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The riding is about 3,580 km from Parliament Hill as the crow flies. The riding is accessible by ferry, airport, bicycle, automobile, and the Salt Spring Island Transit system.
Located on the southernmost tip of Vancouver Island, the heavily urban riding of Victoria is surrounded by Victoria Harbour, the Mayor and Baynes channesl, the Haro Strait, and the Juan de Fuca Strait. The University of Victoria campus is located within the riding.
About 20.5% of the riding’s population are immigrants, with some of the largest populations born in the United Kingdom, the United States, and China.
Mandarin, Cantonese, and German are the most common non-official mother tongues in the riding.
Approximately 4% of the riding’s population identify as Aboriginal.
Average individual income is $49,513.
Victoria residents have access to local parks and community centres, sports fields and tennis courts, senior centres, a number of walking trails, golf, and several shopping destinations.
Victoria is western Canada’s second-oldest city and was formally incorporated on Aug. 2, 1862.
Singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado, author Alice Munro, and former professional cyclist Ryder Hesjedal all hail from Victoria.
Health care and social assistance, public administration, and retail are the top employment sectors.
Almost 66% of the workforce has some form of post-secondary education.
The unemployment rate was 7.1% in 2011.
The riding includes the Oak Bay Islands Ecological Reserve and Discovery Islands, as well as Beacon Hill Park and Uplands Park. To protect wildlife, permission is required to enter Oak Bay Islands. The reserve protects nesting seabirds, uncommon meadow communities, rare early spring wildflowers, and shallow-water marine habitats.
Victoria was originally inhabited by Lekwungen peoples – a subset of the Coast Salish peoples.
After contact by James Cook and other Europeans, the Hudson’s Bay Company set up a trading post in the area in 1843. Victoria would become an important trading and industrial city in British Columbia and was only overshadowed by Vancouver after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
