Victoria, British Columbia

Template:British Columbia municipality infobox Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, the westernmost Canadian province. Located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Victoria is a global tourism destination seeing more than 3.65 million visitors a year who inject more than 1 billion dollars into the local economy. The city also receives economic benefits from its close proximity to Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, the Canadian military’s main Pacific naval base. Downtown Victoria also serves as the Greater Victoria regional downtown, where many of the night clubs, theatres, restaurants, pubs, are clustered, and much larger regional public events occur. Canada Day fireworks displays and Symphony Splash concerts draws 10000s of Greater Victorians to the downtown core.

Location and population

Located on the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the City of Victoria has a population of approximately 78,659. The Capital Regional District, comprising thirteen municipalities informally referred to as Greater Victoria, has a population of more than 345,000 and is the largest urban area on Vancouver Island. By population, Greater Victoria is the 15th largest city metropolitan area in Canada.

Victoria is well-known for its disproportionately large retiree population.^{[citation needed]} Retirees throughout Canada are drawn to Victoria's mild climate, beautiful scenery, year-round golf season, and generally easy-going pace of life. An historically popular cliche about Victoria is that it is for "the newly wed and nearly dead!"

Economy

The city's chief industries are tourism, education, federal and provincial government administration and services.^{[citation needed]} Other nearby employers include the Canadian Forces (the Township of Esquimalt is the home of the Pacific headquarters of the Canadian Forces Maritime Command), and the University of Victoria (located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich). Other sectors of the Greater Victoria area economy include: investment and banking, online book publishing, various public and private schools, foodstuff manufacturing, light aircraft manufacturing (Viking Air), technology products, various high tech firms in pharmaceuticals and computers, engineering, architecture and telecomunications. A large West Corporation call centre is also located in the region (Saanichton), along with call centres of other corporations. Maximus Inc. and EDS corporations operate call centres after winning contracts to administer and operate Medical Services Plan services, formerly run directly by the British Columbia provincial government. Elections B.C.E., an independent agency of the BC Legislature, operates a temporary call centre from Victoria whenever there is a BC provincial general election or byelection.

Vancouver Island Advanced Technology Center is an umbrella organization, partnership between industry and education, promoting high tech industry development in the Victoria region. VIATeC members include Abebooks.

The May 24, 2007 edition of the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper reported that for the first time in Victoria history, high technology has over taken tourism as the top performing economic sector in Greater Victoria. A gala awards event was staged at the Victoria Conference Centre for business executives and companies that achieved excellence in their respective fields.

The Victoria Region is experiencing a booming real estate economy. The labour shortages and high cost of housing seem to mirror the economic trends of other booming Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. These factors are exerting pressure to raise the mimimum wage in British Columbia. The red hot construction industry has lured many workers away from other economic sectors with higher wages. It's very difficult to get skilled and unskilled workers in any industry, due to the low birth rate of Canada.^{[citation needed]} The available supply of jobs is fast out pacing the available supply of workers to meet domestic demand for labour. Some firms in all industries are resorting to importing foreign workers.

History

Prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the late 1700s, the Victoria area was home to several communities of Coast Salish peoples, including the Songhees. The Spanish and British took up the exploration of the northwest coast of North America beginning with the voyage of Captain James Cook in 1776, although the Victoria area of the Strait of Juan de Fuca was not penetrated until 1791. Spanish sailors visited Esquimalt Harbour (within the modern Capital Regional District) in 1790 and again in 1792. Erected in 1843 as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post on a site orginially called Camosun (the native work was "camosack", meaning "rush of water") and known briefly as "Fort Albert", the settlement was later christened Fort Victoria, in honour of the Queen. The Songhees established a village across the harbour from the fort. The Songhees' village was later moved north of Esquimalt. When the crown Colony of Vancouver Island was established in 1849, a town was laid out on the site and made the capital of the colony. The Chief Factor of the fort, James Douglas was made the second governor of the Vancouver Island colony (Richard Blanshard was first governor, Arthur Edward Kennedy was third and last governor), and would be the leading figure in the early development of the city until his retirement in 1864.

