Victoria (British Columbia)
| Victoria | |||
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| Motto : Semper liber (Always free) | |||
| Location in British Columbia | |||
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| State : |
 Canada
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| Province : | British Columbia | ||
| Regional District : | Capital Regional District | ||
| Coordinates : | 48 ° 26 ′ N , 123 ° 22 ′ W | ||
| Height : | 23 m | ||
| Area : | 19.68 km² | ||
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Inhabitants : - Metropolitan Area : |
85,792 (as of 2016) 367,770 (as of 2016) |
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| Population density : | 4,359.3 inhabitants / km² | ||
| Time zone : | Pacific Time ( UTC − 8 ) | ||
| Postal code : | V8N - V9E | ||
| Mayor : | Dean Fortin | ||
| Website : | www.victoria.ca | ||
 Victoria’s location on the southeast coast of Vancouver Island |
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Victoria is the capital of the Canadian province of British Columbia . It is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island and has its origins in a trading post built by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1843 . The name goes back to the British Queen Victoria .
Under the name Fort Victoria , the city became the center of the fur trade in the western areas of Canada. It originated in an area that was inhabited by the Coast Salish , a large group of Native American ethnic groups living in the northwestern United States and British Columbia. Apart from the parliament building, the land of which was bought by the city in 2006, the city is still on Indian territory.
The capital of the British crown colony Vancouver Island , then the United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia and finally the Canadian province of the same name developed from the central trading post . Its economic basis was initially trade, which was joined by the administration, the military and the police, and then the navy. The exploitation of natural resources, especially wood, coal and the fish-rich waters, but especially the gold discoveries on the mainland, made the settlement a comparatively large city. However, it was overtaken by Vancouver . Strong immigration from Great Britain and political dominance gave it a decidedly "English" character.
In addition to the actual city of Victoria (85,792 inhabitants in 2016), the metropolitan area Capital Regional District comprises twelve other municipalities, which together have 367,770 inhabitants. At the same time the city is part and core of the Greater Victoria metropolitan area .
geography
The core city of Victoria (Downtown) is located on a small bay on the south-east side of Vancouver Island facing away from the Pacific and off the coast of the western Canadian province of British Columbia. Then there are the so-called surrounding neighborhoods (Neighborhoods) , which together make up the city. The city in turn forms the core of the Capital Regional District , to which the metropolitan area was amalgamated. The vast majority of the residents of Vancouver Island live here.
The Juan de Fuca Strait separates the island from the United States , whose Olympic Mountains can be seen from Victoria to the south. To the east is the Strait of Georgia , home to hundreds of islands known as the Gulf Islands . The surrounding hilly landscape protects the urban area from the heavy rainfall on the west coast of the island. At the same time, the location is so convenient that it is rarely reached by storms.
The city is located south of the 49th parallel, which otherwise forms the border between the USA and Canada as far east as the Great Lakes .
Flora and fauna
The city's gardens and parks are based on Victorian influences, but also Native American ones . The British were initially surprised to find a landscape so close to their ideals. George Simpson , Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), who chose this position as the location for the main trading post, saw in the landscape with its park-like appearance “ a perfect Elysium in point of climate and scenery ” (German: “a perfect Elysium in relation on climate and landscape ”). The choice of location was largely influenced by the landscape, but also by the mild climate and the natural harbor.
The creators of this cultural landscape around Victoria were the Songhees , an ethnic group belonging to the coastal Salish , which is now recognized as a "tribe". They planted Camassia quamash , usually simply referred to as Camas , an agave species with blue flowers that was previously thought to be a lily plant . Your onions taste like very sweet, baked tomatoes, some like pears too. They have a diameter of 4–8 cm and weigh up to over 100 g. This cultivation and the care of the soil in particular transformed the landscape over the centuries and gave it its park-like character. The plant was also a sought-after trade item.
The tree-poor zones were created through the targeted use of fire. Particularly important for the Songhees was a certain type of oak, the Oregon oak ( Quercus garryana ), which gave its name to one of the neighboring towns. In addition to the grassland, they formed their own ecosystem , next to coastal areas dominated by Douglas firs or swamps. The Oregon oak is common between British Columbia and California , but grows best around Victoria. It is named after Nicholas Garry (approx. 1782-1856) of the Hudson's Bay Company and is over four hundred years old. Around 1800 this system covered around 15 km² in the Victoria area, today only 21 ha are left. The large parks in what is now the urban area are based on English and indigenous cultures to this day.
The vegetation found by the immigrants has long since ceased to correspond to the temperate rainforest otherwise predominant on the west coast , which mainly consisted of Sitka spruce , giant arborvitae , West American hemlocks , Douglas firs and Pacific yew trees . In this double sense, the city likes to call itself Great Victoria - The City of Gardens .
Salmon was the main diet of the coastal Salish and continues to play an important role in the city's diet to this day. Especially San Juan Island was often approached by canoe. Other fish such as herring and halibut , but also birds - Victoria has since 1931 in the port area, a 134-hectare sanctuary for migratory birds - were and are on the menu, this mussel species as Tresus nuttallii , which in English horse clam ( horse mussel is called).
Tourism benefits to a large extent from the fauna in the area. This is especially true for the whales, which are increasingly harassed by the fast boats of the whale watching . This particularly affects the orcas of the southern resident population , a permanent population consisting of around 80 animals.
climate
As it is on the entire west coast, the influence of the Kuroshio Current is very noticeable. The climate is very mild; temperatures rarely rise above 30 ° C or fall below 0 ° C. On an average of two days per year, the night temperature falls below −5 ° C. Summers are dry and winters are humid, but they are also the mildest in Canada. An average of 883 mm of precipitation falls annually, while Vancouver receives almost one and a half times that amount of rain. On the west coast of the island, however, there is heavy rainfall that is up to eight times as extensive as in Victoria. On average, 43.79 cm of snow falls per year, rarely more than 100 cm. Every third winter is practically without snow. The city receives over 2200 hours of sunshine per year.
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Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Victoria
Source: Canadian Climate Normals 1971-2000. Victoria International Airport. In: Environment and Climate Change Canada . Retrieved October 8, 2012 . ; wetterkontor.de
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Cityscape and structure
Downtown
The downtown (Downtown) with its pedestrian zone, restaurants and shops is located east of the Upper Harbor and the Inner Harbor , the sights, the Parliament building and where such Fairmont Empress Hotel are located. Downtown is mostly a listed building , especially the buildings built before 1945. The former warehouses, offices, bars, brothels and hotels have become restaurants, shops, pubs and art galleries, as have the early barracks. The former provincial court building housed the Maritime Museum of British Columbia for a long time . The courtroom from 1889 is fully preserved and the building was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1981 .
In Inner Harbor ferries, albeit only small boats to Port Angeles in Washington . The actual city port of Fisherman's Wharf makes him a lot of competition.
Neighborhoods
The City of Victoria is made up of 12 neighborhoods :
- Downtown-Harris Green, Downtown the oldest settlement core, Chinatown (this is where the first Chinese settled in the city, from whom Chinatown is still strongly influenced today),
- Burnside Gorge (Burnside and Rock Bay),
- Fairfield-Gonzales,
- Fernwood,
- Hillside Quadra,
- James Bay
- Jubilee (North J. and South J.),
- North Park
- Oaklands,
- Rockland,
- Victoria West.
Districts such as Fairfield (between Beacon Hill Park and Oak Bay) have a small-town character with low, mostly Victorian buildings and avenues. The place dates back to James Douglas ' Fairfield Farm. Similarly, Fernwood, which until the 1850s only formed the connection route from the Songhee village in Cadboro Bay to the downtown fort, is based on Hillside Farm . Fernwood Manor , which gave the neighborhood its name, was built in 1860. Oak Bay ('oak bay') with similar characteristics also goes back to the Songhees. The name is derived from the Garry oaks. Numerous wealthy retirees reside here. As early as the 19th century, its inhabitants resisted any industrialization. The Hudson's Bay Company originally set up a cattle ranch here to supply the fort, the Cadboro Bay Farm .
James Bay has several parks. From downtown southeast, past the Royal British Columbia Museum , with Thunderbird Park and Helmcken House , one encounters the most famous, Beacon Hill Park, which extends over 75 hectares to the coast, i.e. on Juan-de-Fuca-Strasse , which forms part of the Salish Sea that separates Vancouver Island from the mainland. The park named after a small hill in the core area (there was a beacon or beacon, a barrel on a stick to warn of the rocks of Brotchie Ledge) was established in 1882, but had been a protected since 1858 Area. It was a burial place for the local Indians, in whose honor Mungo Martin , who also designed Thunderbird Park, erected a 38.8 m tall totem pole in 1956 . This was the area that James Douglas was so enthusiastic about during his first exploration in 1842: “The place itself appears a perfect 'Eden' in the midst of the dreary wilderness of the North…” (“The place itself appears as a perfect Eden in the middle the gloomy wilderness of the north ... ”). At that time, the approximately 1,600 Songhees lived in two villages on Esquimalt Harbor and Cadboro Bay. There were no settlements in Beacon Hill Park, but a short time before Beacon Hill there was a defensive structure at Finlayson Point (built around 950), at Holland Point in the southwest and at Clover Point in the northwest of the park. James Deans , who is considered the city's first archaeologist , discovered 23 burial sites (cairns) in the park area alone in 1871 . Most were destroyed, but four of them were restored in 1986. Even the Indians were playing in the park, a hockey -like game called Ball qoqwialls that was played with oak sticks.
