Victoria and Vancouver Island are extremely accessible. Each day, more than 50 flights land at Victoria's International Airport from Vancouver and Seattle airports, in addition to numerous direct flights from many major Canadian cities. Harbour-to-harbour flights from Seattle and Vancouver, by float plane or helicopter and an efficient ferry system between Victoria and the mainland make Victoria easier to get to than ever before.

Victoria's economic base expanded from fur trading to include coal-mining, lumber, fishing and agriculture. Today, the city's primary industries are government and tourism.

Vancouver Island spans all terrains from sandy beaches to rugged coastlines, marshy lowlands to rolling farmland, and lush, old-growth rainforests to snow-capped mountains.

The flight to Victoria from Vancouver or Seattle takes approximately 30 minutes.

Sailing from the Lower Mainland (Tsawwassen) to Swartz Bay (30 minutes north of Victoria) via BC Ferries takes 1 hour 35 minutes. Sailing from Seattle to Victoria via the Clipper takes 2 hours 30 minutes. Sailing from Port Angeles to Victoria via the Victoria Express takes 1 hour; and via the Coho takes 1 hour and 35 minutes. Sailing from Anacortes to Sidney via Washington State Ferries takes 3 hours. Sailing from Friday Harbor on San Juan Island to Victoria takes between 2 and 2 1/2 hours.

There are 48 regional, provincial and federal parks in Greater Victoria, totalling more than 7,600 hectares.

Greater Victoria covers an area of 540.4 square kilometres. The population density is 0.17 person per square kilometre. The City of Victoria’s population is 79,013 (2001). Greater Victoria is composed of four municipalities: Victoria, Oak Bay, Esquimalt and Saanich, and the Capital Region population is 344,567 (2001). The population of Vancouver Island is 699,645 (2000).

Victoria boasts the mildest climate in Canada. Greater Victoria is one of Canada's driest areas, with an average snowfall of only 25 centimetres (9.75 inches) and an average rainfall of 592 millimetres (23 inches), less than recorded precipitation in Vancouver, BC or Seattle, Washington. Summers are pleasantly warm, but never too hot and the winters are mild.

Semper Liber, or Always Free.

Victoria was established as Fort Victoria in 1843 by the Hudson’s Bay Fur Trading Company and was incorporated in 1862.

Victoria

Vancouver Island is the largest island off the west coast of North America. Tucked against the mainland coast of British Columbia and the north shore of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, Vancouver Island occupies an area about the size of Holland. It stretches 500 km (320 miles) southeast to northwest with an area of 3,175,000 hectares and 2,150 miles of coastline. It is separated from Vancouver, BC by the Strait of Georgia to the east and from Washington State, U.S.A. by the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the south and southeast. Vancouver Island is actually closer to the United States than to mainland Canada.

British Columbia is Canada's third-largest province, and occupies about 10% of Canada's land surface. Although B.C. is nearly four times larger than Great Britain and 2.5 times bigger than Japan, its population of three million is 14 times smaller than Britain's 52 million. B.C. is a little more than one-third the size of India; and more than nine times the size of Jamaica.

Canada is a constitutional monarchy with 10 provinces and three territories.

Canada is the second-largest country in the world, covering about two-fifths of North America.

Canada's name comes from Kanata, an Iroquois aboriginal word that means village or settlement.