Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is a Canadian city, and the provincial capital of British Columbia.

Victoria also refers to Greater Victoria including this municipality and those immediately surrounding it. It is also a member municipality of the Capital Regional District.

Location

It is near the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Greater Victoria has a population of approximately 326,000. It is the largest city on the island. (Some unfamiliar with the region assume that Vancouver lies on Vancouver Island, but it is on the nearby mainland.) The chief industry is tourism. The township of Esquimalt, which forms part of greater Victoria, is the base for the Pacific Fleet of the Canadian Forces.

History

Founded in 1843 as Fort Camosun, a Hudson's Bay Company post, the city was later called Fort Victoria. When Vancouver Island became a crown colony, a town was laid out on the site and made the capital of the colony. 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 Cariboo gold fields. In 1866 when the island was politically united with the mainland, Victoria remained the capital of the colony and became the provincial capital in 1871.

Climate

Victoria's climate is reasonably temperate, with very few daily temperatures above 30°C (86°F) or below 0°C (32°F). In January, the average daily high and low temperatures are 6.9°C (44.4°F) and 0.7°C (33.3°F), respectively. In July, Victoria enjoys considerably warmer temperatures, averaging a daily high of 21.9°C (71.4°F) and low of 10.8°C (51.4°F). The record daily high temperature was 36.1°C (97.0°F) on July 16, 1941, and the record daily low temperature was -15.6°C (3.9°F) on January 28, 1950.

Concerning precipitation, Victoria is fairly wet during the winter, but suffers from several weeks of drought-like conditions during the summer. In July, Victoria only receives an average of 19.5 mm (0.8 inch) of rain. In January, Victoria receives an average of 121.8 mm (4.9 inches) of rain, but only an average of 15.2 cm (6.1 inches) of snow, a figure skewed by the Great Blizzard of 1996, where Victoria was buried under 120 cm (4 feet) of snow and received 64.5 cm (25.8 inches) of snow in one day. However, with a mean snow depth of 1 cm in December and January only, Victoria is called by many the "Land of No Snow", where people phone up their relatives on the Prairies and in Ontario and Quebec to make a joke about how they are digging themselves out of six feet of snow while Victorians bike to work and play outdoor sports.

Other Facts

According 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 now ranked 5th for overall crime (10,146 crimes per 100,000 population).

It is the seat of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. The oldest Chinatown in Canada is also within Victoria. In the heart of downtown is the Royal British Columbia Museum, with large galleries on local First Peoples, Natural History and Modern History. North of the city on the Saanich Peninsula are the Butchart Gardens, one of the biggest tourist attractions on the island. There are also two National Historic Sites, Fisgard Lighthouse and Fort Rodd Hill, an coastal artillery fort built in the late 1890s.

Victoria is home to several post-secondary institutions including University of Victoria, Royal Roads University, and Camosun College. The city is served by Victoria International Airport and several ferry terminals to Vancouver, the Gulf Islands, and Washington state.

See Also

• List of mayors of Victoria, British Columbia
• Canadian cities