One of the city's oldest employers, Vancouver Island Brewery , is located in Rock Bay, north of downtown. Overall, industrialization is making itself much more noticeable here, and its negative effects are only slowly beginning to be eliminated.
Capital Regional District
Neighboring towns in the Capital Regional District are Esquimalt , Oak Bay and Saanich , the latter again being divided into North, Central Saanich, South Saanich and East Saanich. Sidney in the north forms its own community , from where ferries to the mainland (to Anacortes ) leave . The international airport and ferry terminal to Vancouver are also close to the 11,000-inhabitant town, which is also known as "Sydney by the Sea". Oak Bay, named after the characteristic Garry oak, has a population of over 18,000, is located on the east coast and is known as the "Tweed Curtain" to emphasize its particularly English characteristics - tea houses, British sweets, etc.
With almost 110,000 inhabitants, Saanich is not only considerably larger, albeit similarly British, but also less rural. It is home to the University of Victoria with over 18,000 students, the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory , which until 1918 owned the largest telescope in the world, and the renowned Horticulture Center of the Pacific . The place name goes back to the local coastal Salish, the Saanich .
The Regional District also includes rural districts such as the District of Highlands . Here it is already cooler and considerably more humid than in Victoria. The Lone Tree Regional Park is the culmination of an ecosystem that has enjoyed increasing protection since 1966, although this time and again clashes with property speculation. It consists of a total of 30 parks and hiking trails. The District of Langford with 18,000 inhabitants was only incorporated in 1992. It includes Glen Lake, Happy Valley, Florence Lake, Langford itself, Thetis Heights and the Goldstream area. As in many rural areas, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police provide the police here. Most of the residents have their own wells, and like the Highlands, this area also contributes to Victoria's drinking water supply. South to the coast is the District of Metchosin , which has barely 4,800 inhabitants and was incorporated in 1984. It includes Albert Head, William Head, Rocky Point, Happy Valley and the Kangaroo Road area. This is where Pearson College is located. In recent years these rural areas have seen frequent clashes over the construction of golf courses, roads, and new settlements that continue to expand the metropolitan area.
To the west is the District of Sooke , which was incorporated in 1999 and has a population of just under 10,000. Parks such as Galloping Goose Linear Park , East Sooke Park (with 1,422 hectares the largest park in the metropolitan area), Sooke Pot Holes and Sooke Harbor are concentrated here . The most famous hiking trail on the west coast, the West Coast Trail , has its entrance here towards Renfrew . There is also the Juan de Fuca Marine Park to the Jordan River.
The districts of Malahat to the west of the Victoria metropolitan area, to which the tribe of the same name owes its name, Shawnigan Lake and Mill Bay are still hardly connected to Victoria in terms of infrastructure and are very rural.
According to the 2011 census, the towns and districts in the Capital Regional District had the following population figures:
| CRD area | Residents |
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| Saanich | 109,752 |
| Victoria (City) | 80.017 |
| Langford | 29,228 |
| Oak Bay | 18,015 |
| Esquimalt | 16,209 |
| Colwood | 16.093 |
| Central Saanich | 15,936 |
| Sooke | 11,435 |
| Sidney | 11,178 |
| North Saanich | 11,089 |
| View Royal | 9,381 |
| Metchosin | 4,803 |
| Reserves of the First Nations (only partially in the CRD) |
4,562 |
| Juan de Fuca Electoral Area (only partially in the CRD) |
3,801 |
| Highlands | 2.120 |
history
→ See also: History of the Coastal Salish , History of British Columbia
Early history of the region
The regional Indian cultures can be traced back at least 4000 years, the settlement probably started earlier. Between about 500 and 1000 AD, a characteristic of these southern coastal Salish groups around Victoria is a large number of cairns , also known as burial mounds (burial mounds ). In the Rocky Point Area west of Victoria alone there are around 400 of these cairns today . They are not always easy to recognize in the landscape and often give rise to disputes (including judicial ones), as they represent a taboo zone in urban planning, similar to the reserves and provincial parks .
The societies that produced these monuments were based on gathering and hunting that occurred in seasonal migration cycles. Similar to contemporary Europe, there was a tripartite division of society into an economically, cultically and politically predominant “nobility”, then the simple tribesmen and finally slaves. The winter villages consisted of large long houses , which were mostly built from the wood of the giant tree of life . Large, often cross-tribal ceremonies such as the potlatch strengthened the social position of the tribal members and at the same time served to compensate for wealth through giving away. In principle, the city, apart from the parliament building, the land of which was bought by the city in 2006, is still on Indian territory. The compensation negotiations are still at an early stage.
At Finlayson Point they found a fortified winter village of the Songhees from before 1800, which mainly consisted of longhouses. Their settlements ranged from Songhees Point to what is now Johnsons Street Bridge. Where the Delta Hotel now stands was the longhouse of Chief Cheetlam George . Songhees Point, at the entrance to the Inner Harbor, was called Pallatsis, meaning “cradle place”, because there the children who had learned to walk left their cradles, which should ensure them a long life.
The current urban area was therefore inhabited by the Songhees or Lekwungen, who had created a multi-layered cultural landscape when James Cook was the first British to set foot on what would later become British Columbia in 1778. Only four years earlier, Spain had officially taken possession of the area, but had to give it up for good in 1794. On June 30, 1790, the Spaniard Don Manuel Quimper reached today's Esquimalt , claimed it for Spain and named it Puerto de Cordova . It was not until the participants of the George Vancouvers expedition were the first Europeans to set foot in what is now Victoria.
Fort Camosun
In 1842, the future governor James Douglas was looking for a suitable location for a larger trading post and therefore visited Sooke , Beecher Bay , Metchosin , Esquimalt and the later port of Victoria. The latter position seemed to be ideal to him.
European settlement began in 1843. That year, on June 4, construction began on Fort Camosun , a Hudson's Bay Company trading post , later known as Fort Victoria . Camosack or Camosun is the anglicized form of the Songhee word Kuo-sing-el-as , which denotes the strong fibers of the Pacific willow tree ( Salix lucida , subspecies lasiandra ), a species only found between Alaska and California. Nets made from these fibers were primarily used for fishing. The Indian village next to the fort was resettled as early as 1844 - for the first time we learn that the residents replied that the land was theirs - and in 1853 the tribe was given a reservation. 1,200 of them helped set the bulwarks. Their total number is estimated at 1,600. To get closer to the fort, which offered work and trade opportunities, the Indians first moved to a village called Skosappsom, which stood where the Legislative Assembly is now. Many moved from Cadboro Bay and built houses on Johnson Street, where the Empress Hotel now stands. Their main village, however, was on the opposite side of the harbor from the fort, within range of the cannons. In 1845 the Indians tried in vain to monopolize the intermediate trade by stealing the goods they had exchanged for furs from other traders.
Initially, the 40 British needed little land, but as early as 1855 around 160 acres had been plowed in what is now Beacon Park . Meanwhile, the pigs and sheep were consuming the songhees' camas plants. The Songhees also lost numerous burial sites in the park, in an area that James Douglas considered a Park Reserve as early as 1849 . When the Songhees killed some animals, Roderick Finlayson, head of the fort, aimed a cannon at the chief's house, warned the residents, and had the house shot down.
Crown colony, prospector
After the crown colony of Vancouver Island was founded in 1849, the settlement was expanded and made the capital. The Hudson's Bay Company had taken over the island on condition that it would take care of the settlement. The first sawmill was built on Mill Stream north of the city center as early as 1846. The Hudson's Bay Company also endeavored to add new activities to the exclusively trade-based activities and founded the Puget Sound Agricultural Company . This agricultural company received land from the Hudson's Bay Company on May 17, 1854 on the territory of the Kosapsom, today's Esquimalt Nation. This created the first farm on Vancouver Island, the Craigflower Farm , which still exists today and is protected as a historical heritage.
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From 1852, an initially weak, then swelling wave of settlements set in motion northwards after London had allowed the colony to sell uninhabited land. After gold was found on the mainland ( Fraser Canyon gold rush from 1858) Victoria became the supply base for the prospectors. The city of 300 inhabitants grew to over 5,000 within a few months, so that for the first time a daily newspaper could be found here, which was tellingly called The British Colonist . Another 10,000 to 20,000 people stayed here only briefly to move further north towards Yale . In the summer of 1858 alone, 225 buildings were built in Victoria. In 1859, the Hudson's Bay Company built a new department store, first from brick, where gold miners bought flour, pans, boots, blankets and ammunition. Commercial Row , a row of shops , arose behind it . In order to further increase the willingness to invest, the city was declared a free port in 1860 . At the same time, police barracks and a large prison were built to try to keep the lawless men under control. There were also three fire brigades in 1859 and 1860. The prospectors met up with James Yates, who had opened the first inn, The Ship Inn , in Victoria as early as 1853 . Further north, on the outskirts, were the Johnson Street taverns, most of which belonged to Alfred Waddington . Until the Klondike gold rush , sidewalks and houses were made of wood. Most of the subsequent buildings from around 1900 are still standing today. For forty years, the gold rush shaped the city through finds in various places.