Wawadit'la, also known as Mungo Martin House, a Kwakwaka'wakw "big house", with heraldic pole. Built by Chief Mungo Martin in 1953. Located at Thunderbird Park in Victoria, British Columbia.

With the discovery of gold on the British Columbia mainland in 1858, Victoria became the port, supply base, and outfitting centre for miners on their way to the Fraser Canyon gold fields, mushrooming from a population of 300 to over 5000 literally within a few days. In 1866 when the island was politically united with the mainland, Victoria remained the capital of the new united colony and became the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871. Victoria was incorporated as a city in 1862. In 1865, Esquimalt was made the North Pacific home of the Royal Navy, and remains Canada's west coast naval base.

In 1886, with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway terminus on Burrard Inlet, Victoria's position as the commercial centre of British Columbia was irrevocably lost to the City of Vancouver. The city subsequently began cultivating an image of genteel civility within its natural setting, an image aided by the impressions of visitors such as Rudyard Kipling, the opening of the popular Butchart Gardens in 1904 and the construction of the Empress Hotel by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1908. Robert Dunsmuir, a leading industrialist whose interests included coal mines and a railway on Vancouver Island, constructed Craigdarroch Castle in the Rockland area, near the official residence of the province's lieutenant-governor. His son James Dunsmuir became premier and subsequently lieutenant-governor of the province and built his own grand residence at Hatley Park (used for several decades as a military college, now Royal Roads University) in the present City of Colwood.

A real estate and development boom ended just before World War I, leaving Victoria with a large stock of Edwardian public, commercial and residential structures that have greatly contributed to the City's character. A number of municipalities surrounding Victoria were incorporated during this period, including the Township of Esquimalt, the District of Oak Bay, and several municipalities on the Saanich Peninsula. Since World War II the Victoria area has seen relatively steady growth, becoming home to two major universities. Since the 1980s the western suburbs have been incorporated as new municipalities, such as Colwood and Langford. The thirteen municipal governments within the Capital Regional District afford the residents a great deal of local autonomy, although there are periodic calls for amalgamation.

Climate

File:Victoriaharbour2.jpg

Victoria's Inner Harbour with The Empress hotel in the background.

Victoria has a temperate climate that is usually classified as Marine west coast(Cfb), with mild, damp winters and relatively dry and mild summers. It is sometimes classified as a Mediterranean climate (Csb).

Daily temperatures rise above 30°C (86°F) on an average of one or two days per year and fall below -5°C (23°F) on an average of only 2 nights per year. During the winter, the average daily high and low temperatures are 8.2°C (47°F) and 3.6°C (38°F), respectively. The summer months are equally mild, with an average high temperature of 19.6°C (67°F) and low of 11.3°C (52°F). Victoria does occasionally experience more extreme temperatures. The highest temperature ever recorded in Victoria was 35.3°C (96°F) on July 23, 2004, while the coldest temperature on record was -15.6°C (4°F) on December 29, 1968 and January 28, 1950. Victoria has not recorded a temperature below -10°C (14°F) since 1990.

Total annual precipitation is just 608 mm (24in) at the Gonzales weather station in Victoria, contrasted to nearby Seattle, (137 km/85 miles away to the southeast), with 970mm (38in) of rainfall, or Vancouver, 100 km away, with 1,219 mm (48 in) of rainfall. Perhaps even more dramatic is the difference in rainfalls on Vancouver Island. Port Renfrew, just 80 km from Victoria on the wet southwest coast of Vancouver Island receives 3,671 mm (145 in). Even the Victoria Airport, 25 km north of the city, receives about 45 per cent more precipitation than the city proper. One of the most striking features of Victoria's climate is the distinct dry and rainy seasons. Nearly two thirds of the annual precipitation falls during the four wettest months, November to February. Precipitation in December, the wettest month (109 mm/4 in) is nearly eight times as high as in July, the driest month (14 mm/.5 in). During the summer months, Victoria is the driest major city in Canada.

