The Canadian government actually lists two men born in what would become Canada as the inventors of the first electric light bulb, though others were experimenting; they sold their patent to Thomas Edison a few years later as he pushed his company’s version.

Edison’s patent came in 1880, and he began to commercialize the new product. In 1886, the City of Vancouver was officially founded, so light bulbs were a fairly recent invention at that time.

By 1914, lights and other uses for electricity meant huge electrical poles were built in Vancouver. They do not look safe by today’s standards.