In 1862 the now recognized settlement elected its first mayor, Thomas Harris. Land was auctioned off. The first gas lights were installed that illuminated the entrances to saloons and were soon to be found at every intersection. The shortage of women was tried to alleviate by recruiting people willing to marry, as in September 1862, when the Tynemouth dropped 61 young women at the port. In 1864, as the catastrophic smallpox epidemic of 1862 had severely decimated the warlike tribes of the north, the old fort was demolished and the land sold.
Most of the immigrants came from California . The influence of the USA grew - although it had already waived its claims in 1846 - and to the same extent the concern that this could also have political consequences. The settlement of the fleet in nearby Esquimalt may have been related to it. In addition, clashes broke out over American slaves who had fled. In September 1860, the sheriff of Victoria, under threat of violence, enforced that a “negro” named “Charlie” who had fled was not brought back to the USA.
However, the Hudson's Bay Company managed, under the leadership of Governor James Douglas, during the following Cariboo gold rush (from 1861) to divert the flow of gold prospectors over Vancouver and the Fraser Valley and to keep it politically under control. At the same time he encouraged immigration from Europe, especially from England. In addition, a brief gold rush on the nearby Leech River (1864) brought gold miners to Victoria, moving towards Sooke, and for whom a first road was built. This is where Leechtown originated, where gold is still found on a modest scale today. As it grew, the Hudson's Bay Company gradually lost its influence. Within 25 years, the trading post had become the most important city on the west coast of British North America.
Songhees
In 1853 the settlement area of the Songhees was reduced, but governor James Douglas contractually guaranteed them numerous usage and protective rights - one of the few contractual agreements with the First Nations in the province. In the rest of Canada, however, contracts such as the Numbered Treaties have been concluded.
From the beginning, a close cooperation developed between the settlement and the Songhees who had helped build the fort, as well as the other tribes of the coastal Salish , also beyond the Salish Sea . Many brought otter and beaver skins , oil and fat to trade and supplied the city with building materials, labor and food. Their canoes carried the mail. In 1859 over 2,800 Indians camped near the city, including perhaps 600 Songhees. The rest were Haida (405), Tsimshian (574), Stikine River Tlingit from Southern Alaska (223), Duncan Cowichan (111), Heiltsuk (126), Pacheedaht (62) and Kwakwaka'wakw (44). But this type of cooperation collapsed within a few weeks in 1862 due to a catastrophic smallpox epidemic that hit almost all the tribes between Washington and Alaska. James Douglas assessed the measles of 1848 as worse for the Songhees than the smallpox epidemic of 1836. In 1853, another 10% of the Songhees died, but it is unclear whether it was measles or smallpox. The Songhees were largely spared from the 1862 epidemic, however, as Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken was able to vaccinate several hundred of them.
From 1876 the decimated Indians were grouped together in reservations - around Victoria they belonged to the Cowichan Indian Agency , which covered large parts of the island - and from then on were subject to their own legislation, the Indian Act, as was the case in all of Canada . In 1911, the Songhees relocated to the Esquimalt area on the basis of a contract that is still valid today.
Esquimalt became the base of the Canadian fleet in the Pacific in 1865. Even in 1894, Victoria's growing merchant fleet, 59 schooners , was still largely based on Indian labor. 518 of the 1,336 employees were Indians. Numerous canoes were involved in the seal hunt in 1901 alone, in which 39 ships were involved, which captured a total of over 23,000 animals in the North Pacific (less than a third off British Columbia). 236 men worked in them - probably exclusively Indians who shot 1,268 animals. "Whites" were employed around 440.
Political advancement and withheld industrialization
From 1862 Victoria was a city with an elected mayor. After the political union of the Crown Colony Vancouver Island with the Crown Colony of British Columbia , created in 1858 , Victoria became the capital of the United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia in 1868 , from which the Canadian province of British Columbia emerged three years later .
James Douglas became the second governor of the colony (in 1851 from Vancouver Island, in 1858 from the crown colony of British Columbia). He was succeeded by Arthur Edward Kennedy to 1864. At first, the political representatives fought against joining the Canadian Confederation . But above all John Sebastian Helmcken , who had made the rail connection a prerequisite for joining Canada, and Joseph William Trutch ultimately campaigned successfully for it. The end of the railroad was the rapidly growing Vancouver, which soon overtook Victoria as the economic center of the west.
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The first session of the Vancouver Island Legislative Assembly was held in Fort Victoria in 1856. Three years later, the first government buildings were built on James Bay, South Fork, which were referred to as "bird cages" and were only replaced in 1897 by today's parliament building. Except from 1866 to 1868, when New Westminster was the capital for a short time , the provincial government met here. The current building was inaugurated in 1898. The City Hall , designed by John Teague since 1875 , was completed in the style of the Second Empire as early as 1890 . The City Hall was declared a National Monument of Historic Importance by the Canadian government on November 17, 1977 as the Victoria City Hall National Historic Site of Canada .
The first census was carried out in Victoria in 1871, in 1881 on all of Vancouver Island, again in 1891 and 1901. According to this, British Columbia had 176,546 inhabitants, including just under 21,000 in Victoria, of which 333 stated to be "Indians". If you add up all the people who were labeled “red”, the total is 532.
From 1861, Vancouver Island experienced another surge of immigration when the Cariboo gold rush broke out. Over the next few years, over 100,000 men migrated to Barkerville via Cariboo Wagon Road , but the vast majority of them ended up in Vancouver, not Victoria. Not only gold finds (as with Sooke), also coal finds attracted numerous people, as well as logging, fishing and agriculture. Later on, other industries were added to these rapidly developing industries, primarily railway construction. The Canadian Pacific Railway and Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway construction sites drew thousands. In addition, there was a beginning urbanization around Victoria, which in 1901 already had 20,919 inhabitants.
With this growing population, the transport and communication industries received strong impulses. In 1880 the Victoria and Esquimalt Telephone Company installed a first telephone line between the capital and Esquimalt, and in 1886 the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway to Nanaimo was completed. The RP Rithet , a steamboat, went up the Fraser River to Yale . But the construction industry also grew, and ultimately related branches such as the furniture industry. The pioneer here was John J. Sehl, who ran a furniture store on Government Street. Born in Germany in 1832, he came to New York at the age of twelve, worked in California in 1849, later working as a gold prospector at Fraser and Sooke, and married an Indian woman named Elizabeth (Van Allman) from Iowa . In Victoria he ran the Sehl Furniture Company until his death on June 18, 1904 , which was continued by his son John L. Sehl, who also married an Indian (Celia Tiber from North Dakota ). A second German, John Weiler from Nassau (born 1824), had followed a similar path and also founded a furniture company after 1861, which eventually became the largest in the province.
Increasingly, however, industrialists, above all Robert Dunsmuir with his stakes in coal mines and railway construction, ruled the capital. His son James Dunsmuir even became prime minister and lieutenant governor of the province. The construction boom of this phase of prosperity, which lasted until World War I, still shapes the cityscape today, which has a decidedly Victorian effect. Wooden houses dominated in private house construction and brick constructions in the public sector. The surrounding cities grew increasingly together with the metropolis, such as Esquimalt , the Oak Bay District and other places on the Saanich Peninsula , home of the eponymous Saanich , who were assigned a reservation in 1877. There were postal connections to San Francisco (three times a month by steamboat) and Portland , and a telegraph line via Nanaimo also connected the city to the mainland. The water supply came from Elk Lake. The first electric lights were installed in 1884.
An industrial structure developed with a focus on breweries (the first was the Lion Brewery , which exported to San Francisco, in 1858 the brewery for lager and bock beer by Joseph Loewen and LE Erb was established ), iron and sheet metal processing, soap production, shoes (Maurice Carey started making shoes on Yates Street), gloves and boots, matches and cigars (John Kurtz's White Labor Cigar Factory made Havana cigars ). Tourism was already starting, hotels were built, including brick buildings, and even coach rentals were profitable. The upscale lifestyle soon made the city an important center of consumption, not only for raw materials, but increasingly also for imported goods, such as tea.
The fluctuation in the city, which had around 7,000 inhabitants around 1882, was high. In addition, around 1,000 fishermen, miners and road builders returned to the city each winter, a number that had doubled since 1877. Despite coal discoveries, railway connections, etc. on Vancouver Island, the city did not develop into an industrial metropolis, but remained a government and administrative center that could play a certain role in regional trade, but was increasingly overshadowed by Vancouver and Seattle economically .
Immigrants from the Pacific region
The majority of the immigrants were British (i.e. English, Scots, Welsh) and Irish. They came first with the Hudson's Bay Company , but were also specifically recruited for colonization around Victoria and thus served as a counterweight to the heavy immigration from the USA, especially from California .