Victoria averages just 26 cm (10 in) of snow annually. Every few decades, Victoria receives very large snowfalls, including the more than 100 cm (39 in) of snow that fell in December 1996. On the other hand, roughly one third of winters will see virtually no snow, with less than 5 cm (2 in) falling during the entire season. When snow does fall, it rarely lasts long on the ground. Victoria averages just 2-3 days per year with at least 5 cm (2 in) of snow on the ground.

The rain shadow effect also means that Victoria gets more sunshine than surrounding areas. With 2,223 hours of sun annually, Victoria is one of the sunniest places in British Columbia, and gets more sunshine than most other cities in Canada except those in the southern Prairies. The benefits of Victoria's climate are evident through the city's gardens, which are more likely to display drought-tolerant oak trees, eucalyptus, arbutus, and even bananas, than they are likely to feature evergreen conifers, which are typically associated with the coastal Pacific Northwest environment.

Colourful flowers bedeck the genteel "Garden City" downtown

		Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average daily maximum	°C	7.0	8.6	10.6	13.1	15.9	17.9	19.8	20.1	18.5	13.8	9.4	7.1	13.5
	°F	44.6	47.5	51.0	55.6	60.6	64.2	67.6	68.2	65.3	56.8	48.9	44.8	56.3
Average daily minimum	°C	3.0	3.7	4.5	6.0	8.2	10.0	11.3	11.7	10.7	7.9	5.0	3.2	7.1
	°F	37.4	38.7	40.1	42.8	46.8	50.0	52.3	53.1	51.3	46.2	41.0	37.8	44.8
Average precipitation	mm	94.3	71.7	46.5	28.5	25.8	20.7	14.0	19.7	27.4	51.2	98.9	108.9	607.6
	in	3.71	2.82	2.22	1.12	1.02	0.81	0.55	0.78	1.08	2.02	3.89	4.29	23.9
Average total snow	cm	9.7	3.5	1.1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4.1	7.8	26.3
	in	3.8	1.4	0.4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.6	3.1	10.4
Average Sunshine	h	78	102	150	205	267	271	331	303	222	148	81	65	2223
Data

Victoria's Harbour with Songhees condominiums in the background

The temperature range in Victoria is approximately 14°C.

Victoria's equable climate has also added to its reputation as the "City of Gardens". With its mild temperatures and plentiful sunshine, Victoria boasts gardens that are home to many plant species rarely found elsewhere in Canada. Several species of palms, eucalyptus, and even certain varieties of bananas can be seen growing throughout the area's gardens. The city takes pride in the many flowers that bloom during the winter and early spring, including crocuses, daffodils, early-blooming rhododendrons, cherry and plum trees. Every February there is an annual "flower count" in what for the rest of the country and most of the province is still the dead of winter.

Due to its Mediterranean-type climate, Victoria and its surrounding area (southeastern Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, and parts of the Lower Mainland and Sunshine Coast) is also home to many rare, native plants found nowhere else in Canada, including Quercus garryana (Garry oak), Arctostaphylos columbiana (Hairy manzanita), and Canada's only broadleaf evergreen tree, Arbutus menziesii (Pacific madrone). Many of these endangered species exist here at the northern end of their range, and are found as far south as Central and Southern California, and even parts of Mexico.

Physiography and soils

The landscape of Victoria was molded by water in various forms. Pleistocene glaciation put the area under a thick ice cover, the weight of which depressed the land below present sea level. These glaciers also deposited stony sandy loam till. As they retreated, their meltwater left thick deposits of sand and gravel. Marine clay settled on what would later become dry land. Post-glacial rebound exposed the present-day terrain to air, raising beach and mud deposits well above sea level. The resulting soils are highly variable in texture, and abrupt textural changes are common. In general, clays are most likely to be encountered in the northern part of town and in depressions. The southern part has coarse-textured subsoils and loamy topsoils. Sandy loams and loamy sands are common in the eastern part adjoining Oak Bay. Victoria's soils are relatively unleached and less acidic than soils elsewhere on the British Columbia coast. Their thick dark topsoils denoted a high level of fertility which made them valuable for farming until urbanization took over.

