About Vancouver Island
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Vancouver Island
It’s approximately the same size as the state of Maryland, population - 5.6 million. Or about three times the size of Los Angeles County, population - about ten million.
The population of Vancouver Island by the 2006 Census was about 704,000.
Like virtually everywhere else in Canada, Vancouver Islanders have plenty of elbow room, per capita.
But unlike virtually everywhere everywhere else in Canada, Vancouver Island has very little snow, and only a few days or nights when temperatures reach freezing, or colder. Golfers golf year round. Sailors sail and kayakers kayak year round. Skiers ski – usually from November to April or May – at the world class Mount Washington Ski Resort located just about smack in the middle of the Island.
Bikers bike, hikers hike, and soccer players play soccer, year round. They get wet in the winter, from November to February, when most of the precipitation falls. It’s almost always in the form of rain, seldom snow. Victoria’s annual blossom count takes place in late February. The official number of blossoms spotted in 2008: 2,437,696,512!.
Out on the west coast, at beaches near Tofino surfers surf all year round, although they claim winter surfing is the best. Back in Victoria, kite boarders revel just off Dallas Road during winter storms. Or bike or hike to nearby rock climbing adventures. Adventure tourism abounds.
For the less exuberant, lawn bowling is a popular passtime.
Nature’s beauty is everywhere and largely unspoiled on Vancouver Island. It’s all on a grand scale, with massive Douglas Fir, mountains, the ocean. There are black bears and cougars living not far beyond urban centres. The deer are more suburban, tending to tend to local garden delights.
Maybe the best part about Vancouver Island is that, well … it’s an island! If it wasn’t, it would become a large bedroom community of Vancouver. That wouldn’t sit well with most of us (although most of us calling Vancouver Island ‘home’ are from ‘away’, originally).
By and large, Vancouver Islanders think and act ‘green’. Public and private developments are exploring the leading edge of certified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building projects. Communities are following ’smart growth’ principles and generally attempting to prevent urban sprawl and traffic congestion, and at the same time cut back on our carbon footprint. And First Nations peoples, who have been on Vancouver Island for thousands of years before Europeans arrived, are good stewards of nature’s offerings.
Vancouver Island’s citizenry live largely in urban, or at least municipally incorporated, areas. Outside of those areas it is largely wilderness. Most wilderness lands are owned by the government (in Canada, the ‘Crown’, and in BC, the ‘Crown Provincial’). Timber companies own a relatively small part of the wilderness, but unsustainable timbering practices have in recent years largely given way.
All in all, Vancouver Island can bring you about as close as you can be to your own ‘Nirvana’. It attracts professionals, high tech workers, entrepreneurs, retirees, tourism workers. And other nice people.
In anticipation of more to come, Vancouver Island continues to spawn more world class developments, up and down the Island.
Why not come on out and explore? Maybe a new home in one of those new world class projects has your name on it!