The first large group of Chinese came in 1858 in the wake of the Cariboo gold rush , after some of the explorers had already had Chinese on board. Many were from the Chinese province of Guangdong . Most of them lived in tents or wooden huts along what is now Johnson Street on the north side of a stream that still flowed there at the time, and grew vegetables that they soon sold in town. Ling Sing is considered to be the first Chinese citizen of British Columbia (1872). By 1875 immigration increased rapidly and by 1880 Chinatown was the largest settlement of its kind in all of Canada. The wooden houses were soon replaced by brick buildings, most of which still exist today. The trigger was probably a major fire in 1883, which largely destroyed the district and temporarily impoverished the community. In 1884 around 3,000 Chinese lived in the city, of whom only one in four could pay taxes. In 1885 there were exactly 9,629 Chinese workers throughout British Columbia. In 1901 there were 3,004 Chinese in the city and in 1911 there were already 3,458. Many had long since brought their families, and shops, theaters and schools sprang up. The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (not to be confused with the Hoy Sun Ning Yung Benevolent Association , which was more of a self-help organization) tried to resolve conflicts with non-Chinese people and represented the community. The city saw it as a kind of government of the Chinese minority. The oldest Chinese temple was built at 1713 Government Street, and in 1909 the first Chinese public school to teach Chinese.
Fan Tan , the game of chance held on the street of the same name, caused constant conflicts, and after 1908, when opium was banned in Canada, the police repeatedly raided for this reason. For a long time the government had condoned the opium business, which was smuggled into the USA, where it had previously been banned. In Victoria itself, consumption was not very widespread, judged John Sebastian Helmcken in 1884. In the Hart Block (531 Herald Street), an extensive brothel, the police often appeared on charges of forced prostitution and slavery . In 1884 the number of Chinese prostitutes was estimated at around a hundred, although they had probably ousted the Indian women. A police headquarters was built opposite the Chinese school. The Chinese encountered less violent racist clashes in Victoria than in Vancouver, but the legislation was not particularly moderating. They were only allowed to vote from 1947. One of the most common triggers for racist attacks was the fact that the Chinese were repeatedly used as wage pusher.
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While the Chinese lived on the northern edge of the core city, the Hawaiians preferred the south. Their residential street was called Kanaka Row . In 1901 there were 338 Japanese people in the District of Victoria who, unlike the Chinese, were not employed as industrial laborers or in the catering trade, but mainly as fishermen. The members of their community were interned during World War II . They were expropriated , mainly on the initiative of Ian Mackenzie , and some of them were deported to Japan.
Transport, tourism, expansion of the metropolitan area
Transport links became more and more important for Victoria. From 1903, a regular ferry service operated by the Victoria Terminal Railway and Ferry Company connected Sydney with the cities on the Fraser Estuary, especially the fast-growing Vancouver. In 1932 the first ferry ran from Sidney to Anacortes . BC Ferries emerged from these ferry companies in 1961 on a government initiative . At the beginning of the First World War the Canadian government built a military airfield (Patricia Bay Airport), the predecessor of today's International Airport .
Tourism, the fastest growing industry today, played an important role as early as the 19th century. For this purpose, the Canadian Pacific Railway built the Empress Hotel in 1905. In 1994 the city hosted the 15th Commonwealth Games , which featured well over three thousand athletes from over 60 countries, and in 1998 the tourism industry broke the $ 1 billion mark for the first time. In addition, the city expanded its educational institutions. In 1963, Victoria College became today's university .
Private car traffic reached Victoria relatively late. The first car drove in 1899. Only companies accepted the invention. In a brief phase around 1900 there were only electric cars and steam-powered vehicles. But around 1906 the internal combustion engine caught on and the increase in traffic required the first speed limits. The automobile club already had 50 members.
Little by little, the neighborhoods were included in urban development. This initially meant expanding the road network, but also supplying drinking water from the surrounding lakes; Recreational areas were developed. This led to disputes over property speculation. The coastal strip was and is particularly affected by this. Another reason why there are always disputes are the burial sites and archaeologically significant sites that have only recently been documented. To the west, however, the area quickly ends where the climate of Victoria is still as mild as in downtown. In addition, the 13 neighborhoods are politically independent and their residents prefer the rural atmosphere. The fragmented ownership structure and the mentality in the east of the city with a rural style of living also limit the expansion of property speculation.
It emerged as an overarching organization of the Capital Regional District (CRD), which also includes the southern Gulf Islands ( Saltspring , Galiano , Pender , Saturna , Mayne ). It covers around 2340 km² and has numerous offices. The CRD is now responsible for garbage and recycling, land reclamation, well construction and water purification and supply, for supporting artist groups, regional planning, healthcare, the around 30 regional parks, hiking trails, etc. It is also the only shareholder in the Capital Region Housing Corporation , the 1200 residential units belong. He can also enforce superordinate laws in the sub-municipalities, such as the smoking ban since 1996. He now plays an important role in balancing the conflicting interests in the use of the area, but is by no means a kind of superordinate administrative authority.
The conflicts in this area are based on constellations that are specific to Canadian cities, as they have crown lands. In 2001 the city of Victoria sold Crown Land, which has been subject to certain rights of use and, above all, restrictions since the British colonial era. This area was at the mouth of the Goldstream River, at the end of a long fjord known as Saanich Inlet . The Goldstream River and the Spaet-Berg (pronounced spa-eth) are also part of the Goldstream-River water protection area. There was also an old Indian village and a burial site. In 1913, 12 acres were designated as Goldstream Indian Reserve No. 13 , which in turn was only possible on Crown Land. The five Songhee Nations still share a reserve here today. But logging, as is still frequently used in Canada, i.e. large-scale clearing, damaged the city's drinking water and energy supply. In 1998 this procedure was stopped. The Goldstream Provincial Park was established after the closure of a hydroelectric power station.
In 2007, Forest Minister Rich Coleman released 28,000 hectares of woodland for private use ( Tree Farm Licenses 6, 19 and 25). The new owner, Western Forest Products , sold part of the land to developer Ender Ilkay, including the Sooke Potholes, an ecologically valuable area of almost 7.3 hectares. The building density in Canada ultimately depends on the size of the parcels into which the land can be divided. The dispute is still in full swing, with the CRD taking the side of the citizens who were not interviewed and whose claim to local recreation areas is endangered by too small parcelling.
population
The 2016 census revealed a population of 85,792 residents in the city. The population has increased by 7.2% compared to the last census in 2011, while the population in the province of British Columbia grew by 5.6% at the same time. For the metropolitan area, the 2016 census showed a population of 367,770 inhabitants and an above-average increase of 6.7%.
The 2011 census showed that the city with the 13 suburbs had 344,615 inhabitants. In 2006 it was 330,088. The actual core of the city had only 80,017 inhabitants in 2011 and only 78,659 in 2006. In 2001 the city had only 311,902 inhabitants, in 1996 only 304,287.
The proportion of old people is relatively high: 17.8% of the population were over 65 years old in 2006, 10,215 were even over 85, the median had risen in the previous ten years from 38.7 to 43.1, the number of Households from 129,350 to 145,430. The proportion of rental apartments fell from 37.8 to 35.2%, and the proportion of owner-occupied apartments and houses increased accordingly.
Multicultural society, First Nations and (non) visible minorities
In 2006, 129,580 inhabitants of British Columbia belonged to the Aboriginal population . In Victoria there were 10,905 people, 6,800 of whom belonged to the First Nations (5,410 were registered Indians ), 3,620 the Métis , 135 the Inuit . 130 gave multiple answers and accordingly probably came from different of these groups.
The number of immigrants from abroad had increased from 3.0 to 3.4% and those from Canada fell from 9.4 to 6.4%. The share of immigrants (landed immigrants) is 19.1%. 8,935 immigrants came from America (including 6,125 from the USA), 34,030 from Europe (including 19,395 from Great Britain), 2,225 from Africa and 15,290 from Asia. 5,555 came from China and Hong Kong , 2,810 from India and 1,775 from the Philippines . From “Oceania” (which includes Greenland and St. Pierre and Miquelon ) came 1,585. As a non-permanent residents , so as refugees or holders of study or work permits were 3,575 people. In the last five years alone, 5,975 people have immigrated, with the share from East and Southeast Asia increasing more strongly. But while 11,595 people immigrated from 1961–1970, only 10,070 came in 1991–2000, and 5,975 came again in the period 2001–2006, which represents a sharp increase.
In 2001 the "visible minority group" (visible minority, i.e. all non-whites or non-Caucasians with the exception of First Nations , Inuit and Métis ) were: Chinese (11,240), South Asians (5,775), Filipinos (1,815), Southeast Asians (1,245), Arabs (280), West Asians (410), Koreans (680), Japanese (1,740), Blacks (2,175), Latin Americans (1,165), other (210), mixed (460). This makes it clear that the vast majority of this visible minority comes from Asia, especially from East Asia. Across Canada, their proportion has far exceeded a million.
