Coquitlam-Burke Mountain.
4 candidates, one seat.

Three Nations describe this land as part of their territory, each in its own words. The kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) First Nation says its name in the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language means "Red Fish up the River", after a run of sockeye salmon that once thrived in its waters. Its website says the name applies to its people, its lands, the river and the lake, and that the Nation has lived in its territory around the Coquitlam River Watershed since before remembered time. It names the Coquitlam River skʷƛ̓əma:ɬ stál̕əw̓ and calls Coquitlam Lake, skʷƛ̓əma:ɬ x̌acaʔ, its ancestral home and a sacred place.

The Katzie First Nation, which writes its name q̓ic̓əy̓, says its territory also takes in wilderness and parkland that includes portions of Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. BC Parks says the park includes part of Katzie territory. The Tsleil-Waututh Nation, səlilwətaɬ, the People of the Inlet, states the size of its traditional territory as 1,865 square kilometres (190,000 hectares) and says it takes in wilderness watersheds north to Mount Garibaldi, Coquitlam Lake in the east and Howe Sound in the west. The City of Coquitlam's own acknowledgement says the city stands on kʷikʷəƛ̓əm traditional and ancestral lands, including parts that were historically shared with the q̓ic̓əy̓ and other Coast Salish Peoples.

BC Geographical Names says Mount Burke was named by Captain Richards of the Royal Navy, presumably in association with Addington Point and the Pitt River, after the late Edmund Burke, a British statesman. The entry dates the naming to "c1859", an approximate year. The Office adopted the name on 3 May 1951 from a label on British Admiralty Chart 1922, published from 1868 onward. BC Parks says Pinecone Burke Park includes Burke Mountain in Coquitlam and Pinecone Peak, which stands 2,027 metres high and is the park's highest point.

The Coquitlam River has its own entry. The Geographical Names Office adopted the name on 8 November 1922 from a label on BC map 2B of 1914, and it records that Trutch's 1871 map of British Columbia spelled the name Coquitlan. The entry gives the language of origin as Halqʼeméylem. Another name inside the park, Mount Bonnycastle, honours W. R. Bonnycastle, the engineer in charge of water power surveys in the area in 1913 and 1914.

The Coquitlam River Watershed Society says the first dam was a small crib dam built at the outlet of Coquitlam Lake by the City of New Westminster in 1892 to supply water. In 1905 the Vancouver Power Company, a predecessor of BC Hydro, completed a log dam below the outlet and a tunnel to Buntzen Lake for hydroelectric power. The society says a larger dam was finished by 1915, raised the lake level by 18.3 metres and increased the lake's surface area to 12 square kilometres. BC Hydro dates the Coquitlam Dam to 1913 and says it changed the lives of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm people spiritually, economically and culturally, because adult salmon could no longer swim up to the lake and young sockeye were trapped in it.

The society says a new dam was built just downstream of the old one in late 2009 to address earthquake safety, and that the first adult sockeye came back to the Coquitlam River in 2009. On 23 May 2026 the Nation, BC Hydro, Metro Vancouver and Fisheries and Oceans Canada opened the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm t́ák̓ʷ hatchery, a name BC Hydro translates as "Red Fish up the River Return Home". BC Hydro says the hatchery can produce up to 25,000 smolts a year over the next 10 years, and that the Nation has released 9,000 coho fry and welcomed back five adult sockeye.

The Sports Car Club of British Columbia built the Westwood Racing Circuit on a parcel of Crown land in the District of Coquitlam. The track was named for Earle C. Westwood, then Minister of Recreation and Conservation, who helped with the lease. The City of Coquitlam Archives says volunteers held a sod-turning on 6 December 1958 and that the first official race took place on 26 July 1959. It describes the circuit as Canada's first purpose-built road racing circuit. Gilles Villeneuve raced Formula Atlantic cars there from 1974 to 1976, and in 1968 its 10-hour endurance race set the record for the longest race in Canada.

In the late 1980s the Province did not renew the lease and planned to sell a large parcel that included the track. The archives say some 1,400 acres were sold and built over as today's Westwood Plateau, and that Deer's Leap Place and Carousel Court take their names from parts of the track. The last race, a seven-hour endurance race, ran on 8 October 1990 and was won by the brothers Ross and Gord Bentley. The commission's 2023 report keeps the core of the plateau in this district, and the 2021 census puts 31.4% of the district's homes in the group built from 1991 to 2000.

In 1973 the Director of Planning presented a report to Coquitlam Council that proposed a new Town Centre on more than 300 acres. In 1976 the developer Ira Young presented a plan for Coquitlam Centre, and the Columbian newspaper later described the $50 million project as the largest shopping complex under one roof in the Lower Mainland. Ground was broken on 26 May 1977. The mall opened on 15 August 1979 with Woodward's, Eaton's and The Bay under one roof and a car park of 4,200 stalls, and Mayor Jim Tonn cut the ribbon, according to the City's archive exhibit.

In the same area, Lafarge's gravel pit became a park. The City says Parks and Recreation Director Don Cunnings suggested that the company donate the land to Coquitlam in exchange for permission to dig gravel below street level, and that the Province donated adjacent land. A City document records that Mayor Lou Sekora opened the $30 million Town Centre Park in May 1989. The BC Summer Games opened there on 25 July 1991, during Coquitlam's centennial year, with events at 32 venues across the Tri-Cities and more than 4,200 participants. Lafarge Lake now fills the old pit inside a park of 103 acres.

The District of Coquitlam was incorporated by letters patent dated 25 July 1891, and its first council met at Kelly's Hall at Westminster Junction, now in Port Coquitlam. The City of Coquitlam Archives records that new letters patent changed its status to a city municipality in 1992. In the town centre, Douglas College bought land from the City in 1990 for a campus on Pinetree Way. The David Lam campus opened on 18 October 1996, when David Lam, who had been Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia from 1988 to 1995, cut the ribbon. A Health Sciences Building was added in 2008. Evergreen Arts says Mayor Lou Sekora opened the Evergreen Cultural Centre in October 1996, and that the City owns the building.

The Evergreen extension of SkyTrain opened in December 2016. A Transport Canada backgrounder gives the trip from Lafarge Lake-Douglas Station in Coquitlam to Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby as 15 minutes and the length of the extension as 11 kilometres. It puts the cost at $1.43 billion, shared among Canada, British Columbia and TransLink, with the Province contributing $586 million.

The City says Burke Mountain has been planned for population growth since the 1990s, through the Hyde Creek, Smiling Creek and Partington Creek neighbourhood plans. Council adopted the Northwest Burke Vision on 17 July 2017. It is a 30-year plan for 400 hectares that the City calls the last large undeveloped area in Coquitlam. On 14 December 2020 Council approved the scope of the Hazel-Coy plan for a neighbourhood of 70 hectares on Burke Mountain, where the Vision calls for up to 950 homes. The City says the Burke Mountain neighbourhood has more than 20,000 residents and projects 50,000 in 25 years.

Schools and a community centre are following. The provincial government's release of 4 September 2023 says Coast Salish Elementary, at 3538 Sheffield Avenue, opened with 430 new student spaces and a child care centre. The Province provided $38.3 million and the school district $5 million. A release of 29 August 2024 says construction began on Burke Mountain Middle/Secondary school, with 1,000 seats and $25 million from the school district. Ground was broken on the Burke Mountain Community Centre on 12 May 2026, and the City expects it to open in 2029. The City's consultation in 2019 and 2020 reached more than 1,000 people, with three interpreted sessions in Mandarin, Korean and Farsi.