Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The city of Victoria is the seventh most densely populated city in Canada with .
Victoria is the southernmost major city in Western Canada and is about southwest from British Columbia's largest city, Vancouver, on the mainland. The city is about from Seattle, Washington, United States, by airplane, seaplane, ferry, or the Victoria Clipper passenger-only ferry, and from Port Angeles, Washington, United States, by the ferry across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Named for Queen Victoria, the city is one of the oldest in the Pacific Northwest, with British settlement beginning in 1843. The city has retained a large number of its historic buildings, in particular its two most famous landmarks, the Parliament Buildings (finished in 1897 and home of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia) and the Empress Hotel (opened in 1908). The city's Chinatown is the second oldest in North America, after San Francisco. The region's Coast Salish First Nations peoples established communities in the area long before European settlement, which had large populations at the time of European exploration.
Known as "the Garden City", Victoria is an attractive city and a popular tourism destination and has a regional technology sector that has risen to be its largest revenue-generating private industry. In 2019, Victoria was in the top 20 world cities for quality of life, according to Numbeo.
History Prior to the arrival of European navigators in the late 1700s, the Greater Victoria area was home to several communities of Coast Salish peoples, including the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) and W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) peoples.
Early European exploration (1770–1871) The Spanish and British took up the exploration of the northwest coast, beginning with the visits of Juan Pérez in 1774, and of James Cook in 1778. Although the Victoria area of the Strait of Juan de Fuca was not explored until 1790, Spanish sailors visited Esquimalt Harbour (just west of Victoria proper) in 1790, 1791, and 1792.
In 1841, James Douglas was charged with the duty of setting up a trading post on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Upon the recommendation by George Simpson a new more northerly post should be built in case Fort Vancouver fell into American hands (see Oregon boundary dispute). Douglas founded Fort Victoria on the site of present-day Victoria in anticipation of the outcome of the Oregon Treaty in 1846, extending the British North America/United States border along the 49th parallel from the Rockies to the Strait of Georgia.
In 1843, a Hudson's Bay Company trading post was erected on a site originally called Camosack meaning "rush of water". Known briefly as "Fort Albert", the settlement was renamed "Fort Victoria" in November 1843, in honour of Queen Victoria.W. Kaye Lamb, "The Founding of Fort Victoria", B.C Historical Quarterly, Vol. VII (April 1943), p. 88 The Songhees established a village across the harbour from the fort. The Songhees' village was later moved north of Esquimalt in 1911.The crown colony was established in 1849. Between 1850 and 1854, a series of treaty agreements known as the Douglas Treaties were made with indigenous communities to purchase certain plots of land in exchange for goods. These agreements contributed to a town being laid out on the site and made the capital of the colony, though controversy has followed about the ethical negotiation and upholding of rights by the colonial government.Watts, R., 'Tsawout file claim to James Island; Assertion based on 1852 treaty signed by James Douglas', Times-Colonist (Victoria, B.C), 26 January 2018 The superintendent of the fort, Chief Factor 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.
When news of the discovery of gold on the British Columbia mainland reached San Francisco 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 5,000 within a few days. Victoria was incorporated as a city in 1862. In 1862, Victoria was the epicentre of the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic which devastated First Nations, killing about two-thirds of all natives in British Columbia. In 1865, the North Pacific home of the Royal Navy was established in Esquimalt and today is Canada's Pacific coast naval base.
In 1866, the island was politically united with the mainland, with New Westminster serving as the provisional capital of the new united colony. Governor Frederick Seymour opted to hold a vote in the newly formed Legislative Council to determine the location of a permanent capital, as to not anger residents of the island. Two rounds of voting were held, and Victoria was chosen in both, to the chagrin of the mainland. Seymour subsequently designated Victoria the colonial capital on May 25, 1868, and the city became the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871.
Modern history (1871–present)
In the latter half of the 19th century, the Port of Victoria became one of North America's largest importers of opium, serving the opium trade from Hong Kong and distribution into North America. Opium trade was legal and unregulated until 1865, when the legislature issued licences and levied duties on its import and sale. The opium trade was banned in 1908.
British Columbia's first streetcar service began in Victoria on 22 February 1890, when the National Electric Tramway and Lighting Company Limited launched four electric streetcars on two routes with of track.
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, 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 Royal Roads Military College, now civilian 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 buildings that have greatly contributed to the city's character. With the economic crash and an abundance of unmarried men, Victoria became an excellent location for military recruiting. Two militia infantry battalions, the 88th Victoria Fusiliers and the 50th Gordon Highlanders, formed in the immediate pre-war period. Victoria was the home of Sir Arthur Currie. He had been a high-school teacher and real-estate agent prior to the war and was the Commanding Officer of the Gordon Highlanders in the summer of 1914. Before the end of the war he commanded the Canadian Corps. 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, which are known collectively as the Western Communities.
Greater Victoria periodically experiences calls for the amalgamation of the thirteen municipal governments within the Capital Regional District. The opponents of amalgamation state that separate governance affords residents a greater deal of local autonomy. The proponents of amalgamation argue it would reduce duplication of services, while allowing for more efficient use of resources and the ability to better handle broad, regional issues and long-term planning.
Geography Topography
The landscape of Victoria was formed by volcanism followed 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 melt water 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 denote a high level of fertility which made them valuable for farming prior to urbanization.
Climate Depending on the classification used, Victoria either has a warm-summer Mediterranean or oceanic climate (Köppen: Csb, Trewartha: Do); with fresh, dry, sunny summers, and cool, cloudy, rainy winters.
Victoria is farther north than many "cold-winter" cities, such as Ottawa, Quebec City, and Minneapolis. However, westerly winds and Pacific Ocean currents keep Victoria's winter temperatures substantially higher, with an average January temperature of (Gonzales) and (University of Victoria) compared to Ottawa, the nation's capital, with .
At the Victoria Gonzales weather station, daily temperatures rise above on average less than one day per year and fall below on average only ten nights per year. Victoria has recorded completely freeze-free winter seasons four times (in 1925–26, 1939–40, 1999–2000, and 2002–03). 1999 is the only calendar year on record without a single occurrence of frost. During this time the city went 718 days without freezing, starting on 23 December 1998 and ending 10 December 2000. The second longest frost-free period was a 686-day stretch covering 1925 and 1926, marking the first and last time the city has gone the entire season without dropping below .
During the winter, the average daily high and low temperatures are , respectively. The summer months are also relatively mild, with an average high temperature of and low of , although inland areas often experience warmer daytime highs. The highest temperature ever recorded at Victoria Gonzales was on 28 June 2021; The coldest temperature on record is , first set on 2 December 1941. The average annual temperature varies from a high of set in 2004 to a low of set in 1916.