The indigenous people, on the other hand, belong to the invisible minorities and comprised three groups (First Nations, Métis and Inuit ) of a total of 8,700 people (2001) or almost 11,000 (2006, see above). For example, in downtown you can fall back on the Inner City Aboriginal Society , which offers social services and legal representation.
The city has 24 country teams, from the Alliance Française to the Edelweiss Club , from the Native Friendship Center to the Sons of Norway or the Vietnamese Association . Several associations are dedicated to researching their history, among which the Association Historique Francophone de Victoria and the BC Jewish Historical Society focus on French and Jewish history, respectively.
One of the most visible social problems is homelessness. Therefore, in January 2008, it was decided to move the 55 beds of the Streetlink aid organization to a municipal building on Ellice Street and increase this to 80 beds. There are also 24 positions for assisted living. The site on Store Street , which is still used by Streetlink , will be converted into 15 apartments in the same way, plus 26 further units in the adjacent Swift Street. The provincial house on Humboldt Street will also be converted into 53 units.
Population development
The Victoria Municipal Census of April 1871 (joining Canada in July), the first census, counted 1,054 heads of household, of which 61 were "native" and 10 were Chinese. The population was 3,630. In 1881 the city already had 18,623 inhabitants. In 1901 Victoria had exactly 20,919 inhabitants, plus 2,947 in the rural area, of which 3,000 were Chinese, 338 Japanese and 333 Indians. For every 14,304 men there were only 9,359 women.
Since then, the city has grown continuously, but only around a quarter of the residents of the CRD still live in Victoria itself.
| year | Residents |
|---|---|
| 1871 | 3,630 |
| 1881 | 18,623 |
| 1901 | 20,919 |
| 1921 | 38,727 |
| 1931 | 39,082 |
| 1941 | 44,068 |
| 1951 | 51,331 |
| 1961 | 54,941 |
| 1971 | 61,761 |
| 1981 | 64,379 |
| 1991 | 71,228 |
| 2001 | 74,125 |
| 2006 | 78.057 |
The CRD had 304,287 inhabitants in 1996, 311,902 five years later and 330,088 in 2006.
Religions and denominations
The predominant religion is Christianity , with the Protestant creeds being by far the largest group. Apart from the fact that over 11,000 residents did not specify their creed, the Protestants counted around 115,000, the Catholics around 48,000 (including Roman and "Eastern" Catholics, members of the Polish National Catholic Church and Old Catholics ), and the Orthodox just under 1,700 . 3,470 people were Sikhs , 3,315 were Buddhists , 1,550 Jews , 1,230 Muslims , 765 Hindus . Over 3,000 belonged to other religions. With 116,000 people, the strongest group was for the first time those who did not belong to any religion.
The Catholic diocese of Victoria is based in the capital and represents around 94,000 Catholics on Vancouver Island. It looks after twelve parishes in the Victoria area. The diocese's cathedral is St. Andrews Cathedral. Since 2004, Richard Gagnon has been the 16th Bishop of Victoria.
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The Victorian Jewish community has well over a thousand members. Most of them belong to conservative Judaism , followed by Reform Judaism and Orthodox Judaism . Cedar Hill Jewish cemetery is the oldest in Western Canada and the synagogue is Canada's oldest. Historical sources are in the Jewish History Archives in Vancouver, at W. 41st Avenue and in Granville.
Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims came and will come mainly through British colonial rule and through the continuing close contacts, e.g. B. in the form of the Commonwealth , according to Victoria - this is also an aspect of the British character of the city. For example, the Indian Sikhs built a temple in 1210 Topaz Avenue, which was probably built before 1912, Buddhists built Canada's oldest temple in 1905 and Muslims gather in Masjid al-Imam, the mosque on Quadra Street.
politics
From 1999 to 2008 the mayor was Alan Lowe, which means that he is entitled to the salutation His Worship . He had studied environmental studies in Manitoba and architecture in Oregon . Not only does he have Chinese ancestry, he was also the country's youngest mayor at the age of 38 . In 1999 he won over 43% of the vote, in 2002 even over 61%, but won the 2005 election by a narrow margin. 2008 Dean Fortin followed him in office.
In the provincial parliament, the legislative assembly of British Columbia , the city of Victoria has two seats. Since the May 2005 elections, Victoria-Beacon Hill and Victoria-Hillside constituencies have been held by MPs from the British Columbia New Democratic Party , which is in opposition to the ruling British Columbia Liberal Party .
Denise Savoie of the New Democratic Party is Victoria’s MP in the House of Commons .
Culture and sights
On the one hand, Victoria is considered the most British city in North America; The building and lifestyle are very much influenced by England, recognizable at first glance by the red double-decker buses. Well over a thousand buildings are included in an inventory of historical heritage. Similar to the gardens, country houses and parks, they are predominantly inspired by the British architectural style. This is particularly evident in downtown. On the other hand, music and theater draw numerous visitors to the city, mostly Canadians and Americans.
Around the Inner Harbor
In addition to the parliament building of the province of British Columbia , the Fairmont Empress Hotel , located directly on the harbor, is one of the most famous buildings in Victoria. With its 4 hectares , the parliament building and its surroundings are among the most valuable properties in the entire province. 2006 was estimated its value to 40 million dollars . But it was legally considered to be Indian territory until 2006. The government agreed on November 25, 2006 with the owners, the Songhees and Esquimalt on compensation of 31.5 million dollars. Each member of the Songhees should never be allowed to pay more than $ 2,000 from a fund. With a total of 700 tribal members of the two tribes, this makes 1.4 million. Another $ 8.5 million will be used to purchase replacement property from the state owned. They must be in Victoria or Esquimalt , Langford , Colwood or View Royal and cover no more than the same area as the old property. Finally, 3 million are to be raised to cover legal fees and to implement the contractual agreements. Similar arrangements were agreed for the Esquimalt.
Not far from the Parliament building is the most important museum in Western Canada, next to the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. With a focus on natural history, urban history, and First Nations history, the Royal British Columbia Museum attracts hundreds of thousands each year. The building houses the province's main archives, the British Columbia Archives . The complex also includes the oldest building in the city, according to John Sebastian Helmcken named Helmcken House . Opposite this is the oldest school in town, St Ann's Schoolhouse from 1858.
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria at 1040 Moss Street is a mix of art gallery and museum. Numerous works by Emily Carr can be found here, who had to struggle for recognition in conservative Victoria for a long time. The Swans Suite Hotel as part provides the Williams Collection , one of the largest collections of Western Canada, furniture, paintings and sculptures from the 17th to the 20th century. In addition, there is a focus on the art of the First Nations.
The core city itself, with its European appearance, its colorful houses and its small size, is particularly easy to access for pedestrians. The old city center of Victoria stretches to the right and left of Government Street from the Inner Harbor to the north. In addition, each quarter offers its own unique atmosphere. This is especially true of Chinatown , which is the oldest and best-preserved Chinese quarter in Canada (in America only the one in San Francisco is older). It goes back to 1858. There is also the oldest Buddhist temple in Canada, which is dedicated to the sea goddess Tam Kung, a construction that was started in 1905 (1713 Government Street). There is also Fan Tan Alley , one of the narrowest streets in the world. At its narrowest point, this street is only 90 centimeters wide and has repeatedly been a location for films.
Country houses and gardens
The Victorian country house Craigdarroch Castle (Gaelic for 'rocky oak course'), built from 1887 to 1890 by order of the industrialist Robert Dunsmuir, is located on a hill in the east of the city. The property never used by his client (Dunsmuir died in 1889) housed a military hospital after the First World War , Victoria College from 1921 to 1946 and then a music college. In 1979 the country house with its 39 rooms was converted into a museum. It is frequented by around 150,000 visitors annually.
The same applies to Hatley Park National Historic Site , a park with old trees and a castle-like building also commissioned by Dunsmuir, Hatley Castle from 1908. Seven of the eleven thickest Douglas firs in Canada are said to be there. In addition, the Royal Roads University and a museum have resided here since 1995 . The property was built by the architect Samuel Maclure, who was extremely important for Victoria's building history and came to the city in 1892.
On the Saanich Peninsula in the north, near Brentwood Bay, there are two extensive, park-like facilities. On the one hand the Butchart Gardens (22 hectares), which Jennie Butchart started to lay out in 1904, and on the other hand the Victoria Butterfly Gardens , which are located on West Saanich and Benvenuto Road and offer a habitat for almost 50 species of butterflies (plus 250 tropical plants). The Butchart Gardens consist, as the plural suggests, of several gardens, among them a Japanese (since 1908), an Italian, plus a rose garden (since 1929) with 250 types of roses. The gardens employ more than 50 gardeners. In 2004 two Indian artists each set up a totem pole. Originally, the successful building materials dealer Robert Pim Butchart exploited a lime pit here, which his wife turned into a huge garden, which to this day reflects the Canadian art of horticulture with over 700 species of plants. The same applies to the Abkhazi Gardens , which were created by Prince and Princess Abkhazi over four decades from 1946. Marjorie (Peggy) Pemberton-Carter, who fled Shanghai to Canada in 1945 , married the Georgian or Abkhazian exiled prince Nicholas Abkhazi from Tbilisi , who fled to Canada in 1919. After her death in 1987 and 1994, respectively, the Land Conservancy of British Columbia bought the land in 2000 to prevent a settlement from building it.
