Burnaby is a city in British Columbia, Canada, located immediately to the east of Vancouver. It is the third-largest city in British Columbia by population, surpassed only by nearby Surrey and Vancouver.It was incorporated in 1892 and achieved City status in 1992, one hundred years after incorporation. It is the seat of the Greater Vancouver Regional District's government, the board of which calls itself Metro Vancouver.HistoryAt incorporation, the municipality's citizens unanimously chose to name it after the legislator, speaker, Freemason and explorer Robert Burnaby, who had been private secretary to Colonel Richard Moody, the first land commissioner for the Colony of British Columbia, in the mid-19th century. In 1859 Burnaby had surveyed the freshwater lake near what is now the city's geographical centre. Moody chose to name it Burnaby Lake.In the first 30 to 40 years after its incorporation, the growth of Burnaby was influenced by its location between the expanding urban centres of Vancouver and New Westminster. It first served as a rural agricultural area supplying nearby markets. Later, it served as an important transportation corridor between Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Interior and continues to do so. As Vancouver expanded and became a metropolis, it was one of the first-tier bedroom-community suburbs of Vancouver itself, along with the city and district of North Vancouver, and Richmond. Burnaby has shifted in character over time from rural to suburban to urban.
