Did you know?
Canada’s name comes from Kanata, an Iroquois aboriginal word that means village or settlement.
Canada is the second largest country in the world, covering about two-fifths of North America.
Canada is a constitutional monarchy with 10 provinces and 3 territories. In 1999, a third territory was created -- Nunavut Territory. The Inuit aboriginal people received 350,000 square kilometres of land in the eastern Northwest Territories.
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 1/3 the size of India; and more than nine times the size of Jamaica.
Vancouver Island is the largest island off the west coast of North America.
Victoria was incorporated in 1862 with the motto, Semper Liber, or Always Free.
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, B.C. or Seattle, Washington.
Greater Victoria covers an area of 540.4 square kilometres. The population density is 0.17 person per square kilometre.
There are 48 regional, provincial and federal parks in Greater Victoria, totaling more than 7,600 hectares.
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