Podcasts about Victoria, British Columbia

Reaching the end of San Juan Avenue by bike, getting to the stop about ten seconds ahead of the bus, then taking the 72 to the Swartz Bay ferry terminal and a small car ferry to Fulford Harbour: the most plainly local audio on this page is a voice recording from The Running Jackal, made on the way to Salt Spring Island with nothing planned beyond a look around.

It is a small scene, built on two subjects: what housing costs, and getting around the region on foot, by bike, bus and ferry. A real estate panel handles one, the trail diary the other, and a reading of a Harold Bindloss novel set partly in Victoria sits off to the side. None of it is news or civic affairs.

What Victoria is

Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, at the southern tip of Vancouver Island. The city itself is compact; the wider capital region, Greater Victoria, takes in neighbouring municipalities out to the Saanich Peninsula. It is known for its harbour, the provincial legislature, a mild climate by Canadian standards, and ferries to the mainland and the Gulf Islands.

Housing, one figure at a time

Numbers lead on the Greater Victoria Real Estate Show, a panel that is measured and collaborative, with frequent interruptions. A figure gets stated, weighed, then turned into something a buyer, seller or lender should do next. Recent titles stay close to the transaction and its edges, from "Random Ramblings & Mortgage Qualification Nuances" to "Land Ownership Transparency Registry".

The clips carry the local detail. A Habitat for Humanity speaker explains how donated goods, gifts in kind through Habitat Canada's national partners and help from local businesses hold building costs down, yet still puts the minimum for a home here at $550,000, because land costs are high. The terms come out too: housing costs capped at 30% of gross household income and 0% interest on the second mortgage. Brendan Wilkinson describes Royal Bay as becoming "a town now", pointing to walkability, beach access and Quarry Park. In "Should I Stay or Should I move now?" the hosts move from numbers to nerves: a stressed, overwhelmed brain makes poor decisions, so getting ready should be kept separate from writing an offer.

Trails, buses and Salt Spring

Buses and ferries carry that Salt Spring trip, but The Running Jackal is mostly on foot: in its own words, "little slices of my life here in Victoria", most often recorded out on the running trails. Recent titles name Sidney, Lochside and P'Kols: "Derick, the Sidney Days", "Derick & the Lochside Pigs", "Trail hike on P'Kols". The island trip doubles as a scouting run for what the narrator and Norma might do there in the fall on their e-bikes. Set beside the real estate panel, this is Victoria as somewhere to move through rather than a market.

Vane, Evelyn and a letter from Nanaimo

Fiction supplies the rest. Protector, The by Harold Bindloss (1866 - 1945) is a reading of an adventure novel that its description places mostly in and around Vancouver and Victoria; the description also points to the dangers of the mining and timber industries. The clips follow Vane and Evelyn. In one she turns him down, because admiration and respect cannot stand in for the stronger love marriage needs. In another Vane finds Celia Hartley sewing in a swampy shack, rent overdue, a doctor limiting her to a few hours' work a day. In a third, with Vane injured and his money gone, Evelyn apologises for being unpleasant the evening before he sailed, it emerges that his letter from Nanaimo never reached her, and he answers that "The satisfaction of being acquitted outweighs everything else". She tells him she would not fear facing the future with him.

Where to start

• For the housing market argued in local terms: the Greater Victoria Real Estate Show, by way of the Habitat for Humanity clip or the Royal Bay one.
• For the region at walking pace, and by bus and ferry: The Running Jackal.
• For fiction with a Victoria setting: Protector, The by Harold Bindloss (1866 - 1945), through Evelyn's refusal or the lost Nanaimo letter.

The Victoria feed on this page plays clips from these shows.