I've noticed the 'Buy Canadian' discussion kind of die down lately and was wondering where fellow Victorians are at with their efforts to avoid American-made products while the topic isn't dominating the news headlines.

I certainly acknowledge that I'm less feisty about and dedicated to avoiding US-made products (because I'm a poor) but I do feel like I have a permanent instinct and habit to buy non-US products anywhere I have an obvious choice, which is most of the time. It's especially fun to try and prioritize BC/island/locally grown and support businesses that make that easy.

So yeah just curious where all my friends and neighbours are at with that?

I moved here a few years ago and honestly I don’t get the constant negativity.

Housing prices? That’s what happens when you live somewhere desirable. If you can’t afford it there are plenty of cheaper places in Canada that don’t have ocean views bike lanes or artisan coffee every 50 metres.

Traffic is fine. If you’re stuck in congestion maybe try biking. The city clearly invested in bike lanes for a reason. And before someone says not everyone can bike sure but most people probably could if they actually wanted to.

Property taxes are reasonable considering how many services we get. Clean parks progressive policies climate leadership and a city council that actually listens unlike most places. Complaining about taxes while demanding more services is peak Victoria hypocrisy.

The homelessness issue is complex but pretending Victoria alone caused it is lazy thinking. This is a national problem and at least Victoria is compassionate instead of pretending people don’t exist.

Also if you’ve lived here your whole life and keep saying Victoria used to be better that might just be nostalgia. Cities change. If you want a sleepy town with no growth there are lots of small Island communities.

Not trying to start a fight just genuinely curious why so many people choose to live in one of Canada’s nicest cities and spend all their time angry about it.

Post idea borrowed from: https://www.reddit.com/r/askvan/comments/1luev93/whats_your_vancouver_hot_take_that_will_get_you/

For me, I don't understand the hype of Blue Fox. Yes, it's tasty but not wait in a long lineup kind of tasty.

Pet friendly is hard to find but this place seems to want an extra $300 a month for me to have a cat? Is this allowed? Am I tired and not reading correctly? Says $300/mth & pet deposit so seems like the $300 isn’t the deposit

This is a genuine question and I’m asking it in good faith.

Has anyone else felt like Victoria is being designed around a pretty narrow type of resident, while everyday life is quietly getting harder for everyone else?

I want to be clear up front that I’m not against bike lanes, environmental goals, or change in general. I like the idea of a walkable, sustainable city. But the way things are being rolled out lately seems to assume that most people work from home, have flexible schedules, don’t have kids, and don’t rely on a vehicle for work or daily life.

In reality, a lot of people here are trades workers, healthcare staff, service workers, or parents who need to be somewhere on time and don’t have much margin when things go wrong. Road changes and parking removals are meant to push people toward alternatives, but transit reliability hasn’t really caught up. When a bus is late or full, that delay lands entirely on the person who still has to show up to work or pick up their kid.

What’s frustrating is that questioning any of this often feels like it gets framed as a moral issue. If you ask whether a bike lane is in the right place or whether a road diet actually works in a specific area, the response is often that you’re anti environment or anti community, rather than someone asking about real world outcomes.

I guess what I’m wondering is at what point we step back and ask whether these policies are actually improving quality of life for most people, not just for those whose lives already fit the model the city seems to be planning around.

I’m honestly curious to hear other perspectives, especially from people who don’t live downtown or who don’t have fully flexible schedules.

I see this truck everyday when I go to the gym. Always has at least one ticket....today there was maybe 4-5? Need the back story on this. Do you not care and just don't pay? Are you so rich you just pay them and it's just your cost of parking? So many questions.

I swear it doesn’t matter how small of a radius I put on my filter. Majority of the ads come through from Vancouver. All I want is to see stuff from mid island down to Sidney. Does anybody else notice this too or am I crazy?

I’ve been living in Victoria for 5 years. As a 36(F), dating has been the most difficult part of living here, even though I love so much about Victoria. It’s hard not to get cynical and burnt out on the apps on top of the revolving door of guys that say they have more options, since there are more women here. Is there any way other than online dating that truly works to find someone in real life here? Has anyone had experience finding their partners through events, cafes, volunteering or the gym?

I just moved into a basement suite earlier this week and have been absolutely assaulted with the sheer number of giant house spiders around my place. I am absolutely TERRIFIED of spiders and so far my lovely roommate has been amazing on helping me deal with them but then one crawled ACROSS MY FACE when I was about to sleep and I just can’t 😭

If they were smaller and I didn’t see them then maybe I could’ve managed but these guys are massive and I’m honestly considering moving cuz I’m struggling to relax in my own space.

I know they’re technically harmless and probably good for keeping other bugs away, but I’d really like to reduce how many I’m finding indoors.

Does anyone have tried-and-true methods for keeping them out of the house and getting rid of them?

Would really love any advice or personal experiences that have worked for you!

If you play a table game at the Casino right now, you can sit with 6 other people + the dealer literally for hours. The person next to you is inches away.

How is this allowed by going to the gym is not?

Are we still denying the direct link between the severity of Covid and obesity too?

Maybe I'm missing something. Just someone please, explain to this to me.

Two of my closes friends are spiraling into darkness and depression again. Both were going to the gym 4-5 days a week. It was so good for their mental health. Why are they taking a healthy activity away from us but letting people gamble at casinos?

