Encyclopedia
Victoria is a Canadian city, and the
provincial capital of
British Columbia. It is also the seat of the
Capital Regional District. Victoria is located on the southern tip of
Vancouver Island and is a major tourist destination. Its other main industries are government and the Canadian Navy.
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 74,100, and is the thirteenth most populous municipality in the province. The
metropolitan area comprising thirteen municipalities informally referred to as
Greater Victoria has a population of more than 335,000 and is the largest urban area on Vancouver Island. . The city's chief industries are tourism and provincial government administration. Other major employers include the
Canadian Forces , and the
University of Victoria .
The city of Greater Victoria is the southernmost urban area in Western
Canada, located below the northern
49th parallel, which bisects Vancouver Island at the community of Ladysmith, British Columbia.
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 Songish . 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 in 1790 and again in 1792. Founded by the
Hudson's Bay Company in 1843 as
Fort Camosun as a
fur trading post, the settlement was later called
Fort Victoria, in honour of
Queen Victoria . 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 governor of the colony, and would be the leading figure in the early development of the city until his retirement in 1864.
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. Sir 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 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
Victoria has a sub-Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and warm, dry summers. Daily temperatures rise above 30°C on an average of one or two days per year and fall below -5°C on an average of only 2 nights per year. During the winter, the average daily high and low temperatures are 8.2°C and 3.6°C , respectively. The summer months are equally mild, with an average high temperature of 19.6°C and low of 11.3°C . Victoria does occasionally experience more extreme temperatures. The highest temperature ever recorded in Victoria was 35.3°C on July 23, 2004, while the coldest temperature on record was -15.6°C on December 29, 1968. Victoria has not recorded a temperature below -10°C since 1990.
Thanks to the
rain shadow effect of the nearby
Olympic Mountains in Washington State, Victoria is the driest location on the B.C. coast, with much lower rainfall than other nearby areas. Total annual precipitation is just 608mm at the Gonzales weather station in Victoria compared with 1,589 mm in
Vancouver, 100 km to the north, and 3,671mm at
Port Renfrew, just 80 km away on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. Even the Victoria Airport, 25 km north of the city, receives about 45% 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 is nearly eight times as high as in July, the driest month . During the summer months, Victoria is the driest major city in Canada.
Victoria averages just 26cm of snow annually. Every few decades, Victoria receives very large snowfalls, including the more than 100cm of snow that fell in December 1996. On the other hand, roughly one third of winters will see virtually no snow, with less than 5cm 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 5cm of snow on the ground.
The rainshadow 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.
|
| 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 |
|---|
| 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 |
|---|
|
| 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 |
|---|
| Average total snow | cm | 9.7 | 3.5 | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.1 | 7.8 | 26.3 |
|---|
| Average Sunshine | h | 78 | 102 | 150 | 205 | 267 | 271 | 331 | 303 | 222 | 148 | 81 | 65 | 2223 |
|---|
| Data |
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 Februrary 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, southeastern Vancouver Island is also home to many rare native plants found nowhere else in Canada, including
Quercus garryana ,
Arctostaphylos columbiana , and Canada's only broadleaf evergreen tree,
Arbutus menziesii . 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, which is still in progress, let the present-day terrain be exposed to air, with beach sand and gravel deposits in many places. 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
The following is a list of neighbourhoods in the City of Victoria. For a list of neighbourhoods in other area municipalities, see
Greater Victoria, or the individual entries for those municipalities.
- Chinatown
- East Burnside-Gorge
- Fairfield
- Fernwood
- James Bay
- North Jubilee
- South Jubilee
- North Park
- Rockland
- Downtown
- Rock Bay
Other facts
According to Statistics Canada, Victoria's crime rate in 1999 was the second highest in the country . By 2002, Victoria was ranked fifth for overall crime . These figures, however, represent the skewing effect of considering crimes committed in "downtown" Victoria in relation only to the "downtown" population. The Greater Victoria area comprises 13 separate municipalities . The City of Victoria acts as "downtown" for all of the outlying municipalities, hence the counter-intuitive and inflated crime figures.
The oldest
Chinatown in Canada is located within Victoria. In the heart of downtown are the
Parliament Buildings, the Fairmont Empress Hotel and the acclaimed
Royal British Columbia Museum, with large exhibits on local Aboriginal peoples,
Natural History and
Modern History. In addition, the heart of downtown also has the Royal London Wax Museum,
Victoria Bug Zoo, The BC Experience at the Crystal Garden and the
Pacific Undersea Gardens, which showcases the Giant Pacific Octopus, the Wolf Eel and other marine life of British Columbia. 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,
Victoria Butterfly Gardens and Centre of the Universe planetarium. There are also numerous
National Historic Sites, 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 you will find Western Speedway, a 4/10th-mile oval and the largest in Western Canada.
Beacon Hill Park is the city's main urban green space. Its area of 620 square kilometres lie along Victoria's southern shore, and includes numerous playing fields, manicured gardens, exotic species of plants and animals such as wild peacocks, and a petting zoo. The park also includes a few areas of natural
Garry oak meadow habitat, an increasingly scarce ecosystem that once dominated the region. Each summer, Beacon Hill Park plays host to several outdoor concerts, and the popular Luminara Community Lantern Festival.
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 BC Day weekend, the Symphony mounts "Symphony Splash", a popular outdoor event that includs 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, replete with cannon-fire, a pealing carillon and a fireworks display to honour BC Day.
The only Canadian Forces Primary Reserve brass/reed band on
Vancouver Island is located in Victoria. The 5th 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.
Victoria is served by the Victoria International Airport and three ferry terminals. The BC Ferries Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal, located 29 kilometers north of Victoria is a bustling terminal, with hourly sailings to Tsawwassen and many
Gulf Islands. The Washington State Ferry terminal in Sidney provides ferry service to Anacortes, Washington. In Victoria's Inner Harbour, a ferry terminal provides ferry service to Port Angeles,
Washington state. Victoria also serves as the western terminus for Canada's
Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world.
With its laid back attitude, it is not surprising that for over 10 years, the Hempology 101 non-profit society has gathered weekly in Victoria to openly defy prohibition laws and promote the legalization of marijuana. This group has involved itself with city politics in an attempt to increase its support.
Notable people born in Greater Victoria include:
...
...
NBA star
Steve Nash, although born in
South Africa, grew up in Victoria, BC.
Sister cities
Victoria has four
Sister Cities:
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.
- NASCAR driver Rick O'Dell is from the city.
Media outlets
Print
- Victoria Times-Colonist is an English-language daily newspaper [i] in Victoria, British Columbia [i], Canada [i]...
- Monday Magazine
- The Martlet - UVic student newspaper
- Black Press
AM radio
|image = |established = 1971
...
campus radio
- AM 1070 - CFAX, news/talk
FM radio
Television
See also
- List of mayors of Victoria, British Columbia
- Canadian cities
- School District 61 Greater Victoria
External links
- — Categorized photos of Victoria and region