Churches
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Victoria was Anglican from the start thanks to the British residents. An Anglican cathedral was built here as early as the 1850s, but it burned down. Her successor was replaced by today's church from 1929. In addition, the Church of Our Lord , built in 1876, restored since 1998 and a listed building on Blanshard Street, should be mentioned. It belongs to the Reformed Episcopal Church , goes back to John Teague , and represents the so-called Carpenter Gothic or Rural Gothic style as part of the historical heritage . Governor James Douglas was a founding member of the community in 1874 and donated the property to her. Inside the church is a Boston organ (Appleton Organ) from 1827, which came to Victoria in 1875. The neighboring Cridge Hall was designed by Samuel Maclure.
The Catholic counterpart is St Andrews Cathedral . It is the third cathedral, because the first was from 1858 to 1884 the present chapel of St. Ann's Convent on Humboldt Street; the second was what is now St. Andrew's Square Building from 1884 to 1892 , near the present cathedral. The current cathedral was built on the model of a church near Québec . This architectural style, known as the High Victorian Gothic Style , also adopted numerous elements from medieval church construction in Europe. The first bishop of Victoria Modeste Demers is buried in the crypt , in office from 1847 to 1877.
Alexander Linnemann from Frankfurt delivered glass windows for St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in 1890, documents are in the Linnemann archive.
Music and theater
At the Jazzfest International , which takes place on the last weekend in June, over 300 music groups attract more than 35,000 spectators in ten days. The festival was launched by the Victoria Jazz Society in 1985. In 2002 Dave Brubeck performed here . In 1995 the Vancouver Island Blues Bash , which takes place annually on Labor Day , was created . With 150,000 visitors per year, however, the Folkfest, organized by the Inter-Cultural Association (ICA), is the largest open-air festival on Vancouver Island.
The Victoria Highland Games and Celtic Festival , which took place for the 153rd time in 2016 , is even more committed to its historical roots, in this case the Scottish ones. It goes back to the St. Andrew's and Caledonian Society, founded around 1860, and the Sir William Wallace Society , which held the event for the first time in 1864. Bagpipes and dance performances take place at Bullen Park in Esquimalt.
The same applies to the other main cultural root of Victoria besides the European, the Indian culture. The three-day First People's Festival takes place annually at the end of July / beginning of August . It is organized by the Victoria Native Friendship Center and the Royal British Columbia Museum .
The Victoria Symphony (Orchestra), which has existed since 1941, performs in the University's Royal Theater and Farquhar Auditorium between September and May. The Symphony Orchestra give open-air concerts on all ten public holidays - the event is called Symphony Splash and takes place in the Inner Harbor. Pacific Opera Victoria (POV), founded in 1980 , the Philharmonic Choir and Ballet Victoria (founded in 2002 ), which only existed for a few years, perform in Macpherson or the Royal Theater, and the choir also in churches. In addition, the Royal Canadian Artillery Band has existed since 1864 .
Several theaters shape the city. Firstly, these are the by the Royal & McPherson Theaters Society entertaining Royal Theater (founded in 1913) in 805 Broughton Street and the McPherson Playhouse (1914) in 3 Centennial Square. The Bastion Theater had to declare its bankruptcy in 1988, and the New Bastion Theater was also without fortune (bankruptcy in 1992). The Belfry Theater , on the other hand, has survived since 1974 and 1976. In addition, there is a university theater, the Phoenix Theater , then the Kaleidoscope Theater and the Intrepid Theater .
Economy and Infrastructure
economy
The main branches of employment are tourism, education, government and the authorities, and services. Numerous banks and increasingly technology companies also shape the picture. The wages and especially the real estate prices are correspondingly high.
The city is also home to the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory and the University of Victoria , two major employers. The port, which actually consists of three ports, the Outer Harbor for ocean-going ships, then the Inner and Upper Harbor , plus that of Esquimalt , still plays an important role . However, the shipping of raw materials is suffering from the decline in the US dollar , which has made wood, salmon and, in the meantime, minerals more expensive for the southern neighbor.
Victoria experienced a considerable economic boom in the post-war years. The pressure exerted on conservative and liberal forces by the British Columbia Social Credit Party (which mobilized over 30% of the electorate in 1952) played a significant role. Supported by them at the beginning, it formed a minority government. In the elections of 1956 it even won 38%. WAC Bennett became Prime Minister for the next 20 years. He started an ambitious infrastructure program based on the income from the then growing industries of wood, raw materials and energy. British Columbia Electric Railway and British Columbia Power Company were nationalized and combined with smaller electricity companies to form BC Hydro . Several dams were built and an electricity supply agreement was signed with the USA. Oil and gas were developed in the northeast of the province.
The government also set up BC Ferries , a ferry network to complement the provincial road network. The economic opportunities in turn attracted numerous artists, writers and scientists to the city, which was perceived and advertised as pleasant. Then there was the economic boom in East Asia, above all Japan. Since Victoria was heavily dependent on the policies of its largest employer, much depended on the state. When BC Hydro announced its first losses, the British Columbia Social Credit Party lost the 1972 election, but returned in 1975 and only lost power after the 1991 corruption scandals.
Glen Clark , former president of the BC Federation of Labor , became the new leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP) and won the 1996 election. With the change of government the focus was more on tourism. Numerous parks were established. However, unemployment and taxes rose. The plan to rebuild a shipbuilding industry failed. In 2001 the NDP was also voted out. The winner was Gordon Campbell's British Columbia Liberal Party with 77 out of 79 seats. He lowered the income tax and sold the British Columbia Railway to the Canadian National Railway . From 2002 onwards, large parts of the energy production were opened to private companies, who started building new dams. In addition to serious ecological consequences, this often undermines the promotion of tourism. Much more decisive, however, was the takeover of Hong Kong by the People's Republic of China , which brought numerous wealthy Chinese to British Columbia, especially Vancouver. Its capital, plus the rapidly growing Pacific economic area, made Victoria a wealthy city. Nevertheless, there has been a decline in real estate prices since the summer of 2006, which heralded the financial crisis in the USA.
This also slowed the growth of Victoria’s most important industry until 2006, tourism. Between 1998 and 2007, the number of tourists rose from around 2.2 million to over 3.6 million, and their length of stay varied between 2.0 and 3.5 days. They spent between $ 1.0 billion and $ 1.2 billion annually . For a long time, tourists from the USA predominated - around 2000 they made up almost 40% of tourists, since then their share has halved - but the number of tourists from Asia and Europe is now increasing. There are great hopes for tourists from China. There are also numerous short-term visitors, such as travelers on the cruise ships that dock at Ogden Point Terminal. Their number in 2007 was well over 300,000. Around three quarters of these short-term tourists stayed in the city in 2009, a total of 87% of all tourists. Daily expenses, however, fell from $ 273 in 2007 to $ 247 in 2009. 77% of the visitors in 2009 had already been to Victoria at least once, 18% came at least six times a year. 47% said they came for pleasure, 24% visited relatives and friends, 6% came to weddings or funerals, to hospitals and especially to educational institutions. Around 42% of the visitors came from the province, 13% from the neighboring US state of Washington .
In the meantime, however, high-tech companies have turned over more than 1.6 billion dollars, leaving the largest industry to date behind. This also applies to the number of jobs. Companies like GenoLogics Life Sciences Software in the software industry, but also those like Triton Logging - which won environmental awards although they belong to the wood industry but set themselves apart from the prevailing practices of the industry - or employ Etraffic Solutions , Contech Electronics , Archipelago Marine Research , etc. meanwhile more and more employees. Overall, Victoria is a city, like the whole province, whose labor market is based on countless small and medium-sized businesses.
Despite these resilient structures, the unemployment rate in Greater Victoria rose from barely more than 3% in May 2008 to 6.4% in May 2009. The food and hospitality sectors suffered particularly badly, where 6,700 jobs were lost within one year. But the technical and scientific area also recorded a decrease of 3,200 jobs, similar to the public sector with 3,000 jobs. Still, the unemployment rate was below that of the province (7.4%) or that of Canada (8.4%). In July 2009 the corresponding values were 6.1, 7.8 and 8.7%.
traffic
Victoria is on the Trans Canada Highway , which begins exactly at the corner of Douglas Street and Dallas Road and runs through the city as Highway 1 . The first cars came in 1899, the first buses came into use in 1923. Trolleybuses were used in 1945 , but in 1948 the trams, which had opened with 6 street cars since 1890, were discontinued . In 1961 BC Electric was taken over by BC Hydro (actually BC Hydro and Power Authority ). The current owner is BC Transit , a Crown Corporation , a state-controlled company. In 2000, Victoria was the first city in North America to introduce regular double-decker bus operations, and in 1992 the city was the first in the province to introduce low-floor vehicles.
