Victoria, British Columbia
From Free net encyclopedia
- This article refers to the city of Victoria. Information on Greater Victoria can be found in the Greater Victoria article. For electoral districts with the name Victoria, or in the area of greater Victoria, please see Victoria (electoral districts)
Template:Canadian City Image:Victoriaarms.jpg Victoria is a Canadian city, and the provincial capital of British Columbia. It has a population of 74,125 (according to the 2001 census) and an area of 19.68 square kilometres. It is also the seat of the Capital Regional District. The greater metropolitan area has more than 300,000 people. Victoria is located on Vancouver Island, and is a major tourist destination for many people visiting the province of British Columbia.
Contents |
Location and population
Located near the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island, and overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Greater Victoria has a population of approximately 335,000 CMA. It is the largest urban area on Vancouver Island (not to be confused with the city of Vancouver, which lies 90 minutes northeast by ferry on the British Columbia mainland). The city's chief industries are tourism and government. The township of Esquimalt, which forms part of Greater Victoria, is the base for the Pacific Fleet of the Canadian Forces.
"Greater Victoria" is the southernmost urban area in western Canada, as it is located below the 49th parallel.
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 (Songhees). The Spanish, British and Americans took up the exploration of the northwest coast of North America in earnest in the 1770s. Spanish sailors visited Esquimalt harbour (within the modern Capital Regional District) in 1790 and again in 1792. Founded by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1843 as Fort Camosun (after the "camosack", a type of wild lily native to southern Vancouver Island) as a fur trading post, the settlement was later called Fort Victoria, in honour of Queen Victoria [1]. 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. 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 (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 the City of Colwood and the City of 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
Image:Victoriaharbour2.jpg Victoria's climate is temperate, with daily temperatures rarely rising above 30 °C (86 °F) or falling below 0 °C (32 °F). In January, the average daily high and low temperatures are 7.0 °C (44.6 °F) and 3 °C (37.4 °F), respectively. The summer months are equally mild, with an average July high temperature of 19.8 °C (67.6 °F) and low of 11.3 °C (52.3 °F). The record daily high temperature was 35.3 °C (95.5 °F) on July 23, 2004, and the record daily low temperature was -15.6 °C (3.9 °F) on January 28, 1950.
Victoria experiences a mild, rainy winter and very dry summers. The wettest month on average is December, with 109 mm (4.3 inches), compared to just 14 mm (0.5 inches) in July. In January, Victoria receives an average of 15.2 cm (6.1 inches) of snow, a figure skewed by the record-breaking Great Blizzard of 1996, when the city was buried under 120 cm (4 feet) of snow, receiving 64.5 cm (25.8 inches) in just one day. Generally speaking, however, snow is an uncommon occurrence, and is usually limited to one or two brief dustings per year.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Average precipitation | mm | 94 | 72 | 47 | 29 | 26 | 21 | 14 | 20 | 27 | 51 | 99 | 109 |
| Average total snow | cm | 10 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| Average Sunshine | h | 74 | 94 | 150 | 202 | 267 | 274 | 328 | 297 | 204 | 153 | 83 | 67 |
| Data[2] is for Victoria Gonzales | |||||||||||||
Victoria's equable climate has also added to its reputation as the "City of Gardens". With its mild temperatures and plentiful sunshine (2,193.3 hours per year), Victoria boasts gardens that are home to many plant species rarely found elsewhere in Canada. Several species of palms, eucalyptus, and certain varieties of bananas can be seen growing throughout the area's gardens.
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 (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.
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
- Cook Street Village
- East Burnside-Gorge
- Fairfield
- Fernwood
- Harris Green
- Hillside
- Humboldt Valley
- James Bay
- Jubilee
- North Park
- Rockland
- Victoria West
Other facts
Image:Parlament victoria BC.jpgAccording to Statistics Canada, Victoria's crime rate in 1999 was the 2nd highest in the country (11,865 crimes per 100,000 population). By 2002, Victoria was ranked 5th for overall crime (10,146 crimes per 100,000 population). 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 (total pop. 335,000 {CMA}). The City of Victoria (pop. 78,000) acts as "downtown" for all of the outlying municipalities, hence the counter-intuitive, inflated crime figures.
Image:Chinatown Victoria gate lion.jpg
The oldest (and most intact) 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[3]. There are also numerous National Historic Sites, like Fisgard Lighthouse, Craigflower Manor and Schoolhouse, Hatley Castle and Hatley Park and Fort Rodd Hill, 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. It comprises more than 620,000 square metres 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, the first woman to hold such a position with a major Canadian orchestra, 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, including a performance by the orchestra while on a barge on 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 (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.
Victoria is served by Victoria International Airport and ferry terminals to Vancouver, the Gulf Islands, and Washington state. Victoria serves as the western terminus (Mile Zero) for Canada's Trans Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world.
People born in Greater Victoria include:
- Emily Carr
- Russ Courtnall
- Geoff Courtnall
- David Foster
- Nelly Furtado
- Carolyn Mark
- Michael D. Moore
- Rich Harden
- Nell Shipman
- Cliff Thorburn
- Ian Tyson
NBA star Steve Nash, although born in South Africa, grew up in Victoria, BC.
Sister cities
Victoria's has four Sister Cities:
| Napier, New Zealand | |
| Suzhou, China | |
| Khabarovsk, Russia | |
| Morioka, Japan (other sister cities in Japan ) |
Sports teams
- Victoria Salmon Kings (East Coast Hockey League)
- Victoria Salsa (British Columbia Hockey League)
- Victoria Shamrocks (Western Lacrosse Association)
- Victoria Vikes teams at the University of Victoria
- 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.
Media outlets
- Victoria Times-Colonist
- Monday Magazine[4]
- The Martlet - Uvic student newspaper
- Victoria News
AM Radio
- CKMO 900 kHz - VILLAGE 900 - Camosun College
- CFAX 1070 kHz - CFAX - News Talk
FM Radio
- CBC R1 90.5 MHz - CBC Radio One - Canadian Brodcasting Corporation
- CJZN 91.3 MHz - The Zone - Modern Rock
- CBC R2 92.1 MHz - CBC Radio Two - Canadian Brodcasting Corporation
- CIOC 98.5 MHz - The Ocean - Light Rock
- CKKQ 100.3 MHz - The Q - Adult Rock
- CFUV 101.9 MHz - CFUV - University of Victoria
- CHTT 103.1 MHz - JACK FM - Variety
- CHBE 107.3 MHz - Kool FM - Variety
Television
See also
External links
Template:Mapit-Canada-cityscale
- Victoria Official Tourism Website
- Victoria BC Travel & Tourism Information
- Hatley Castle Official Website
- Ocean Island Hostel's guide to Victoria
- Victoria Official website
- Photos of Victoria - Terra Galleria
- Live Victoria events calendar
- Bellingham to Victoria Passenger Ferry
- VIATeC: Technology Association and Job Links
- Victoria Sports Authority Discussion Forum
- Extensive weather station network in the Victoria area
- University of Victoria
| Members of the Capital Regional District | |
|---|---|
|
Municipalities: Central Saanich | Colwood | Esquimalt | Highlands | Langford | Metchosin | North Saanich | Oak Bay | Saanich | Sidney | Sooke | Victoria | View Royal
| |