Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island is an insular province of Canada located off the west coast of the country's mainland in the Pacific Ocean, separated from the province of British Columbia by the Strait of Georgia. The province includes the namesake main island, home to the majority of the provincial population, as well as several smaller islands in the Georgia Strait. Victoria, located at the southern end of the main island, is the capital city of the province as well as its most populous municipality. Vancouver Island is the only island province on Canada's west coast. The ten counties of Vancouver Island form the main apparatus of local government: large communities are incorporated municipalities within a particular county, while many smaller rural communities are unincorporated and thus rely exclusively on their county for the provision of local government services.

The province is home to 2.33 million people, 97% of whom reside on the main island and nearly half of whom live in Victoria or its metropolitan area. The backbone of the province's economy is primarily dairy, fishing and farming, with the province accounting for almost half of Pacific Canada's dairy and seafood output. Tourism is also an important mainstay of the province's economy, especially during the summer months; the main island and many of the other islands are known for their spectacular beaches and campgrounds, sport and guided fishing are incredibly popular as are chartered floatplane and also helicopter tours of the region's spectacular landscape, and during the winter months skiing, including heli-skiing, are popular on runs constructed in the 1950s like those of Mount Washington. Vancouver Island's west coast, albeit relatively underpopulated and isolated, is known globally for its excellent surfing spots due to its unblocked contact with the open waters of the Pacific Ocean, especially the resort towns of Tofino and Ucluelet on the main island; the province's population typically increases by nearly 40% during the summer months due to its robust tourist sector. During the winter, skiing is a popular attraction on the main island, which features many luxurious alpine resorts built atop mountains with unparalleled natural runs, the most famous of which is that of Mount Washington.

Vancouver Island is the world's 43rd largest island, Canada's 12th largest, and Canada's second most populous island, after the Island of Montreal. The southern part of Vnacouver Island and the Gulf Islands are the only parts of Western Canada to lie south of the 49th parallel. This area has one of the warmest climates in Canada, and since the mid-1990s has been mild enough in a few areas to grow Mediterranean crops such as olives and lemons. Indigenous peoples had inhabited Vancouver Island for thousands of years, long beffore the arrival of Spanish and British naval expeditions in the late 18th century. The Spanish and British conjointly named it Quadra's and Vancouver's Island in commemoration of the friendly negotiations held in 1792 between Spanish commander of Fort San Miguel in Nootka Sound Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, and British naval captain George Vancouver, during the Nootka Crisis. Bodega y Quadra's name was eventually dropped, although a medium-sized island in the upper Georgia Strait section of the province directly across from the city of Campbell River bears the name Quadra Island.