The city has one international airport, Victoria International Airport ( IATA code : YYJ , ICAO code : CYYJ , English Victoria International Airport ). The airport is outside Victoria in the community of Sidney , which is also an airport for seaplanes. However, many seaplanes operate from the airport in the inner harbor ( IATA code : YWH , ICAO code: CYWH , English Victoria Inner Harbor Airport or Victoria Harbor Water Airport ), both to Seattle and to the airport and port of Vancouver. The airport in the inner harbor is also one of the important places from which the other sea aerodromes on the island are approached.
The departure point for BC Ferries' ferries to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal south of Vancouver and to several Gulf Islands is the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal just under 30 km north of the center of Victoria. Washington State Ferries, on the other hand, has its dock in Sidney , from where it sails to Friday Harbor , Orcas Island and to Anacortes in the US state of Washington. There is also a car ferry to Port Angeles from the Inner Harbor, and there are high-speed ferries to Seattle and Vancouver.
The backbone of local public transport ( ÖPNV ) is the extensive city bus system of the Victoria Regional Transit System , which in turn is part of BC Transit . With the exception of Vancouver, the company is responsible for all public transport in British Columbia and is headquartered in Victoria. It dates back to 1890 and the National Electric Tramway and Light Company . This was taken over by the British Columbia Electric Railway as a result of a traffic accident at the Point Ellice Bridge that left 55 victims . BC Transit published a feasibility study in May 2011, according to which a rail-based system with trams traveling on its own route (“light rail”) could meet future requirements more economically and ecologically than the existing bus system.
This assessment is considered to be a reorientation, since with the same argumentation the tram system that existed until the 1950s was abolished - as was the line of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway , which ran to Nanaimo , Port Alberni and Courtenay and is also to be reactivated.
A cycle path network has been developed in recent years using existing routes such as Galloping Goose and Lochside Regional Trail .
education
In addition to the University (UVic or University of Victoria ), the Royal British Columbia Museum is one of the most important educational institutions, which is also of great importance for tourism. Then there is the Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific in Metchosin , which, according to the eponymous Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is committed to the goal of peaceful coexistence, and the most recent institutions are Royal Roads University and Camosun College from 1971 controversial private University Canada West , which was under the leadership of the former UVic president until 2009. It has two campuses, one in Vancouver and one in Victoria at 950 Kings Road.
The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory and the Center of the Universe Planetarium are outstanding scientific institutes. In addition to the Royal BC Museum , the Maritime Museum of British Columbia is important for research, documentation and presentation of the history of seafaring.
The only high school in the city center is Victoria High School from 1876. There are also schools of this type in Oak Bay and Esquimalt, other institutions known as secondary schools , such as Lambrick Park , Mount Douglas and Reynolds Secondary, and Spectrum Community Schools offer similar training. The École Victor Brodeur is available for the francophone minority, and the Chinese School in Chinatown is available for the Chinese . There are also a number of Partly Christian oriented private schools. The first school was founded on the initiative of Governor James Douglas in 1852, the first teacher was Charles Bailey. He taught 18 students. In 1855 a second followed at what is now Craigflower, under the direction of Charles Clark. In 1865 compulsory schooling was introduced for everyone aged six and over, but in 1872 schools had to be closed due to lack of money. Another attempt was made the next year, but compulsory schooling was limited to 6 to 14 year olds (previously up to 18). The first high school was founded in 1876, all others were elementary schools, a kind of elementary schools. The first Normal School opened in Vancouver in 1915, 15 years after the first. This was due to a real school boom, because twelve new schools were built between 1908 and 1914.
media
The oldest daily newspaper is the Times Colonist , which emerged in 1980 from the merger of two newspapers, namely the Victoria Daily Times (founded in 1884) and the British Colonist or Daily Colonist , as it was later called (founded 1858). The newspaper has a circulation of over 70,000 and is owned by CanWest Global Communications , based in Winnipeg .
CFCL, the first radio station in town, founded Clem Davies of the Centennial Methodist Church in 1923 , but left the church in 1925. The operation was nevertheless continued. In 1941 the Victoria Colonist bought the station and it was now called CJVI, in 1951 Taylor, Pearson & Carson Ltd. the majority, in 1971 the Selkirk Holdings held all shares. The president of the broadcaster John Ansell (until 1987) became president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters in 1981 . In 1990 CVJI financially supported the Camosun College Foundation , which wanted to start a radio station, and ended its affiliation with the CBC . On September 2, 2000, CVJI ceased operations, but the station continued broadcasting with JACK FM from 2004 onwards. In 1947 the second radio station CJZN-FM was established.
The first private television broadcaster, alongside the state-owned CBC , which already reached around two thirds of households in 1955, began operations on December 1, 1956. This made CHECK-TV, owned by David Armstrong, who came from the CFCL radio station, the second television station in the province. The recording studio was at 3963 Epsom Drive in Saanich. In 1982 the station went to Western Broadcasting Co. Ltd. Today the broadcaster CanWest belongs to Global Communications .
Sports
Professional ice hockey was played by the Victoria Salmon Kings in the ECHL from 2004 to 2011 . For the 2011/12 season, after 17 years, a team from Victoria will once again take part in the Western Hockey League . The Victoria Cougars team , which existed from 1911 to 1926, won the Stanley Cup in 1925 . The local football club is Victoria United . An indoor arena, the Save-On-Foods Memorial Center (SOFMC), which belongs to the “salmon kings”, was built for ice hockey in 2005 . Victoria hosted the 1994 Commonwealth Games .
In Canada's second national sport , lacrosse , Victoria was much more successful. The Victoria Shamrocks won the Mann Cup , the Canadian Cup, 1955, 1957, 1979, 1983 (1983–1994 named after their sponsor Victoria Payless ), 1997, 1999, 2003 and 2005.
Victoria had a professional baseball team until 2010, with multiple interruptions . But only from 2009 to 2010 did the Victoria Seals play there in the Royal Athletic Park and took part in the Golden Baseball League .
The Swiftsure International Yacht Race , which takes place annually in May and took place for the 65th time in 2008, is of the greatest importance for sailing . The routes lead u. a. to Clallam Bay, Pedder Bay and Cape Flattery in the extreme northwest of Washington.
Town twinning
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Napier , New Zealand
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Suzhou , China
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Khabarovsk , Russia
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Morioka , Japan
Personalities
literature
- David Chuen-Yan Lai, Pamela Madoff: Building and Rebuilding Harmony: The Gateway to Victoria's Chinatown. (= Canadian Western Geographical Series , Vol. 32.) Department of Geography, University of Victoria, 1997, ISBN 0-919838-22-7 .
- Gregory Edwards: Hidden Cities: Art and Design in Architectural Details of Vancouver and Victoria. Talonbooks , Vancouver, BC 1991, ISBN 0-88922-287-8 .
- Terry Reksten: More English than the English. A Very Social History of Victoria. Orca Book Publishers, Victoria, BC 1986, ISBN 978-0-920501-03-0 , limited preview in Google Book Search
- Robin Ward: Echoes of Empire: Victoria & Its Remarkable Buildings. Harbor Publishing, Madeira Park 1996, ISBN 1-55017-122-4 .
Web links
- Victoria ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
- Official website of the city administration
- Capital Regional District
- Victoria Heritage Foundation
- Victoria Tourism Information
- Historic film sequence from Victoria in the 1930s
Remarks
- ↑ Thus noted as one of numerous examples the Victoria BC ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . March 30, 2015.
- ^ A b Victoria Community Profile. Census 2016. In: Statistics Canada . January 23, 2017, accessed February 27, 2017 .
- ^ A b Victoria Census Metropolitan Area Profile. Census 2016. In: Statistics Canada . January 23, 2017, accessed February 27, 2017 .
- ^ A b Janis Ringuette: Beacon Hill Park History 1842-2004. 2004, archived from the original on August 20, 2007 ; accessed on March 9, 2010 (English).
- ↑ Garry, Nicholas . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
- ^ Environment Canada : Migratory Bird Sanctuaries. ( Memento of November 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Network of Protected Areas , July 31, 2012, (English).
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^ Jon Lien (Memorial University of Newfoundland): The Conservation Basis for the Regulation of Whale Watching in Canada by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. A Precautionary Approach In: Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences , ( ISSN 0706-6457 ), 2001, (PDF; 28 p., 302 kB), p. 10.
General information on guidelines: Carole Carlson: A Review of Whale Watch Guidelines and Regulations around the World. In: International Fund for Animal Welfare , Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts 2008, (PDF; 158 p., 1.2 MB), p. 32–47: Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. British Colombia.
For more recent studies: Carol Scarpaci, Michael Lück, ECM Parsons: Recent advances in whalewatching research: 2008–2009. In: Tourism in Marine Environments , Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 39-51, February 2010, presented to the International Whaling Commission (IWC). - ^ Government of Canada: Historical Climate Data , Environment and natural resources.
- ^ Environment Canada: Weather Winners → Victoria BC, # 1 Lowest Snowfall. ( Memento from December 16, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). In: National Climate Data and Information Archive , November 29, 2012, (English).
- ↑ The monument protection should be extended to some younger buildings in May 2008. See Carolyn Heiman: City eyes postwar classic buildings for heritage registry , in: Times-Colonist , May 16, 2008.