Neighbourhoods of Victoria

File:Empress HDR in morning.png

The Empress hotel in the morning.

File:British Columbia legislature building roof close up.jpg

The Parliament Buildings roof with a gold-covered statue of Captain George Vancouver

The following is a list of neighbourhoods in the City of Victoria, as defined by the city planning department. For a list of neighbourhoods in other area municipalities, see Greater Victoria, or the individual entries for those municipalities.

• Burnside
• Downtown
• Fairfield
• James Bay
• Fernwood
• Harris Green
• North Jubilee
• North Park
• Oaklands
• Rockland
• South Jubilee
• Victoria West

Other city districts often regarded as neighbourhoods include:

• Chinatown
• Rock Bay
• Oak Bay Border
• Songhees
• Selkirk

Parks

The Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria, British Columbia

File:Victoria skyline BC.jpg

Victoria, British Columbia

Beacon Hill Park is the central city's main urban green space. Its area of 75 hectares adjacent to Victoria's southern shore includes numerous playing fields, manicured gardens, exotic species of plants and animals such as wild peacocks, a petting zoo, and views of the Straight of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic mountain range. The sport of cricket has been played in Beacon Hill Park since the mid-nineteenth century. Each summer, Beacon Hill Park plays host to several outdoor concerts, and the Luminara Community Lantern Festival.

The extensive system of parks in Victoria also includes a few areas of natural Garry oak meadow habitat, an increasingly scarce ecosystem that once dominated the region.

Tourism and landmarks

File:Victoriaskyline.jpg

Part of Victoria's skyline in May 2006 from Thunderbird Park.

In the heart of downtown are the British Columbia Parliament Buildings, The Empress Hotel, the gothic Christ Church Cathedral, and the Royal British Columbia Museum, with large exhibits on local Aboriginal peoples, Natural History, Modern History, along with traveling international exhibits. In addition, the heart of downtown also has the Emily Carr House, Royal London Wax Museum, Victoria Bug Zoo, and the Pacific Undersea Gardens, which showcases marine life of British Columbia. The oldest (and most intact) Chinatown in Canada is located within downtown. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is located close to downtown. CFB Esquimalt navy base has a base museum dedicated to naval and military history, located in the Naden part of the base.

North of the city on the Saanich Peninsula are the Butchart Gardens, one of the biggest tourist attractions on the island, as well as the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, part of the National Research Council of Canada, Victoria Butterfly Gardens and Centre of the Universe planetarium. There are also numerous National Historic Sites in close proximity to Victoria, such as the Fisgard Lighthouse, Craigflower Manor and Schoolhouse, Hatley Castle and Hatley Park and Fort Rodd Hill, which is a coastal artillery fort built in the late 1890s, located west of the city in Colwood. Also located west of the city is Western Speedway, a 4/10th-mile oval vehicular race track and the largest in Western Canada.

Entertainment

File:Chinatown Victoria gate lion hires.jpg

One of the stone lions that guards the gate of Chinatown in Victoria.

File:Totem pole VicBC.jpg

Totem pole on the inner harbour.

The Victoria Symphony, led by Tania Miller, performs at the Royal Theatre and the Farquhar Auditorium of the University of Victoria from September to May. Every B.C.E. Day weekend, the Symphony mounts Symphony Splash, an outdoor event that includes a performance by the orchestra sitting on a barge in Victoria's Inner Harbour. Streets in the local area are closed, as each year approximately 40,000 people attend a variety of concerts and events throughout the day. The event culminates with the Symphony's evening concert, with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture as the grand finale, complete with cannon-fire, a pealing carillon and a fireworks display to honour BC Day. Pacific Opera Victoria and the Victoria Philharmonic Choir both stage two or three productions each year at the Macpherson or Royal Theatres.

