the capital of the newly forming Colony of British Columbia. First named Queensborough, it was rechristened by Queen Victoria herself as “the New Westminster,” after her favourite part of London. This paved the way for the nickname we have come to know it by: “the Royal City.”