- ^ Neighborhoods. In: City of Victoria. Retrieved October 29, 2017 .
- ↑ Map Neighborhood Boundries. (PDF; 1.3MB) In: City of Victoria. June 2009, accessed October 29, 2017 .
- ↑ James Douglas, James Hargrave: The Hargrave Correspondence . Ed .: GP de T. Glazebrook. 1843, p. 420 .
- ↑ Rick Rembold, Jerrold Paetkau, and Terra Phillips: Victoria in the dawn of a new century, 1901. Rock Bay (District 17). ( Memento of August 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: Vancouver Island University , March 2003, (English).
- ^ Oak Bay Village, Behind the Tweed Curtain. In: oakbayvillage.ca .
- ↑ Park Facts. In: Capital Regional District. Retrieved March 9, 2010 (English).
- ^ East Sooke Park.
- ↑ Victoria CRD Profile. Census 2011. In: Statistics Canada . July 16, 2012, accessed on November 4, 2012 (in English, look for the desired place name under the “Geographic hierarchy” tab).
- ↑ A map of the reserves can be found here (PDF; 30 kB).
- ↑ The topic of Indian slavery was first presented by Leland Donald: Aboriginal Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America , University of California Press 1997, limited preview in Google Book Search.
- ↑ Victoria West. ( Memento from August 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The Victoria Heritage Foundation has made a chronological list of the early buildings that still exist. Accessed May 21, 2019
- ↑ Terry Reksten: More English than the English. A Very Social History of Victoria . Laird Books, Regina 1988, ISBN 0-920501-03-6 , pp. 43, ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ The historic excavation site can be reached via the Galloping Goose Regional Trail , which has connected Victoria with the ghost town of Leechtown since 1987. A brochure (as PDF) can be found here: Galloping Goose and Lochside Regional Trails brochure , (PDF file; 1.3 MB).
- ^ First Nations in the City. The Old Songhees Reserve, Victoria. In: Royal BC Museum , accessed January 29, 2019, with historical recordings, (English).
- ^ Cowichan Indian Agency. In: Rootsweb. Retrieved January 29, 2019 (1901 Victoria Census).
- ↑ 1901 Sealing Report. In: Rootsweb. Retrieved March 9, 2010 (English).
- ↑ A photograph of Fort Victoria from 1862: Bastion of Fort Victoria, southwest corner of Fort , in: BC Archives , accessed on January 29, 2019.
- ↑ Victoria City Hall National Historic Site of Canada. In: Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved July 22, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Here are the results of the 1901 census
- ↑ A list of the so-called persons can be found here .
- ^ Population of British Columbia, 1901, according to electoral divisions. In: ViHistory. March 2002, accessed March 9, 2010 .
- ↑ Sarah Crease sketched Yates Street on October 2, 1860: Yates Street - No. 4, BC Archives PDP02894. In: Royal BC Museum , accessed January 29, 2019.
- ↑ One of the oldest hotels was the Occidental Hotel on the corner of Johnson and Wharf Street, which was photographed in 1865. The photo is now in the British Columbia Archives : Occidental Hotel, Victoria; at the corner of Store and Johnson Streets.
- ↑ A city of considerable size shows a city view from 1889: Birds Eye View of Victoria 1889 in: Royal BC Museum , large view in: Library of Congress .
- ↑ Victoria Daily Standard, June 17, 1872.
- ↑ According to the statement of the government employee (probably tax collector) MR Bull, Canada. Commission royale sur l'immigration chinoise : Rapport sur l'immigration chinoise rapport et témoignages, July 1884, p. 68.
- ↑ Official report of the debates of the House of Commons of the Dominion of Canada: third session, fifth Parliament … comprising the period from the sixteenth day of June to the twentieth day of July, 1885, Ottawa: MacLean, Roger, 1885, p 3009.
- ↑ A floor plan of Victoria's Chinatown can be found in: Victoria's Chinatown: Chinese Land Ownership, 1859. In: Royal British Columbia Archives , overview , accessed January 29, 2019.
- ↑ The founders of this association came from Hoy Sun, a region in Guandong Province .
- ↑ Canada. Commission royale sur l'immigration chinoise: Rapport sur l'immigration chinoise rapport et témoignages, July 1884, p. 65.
- ↑ Canada. Commission royale sur l'immigration chinoise: Rapport sur l'immigration chinoise rapport et témoignages, July 1884, pp. 53 and 65.
- ↑ Charles Hamilton was the first to pilot an airplane in British Columbia (1910).
- ^ Karen Wonders: First Nations. Land Rights and Environmentalism in British Columbia - Spaet. In: www.FirstNations.eu. November 8, 2008, accessed January 29, 2019 .
- ^ Sooke Potholes Provincial Park
- ↑ Victoria Community Profile. Census 2016. In: Statistics Canada . January 23, 2017, accessed February 27, 2017 .
- ^ Census Trends, 2006 Census. In: Statistics Canada. December 10, 2009, accessed March 9, 2010 .
- ↑ Visible minority population, by census metropolitan areas (2006 Census). ( Memento of February 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Statistics Canada , November 6, 2009.
- ↑ a b Community highlights. In: Statistics Canada. February 1, 2007, accessed March 9, 2010 .
- ↑ City of Victoria (Ed.): Multicultural Associations. ( Memento from February 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ New supportive housings for Victoria's homeless. ( Memento of April 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). In: BC Housing , January 22, 2008, (English).
- ↑ T. S. Sibia: Pioneer Asian Indian Immigration to the Pacific Coast. ( Memento from July 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). In: sikhpioneers.org , November 2005, picture gallery with historical recordings.
- ↑ The list can be found here (PDF; 320 kB): Heritage Inventory ( Memento from March 4, 2010 on WebCite )
- ^ Vaughn Palmer: Legislature settlement ceremony marked by amiable goodwill. ( Memento of February 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). In: The Vancouver Sun , November 25, 2006, (English).
- ↑ Brochure: Craigdarroch Castle. A Designated National Historic Site. ( Memento from June 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: The Craigdarroch Castle Historic Society , 2015, (PDF; 68 p., 13.8 MB).
- ^ The Castle. ( Memento of December 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: craigdarrochcastle.com , May 2009.
- ^ Helen Edwards: The Art and Architecture of Samuel Maclure. ( Memento of August 5, 2012 in the archive.today web archive ). In: islandnet.com , January 2008, with address list of the houses and picture gallery.
- ↑ His biography can be found in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, Modeste Demers
- ↑ Canadian Art Review 1996, p. 31.
- ↑ Festival website . In: victoriahighlandgames.com .
- ↑ Klisala Harrison: The Kwagiulth Dancers: Addressing Intellectual Property Issues at Victoria's First People's Festival. In: The World of Music , 44 (1), January 2002, pp. 137-151, preview.
- ^ Victoria Symphony • About Us.
- ^ Pacific Opera Victoria • About POV.
- ^ Tourism Victoria ( Memento of May 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) and Victoria Commercial Accommodation . ( Memento of May 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Fiona Anderson: 25% boom in China tourists to BC expected if approved destination status okayed. In: eturbonews.com , December 4, 2009, accessed January 29, 2019.
- ^ Greater Victoria Harbor Authority
- ^ Tourism Victoria. Exit Survey, Annual Report 2009 , University of Victoria 2009.
- ↑ High-tech eclipses tourism. Strong growth sees high-tech industry hit $ 1.6-billion in total. In: Times Colonist , May 24, 2007.
- ^ Carla Wilson: Greater Victoria's jobless rate hits 6.4%. In: Times-Colonist. June 6, 2009, archived from the original on September 13, 2009 ; accessed on March 9, 2010 (English).
- ↑ BC economic recovery tagged 'weak and volatile'. In: Times-Colonist. August 11, 2009, archived from the original on September 13, 2009 ; accessed on March 9, 2010 (English).
- ^ A Brief History of Transport in Victoria and the Lower Mainlands. Archived from the original on May 26, 2008 ; accessed on March 9, 2010 (English).
- ↑ Twenty Nine Years of Public Service: British Columbia Electric Railway Limited , Victoria 1925, p. 11.
- ↑ Press release of the transport company BC Transit on the planning of a light rail system in Victoria , (English), (PDF file; 92 kB).
- ^ Bill Cleverley: BC offers $ 7.5 million to fix E&N; rail line. ( Memento from July 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Times-Colonist , June 26, 2011, British Columbia provincial government's funding commitment to reactivate rail traffic on Vancouver Island.
- ↑ This and the following from: Early schools predated BC's birth , in: Times Colonist . 150 years. How we lived, January 2, 2008.
- ↑ a b c d timeline. The History of Canadian Broadcasting. ( Memento of May 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Canadian Communications Foundation , interactive graphic.
- ↑ See The Beginning of Baseball in Victoria, BC and Victoria Baseball 1946–2008 .
State: Ottawa
Provinces: Charlottetown | Edmonton | Fredericton | Halifax | Québec | Regina | St. John's | Toronto | Victoria | Winnipeg
Territories: Iqaluit | Whitehorse | Yellowknife