The Theatrical Arts have had somewhat more difficulty making their mark. The Bastion Theatre, a professional dramatic company, functioned in Victoria through the 1970s and '80s and performed high quality dramatic productions calculated to appeal to a middle-brow audience but ultimately was obliged to declare bankruptcy, Victoria's transient and geriatric population with roots elsewhere in Canada not providing sufficient demand for so expensive a cultural enterprise.^{[citation needed]} Other regional Theatre venues include: Phoenix Theatre student theatre at the University of Victoria.

The only Canadian Forces Primary Reserve brass/reed band on Vancouver Island is located in Victoria. The 5th (British Columbia) Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery Band traces its roots back to 1864, making it the oldest, continually-operational military band west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Its mandate is to support the island's military community by performing at military dinners, parades and ceremonies, and other events. The band performs weekly in August at Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site where the Regiment started manning the guns of the fort in 1896, and also performs every year at the Cameron Bandshell at Beacon Hill Park.

The current major sporting and entertainment complex, for Victoria and Vancouver Island Region, is the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre arena. It replaced the former Victoria Memorial Arena, which was constructed by efforts of World War II veterans as a monument to fallen comrades. World War I, World War II, Korean War, and other conflict veterans are also commemorated. Fallen Canadian soldiers in past, present, and future wars and/or United Nations, NATO missions are noted, or will be noted by the main lobby monument at the Save On Foods Memorial Centre. The arena is the home of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) team, Victoria Salmon Kings, owned by RG Properties Limited, a real estate development firm that built the Victoria Save On Foods Memorial Centre, and Prospera Place Arena in Kelowna.

Transportation

The Victoria International Airport has non-stop flights to and from Toronto, Honolulu, Salt Lake City, Seattle and many cities throughout Western Canada. Multiple scheduled helicopter and seaplane flights are available daily between Victoria harbour and Vancouver International Airport or Vancouver harbour. The BC Ferries Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal, located 29 kilometers north of Victoria, has bi-hourly sailings to Tsawwassen (a ferry terminal south of Vancouver) and to many of the Gulf Islands. The Washington State Ferry terminal in Sidney provides ferry service to Friday Harbor, Orcas Island, and ultimately Anacortes, Washington. In Victoria's Inner Harbour, an international ferry terminal provides car ferry service to Port Angeles, Washington, high-speed catamaran service to downtown Seattle, and seasonal passenger ferries to destinations in Washington including Friday Harbor, Port Angeles, and Bellingham. Victoria also serves as the western terminus (Mile Zero) for Canada's Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world.

Education

The city of Victoria lies entirely within the Greater Victoria School District.

The Victoria area has three post secondary educational institutions: University of Victoria (UVic), Camosun College, Royal Roads University. UVic was once rated the 2nd and 3rd best comprehensive university in all Canada by MacLean's magazine's college/university ratings issue. ^{[citation needed]}Notable Canadian politicians like Stockwell Day were once students of UVic. Day was the former Canadian Alliance Party leader and currently Public Security Minister in Stephen Harper's Conservative Party of Canada government. There is one international school, in Metchosin Municipality, devoted to the ideals of a united world of peaceful cooperation and coexistence, Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific. Pearson College is named after former Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and architect of the United Nations Peace Keeping program.

There are also several private vocational and English (ESL) training schools available for people who want to learn the English language or upgrade new job market skills.

