Данкан, Британская Колумбия: История и современность маленького города Канады.

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.

The city is about 45 kilometres from both Victoria to the south and Nanaimo to the north. Although the City of Duncan has a population of just over 5,000, it serves the Cowichan Valley which has a population of approximately 90,000, many of whom live in North Cowichan and Cowichan Tribes. This gives Duncan a much larger perceived "greater" population than that contained within the city limits. People in areas of North Cowichan and bordering on Duncan usually use "Duncan" as their mailing address. Duncan has one seat on the Cowichan Valley Regional District Board. The name Cowichan is an Anglicization of Halkomelem Quw̓utsun̓, which means "the warm land".

The community is named after William Chalmers Duncan After going off on several gold rushes, Duncan settled close to the present City of Duncan. He married in 1876, and his son Kenneth became the first Mayor of Duncan. There is a Kenneth Street, as well as a Duncan Street, in the City. Duncan's farm was named Alderlea, and this was the first name of the adjacent settlement. In August 1886, the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway was opened. No stop had been scheduled at Alderlea for the inaugural train bearing Sir John A. Macdonald and Robert Dunsmuir. However, at Duncan's Crossing, the level crossing nearest Alderlea, a crowd of 2,000 had assembled around a decorated arch and the train came to an unplanned halt. Initially part of the District of North Cowichan, Duncan felt its needs as an urban settlement in the largely rural municipality were not being met, in particular the need to have proper roadways. After a particularly wet winter in 1911–1912, a vote was held to make Duncan a distinct city, and it was incorporated on March 4, 1912. With the enlargement of North Cowichan in the ensuing decades, there was an effort to re unite the two municipalities, though a referndum on the matter in June 1978 was soundly defeated. In the early 1900s, Duncan's Chinatown was the social centre for the Cowichan Valley's Chinese population. Chinatown was concentrated in a single block in the southwestern corner of Duncan. At its largest point, Duncan's Chinatown included six Chinese families and 30 merchants who supplied goods and services to the loggers, millworkers, cannery and mine workers in the area. The city tore the buildings down in 1969 to build a new law courts complex. Some materials from the original buildings were used at Whippletree Junction. In the 1980s, the city was noted in coverage related to the 1985 bombings at Narita Airport in Japan and aboard Air India Flight 182, Canada's largest murder case. Resident Inderjit Singh Reyat purchased bomb parts and a radio at Duncan stores, and used the radio to conceal the bomb. Less than two weeks prior to the bombings, Reyat and suspected Air India mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar were observed testing explosives in the woods outside of Duncan by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Duncan had a population of 5,047 living in 2,454 of its 2,620 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 4,944. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

+ Panethnic groups in the City of Duncan (1986−2021)Panethnicgroup2021201120062001199619911986Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage) European 3,625 78.04 3,605 80.65 3,740 83.86 4,155 85.06 3,530 79.50 3,810 86.00 3,620 89.27 3,380 87.23 Indigenous 760 16.36 630 14.09 485 10.87 525 10.75 735 16.55 395 8.92 200 4.93 300 7.74 Southeast Asian 60 1.29 35 0.78 105 2.35 60 1.23 0 0.00 0 0.00 30 0.74 15 0.39 African 55 1.18 60 1.34 0 0.00 20 0.41 20 0.45 15 0.34 0 0.00 0 0.00 South Asian 40 0.86 65 1.45 40 0.90 35 0.72 50 1.13 75 1.69 160 3.95 105 2.71 East Asian 30 0.65 40 0.89 70 1.57 80 1.64 90 2.03 115 2.60 45 1.11 70 1.81 Latin American 20 0.43 15 0.34 0 0.00 10 0.20 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 Middle Eastern 10 0.22 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 20 0.45 0 0.00 5 0.13 Other/Multiracial 25 0.54 25 0.56 0 0.00 0 0.00 20 0.45 0 0.00 Total responses 4,645 92.03 4,470 90.41 4,460 90.43 4,885 97.97 4,440 94.49 4,430 96.56 4,055 94.28 3,875 95.94 Total population 5,047 100.00 4,944 100.00 4,932 100.00 4,986 100.00 4,699 100.00 4,588 100.00 4,301 100.00 4,039 100.00

According to the Köppen climate classification, Duncan has a warm summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb).

Duncan is part of British Columbia's School District 79 Cowichan Valley. It has one independent school. Queen Margaret's School, established in 1921, as a private secondary university preparatory school which includes a co ed junior school. Vancouver Island University (formerly Malaspina University College) has a regional campus in the Municipality of North Cowichan, bordering Duncan, that offers a Bachelor of Education degree as well as programs and courses in university transfer, access, trades and applied technology, health and human services, and career and academic preparation. The campus also has a Continuing Education department that offers certificate programs, personal and professional development courses, and online courses. The current campus opened for classes in June 2011. Also bordering Duncan in the Municipality of North Cowichan, there are two public secondary schools, Cowichan Secondary School, and Quamichan Secondary School, as well as several elementary schools. The head offices of School District 79 Cowichan Valley are also located in North Cowichan. In the Cowichan region there are also has two denominational independent schools: Queen of Angels (Catholic school), serving preschool to Grade 9 students, and Duncan Christian School, whose campus is home to both an independent elementary and high school. Sunrise Waldorf School is a non denominational K 8 independent school offering Waldorf education in the Cowichan Valley.

The Cowichan Community Sportsplex is located on the border of Duncan, but in the Municipality of North Cowichan and is the home of the British Columbia Hockey League's Cowichan Valley Capitals, who play in the Cowichan Community Sportsplex. It is home to a number of other sports and athletics organizations including the Cowichan Valley Athletic Club's (CVAC) Jaguars one of the many clubs and teams that practice & compete out of the extensive Cowichan Sportsplex.