Notable Victorians

Notable people born in Greater Victoria or who once resided in the region include:

• David Anderson, former federal Environment Minister, Liberal Party of Canada
• Emily Carr
• Ida Chong, Liberal Party of British Columbia, Minister, politician, CGA
• Geoff Courtnall
• Russ Courtnall
• David Foster
• Nelly Furtado
  • March 21, 2007, marked the celebration of Nelly Furtado Day, a municipal occasion, celebrated in Victoria.
• Rich Harden
• Silken Laumann, Olympic Games rower & medal winner
• Alan Lowe, Mayor of Victoria, politician, architect, Victoria High School graduate
• Gary Lunn, Federal Government Minister, member of the Conservative Party of Canada
• Carolyn Mark
• Keith Martin, Liberal Party of Canada, Member of Parliament, politician
• Beau Mirchoff
• Michael D. Moore
• Steve Nash
• Nell Shipman
• Cliff Thorburn
• Ian Tyson

Sister cities

Victoria has four Sister Cities:

• Suzhou, People's Republic of China
• Morioka, Japan   (other sister cities in Japan)
• Napier, New Zealand
• Khabarovsk, Russia

Sports teams

• The Victoria Cougars are perhaps the most famous sports franchise the city has known, winning the Stanley Cup as members of the PCHA in 1925. They exist today in the form of a Junior 'B' team playing in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League. Other Victoria sport teams include:

• Victoria Salmon Kings (ECHL)
• Victoria Grizzlies (British Columbia Hockey League)
• Victoria Shamrocks (Western Lacrosse Association)
• Victoria Rebels (CJFL)
• Victoria United (Pacific Coast Soccer League)
• Victoria Vikes teams at the University of Victoria
• Victoria Rams sports teams of Camosun College

Defunct teams

• Victoria Capitals (Canadian Baseball League)

Sport personalities from Victoria

• Former NASCAR driver Rick O'Dell is from the city.
• Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, although born in South Africa, grew up in Victoria.
• MLB pitcher Rich Harden grew up in Victoria.
• Former NHL stars Russ Courtnall and Geoff Courtnall are from the Victoria area.
• Lacrosse players Gary Gait and Paul Gait were born and raised in Victoria.
• Former field hockey international Deb Whitten was born in Victoria.
• NHLer Matt Pettinger was raised in Victoria.

Media outlets

Print

• Victoria Times-Colonist
• Monday Magazine
• The Martlet - UVic student newspaper
• Black Press
• The Nexus - Camosun College student newspaper

AM radio

• AM 900 - CKMO, Camosun College campus radio
• AM 1070 - CFAX, news/talk

FM radio

• FM 88.9 - CBUX, Espace musique
• FM 90.5 - CBCV, CBC Radio One
• FM 91.3 - CJZN (The Zone @ 91-3), modern rock
• FM 92.1 - CBU-2, CBC Radio Two
• FM 98.5 - CIOC (Ocean 98.5), soft adult contemporary
• FM 100.3 - CKKQ (100.3 The Q!), active adult rock
• FM 101.9 - CFUV, University of Victoria campus radio
• FM 103.1 - CHTT (Jack FM), adult hits
• FM 107.3 - CHBE (Kool FM), hot adult contemporary

Television

There are two local stations and a community access channel in Victoria:

• Channel 6: CHEK (CH)
• Channel 53: CIVI (A-Channel)
• Cable 11: "Shaw TV", Shaw Communications community channel

Victoria is the only Canadian provincial capital without a local CBC TV affiliate. The region is considered to be a part of the Vancouver television market, receiving most stations that broadcast from across the Strait of Georgia, including the CBC, CTV, and Global networks.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Victoria, British Columbia

• List of mayors of Victoria, British Columbia
• Canadian cities
• Monarchy in British Columbia
• School District 61 Greater Victoria

External links

• Maps and aerial photos
• Victoria Official Tourism Website
• Victoria BC Travel & Tourism Information
• Victoria Official website
• Photos of Victoria - Terra Galleria
• Live Victoria events calendar
• Vibrant Victoria Development, Culture, and Entertainment in Victoria
• Gulch Budget Guide to Victoria, BC
• A History of Victoria 19th century Victoria\
• A unique system of networked weather stations covering Victoria
• Victoria Information including Accommodations and B&B's\
• Travel guide to Victoria, British Columbia from Wikitravel

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