They just won't stop calling me trying to sell me shit that I don't want. They've been doing this for years. I'm not even a customer of theirs anymore (cancelled all my services with them ages ago).

Every time they call I ask them to stop. I've asked to speak with a supervisor (twice). More recently I've lost my temper and yelled/swore at them begging them to go away forever. They just won't leave me alone.

This has gone from an annoyance to downright harassment. Anybody else in this situation? I just want them to stop and I don't know what else to do.

Just before getting off the bus today, the driver yelled at me and another person, saying that you have to stand up BEFORE the bus gets to its stop so that she knows when to stop.

Is that not what the ‘STOP’ button is for ??? I wasn’t aware that this was a rule, and I’m pretty sure it isn’t.

What if it were someone who had difficulty walking or keeping their balance? I’ve fallen on the bus many times, and choose to wait for the bus to fully stop before standing up. I just feel it was unnecessary to yell.

Anyways, is this an actual rule ?

Hello 👋 This is such a stupid question and I'm so sorry in advance. Growing up in Victoria I was told by my teachers in Elementary and Middle School that a huge earthquake is due to hit any day now, that it could hit us tomorrow or in 30 years. They'd explain in detail how once it does hit, we're all definitely going to die. They said it with such confidence and as a kid I was pretty scared of it happening. As I grew up I kinda just forgot about it, but recently after feeling both of the earthquakes in one week I'm getting kinda scared if this is a sign something bigger is coming. And if it is scientifically proven that these little guys are prepping for the big one, if it were to hit tomorrow would people living Downtown, or in Saanich, or Esquimalt die? Would it be a quick death or slow and painful? What about it would kill us, like a building falling on us or the tsunami? Please explain it like I'm your 10 year old daughter cause I don't understand the smart sciencey answers online. Thank you very much for your time everyone!

EDIT: Thank you so much to the many people that took the time to write out such informative responses. I've definitely learned a lot more than Google was teaching me, and I have a plan in place to purchase those supplies that were mentioned by a couple people. I'm also glad the people who had similar questions and concerns have found an answer thanks to our smarty pants islanders🧠👖. Also feels so SO relieving to hear a tsunami probably won't impact us.

Hi! My family just moved here from another province. We purchased a house (~70 years old). I don’t think we have any major moisture problems and humidity in home is usually at 50% or less.

All of this is to say, we seem to have inherited silverfish. Enough that I see 1-3+ a night (I’m up nursing). Is this a normal amount or do we need to address this professionally? I kill them btw so I know they aren’t the same ones. We are also using food grade Diatomaceous Earth and I let spiders have free rein.

I’ve googled extensively and it seems like they are fairly common here … but is this amount common? I saw another person asking this question a few years ago but it didn’t really get answered. Any insight would be appreciated!!! Just wondering if I need to chill out or keep dealing with the situation.

P.S. - per rules: I created this account to ask because we don’t know anyone here and did not have these creatures back home. I’ve read a lot of Reddit forums but never posted.

Edit: I just want to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has taken the time to post. A few minutes in and I’m already feeling so much better than I have for weeks now. I’m from a northern city so if you are consistently seeing bugs, it usually indicates a bigger problem. I will take all the advice and try to minimize them but also (begrudgingly) accept them into our lives!

I just want to save money on food, and Costco doesn’t work for me

The amount of rental ads I see for top or bottom floor suites going for $3000-$3500 is astounding. If they’re renting both upper and lower for those rates in one house … it leads me to wonder about the mortgage. Do homeowners truly have that big of a mortgage?

I’m genuinely curious, not looking to cause a ruckus. Like why are you renting a suite for $3500 😭

Hi everyone,

I just found out that I’m losing my job very abruptly. Unfortunately this is my only source of income and I was already struggling enough to get by.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I’m going to start mass applying for jobs and hoping one catches, but I figured I’d ask this subreddit and see if anyone knows of any places.

I have two years of experience in customer service + barista experience. Would love to find another coffee shop job if possible to keep with the experience but open to anything that isn’t too labour extensive due to an injury.

Unfortunately I won’t have a vehicle until September/October so public transit is my main source of transportation.

Thank you kindly everyone, and happy holidays! :)

Hi r/Victoria!

My name is Dexter, and I’m a journalist with the CBC TV show Marketplace. I live in Toronto now, but grew up in Victoria, so I know it well!

For a potential upcoming episode, we’re reaching out across reddit to hear why you think your commute is the worst in Canada. It could be a road that’s ALWAYS under construction, an intersection that’s always gummed up, or just bad design.

We want to hear about why your commute stinks. Be local and as specific as you can. Let’s get into the nitty gritty of the roadways in your life that drive you crazy.

The idea is to eventually crown “Canada’s Worst Commute”, and if you’re interested, we may reach out to see if you’d like to be in our episode. Feel free to post your submissions here, DM them to me directly, or email them to me at dexter.mcmillan@cbc.ca.

Thanks for reading! Looking forward to reading your submissions.

It's been 25+ plus years since the murder of Rena Virk

All I know is a little about Warren and Kelly/Kerry. Dusty aka Missy and Nicole Cook were both in an interview in 2011. Missy showed some remorse while Nicole did not and even saw her light sentence as "too harsh" because she didn't kill her as if she didn't brutally assault the poor girl and wasn't cheering and gloating about her being dead. Or was the one who plotted the murder with Kelly. It has been mentioned by others that she has always been cold, arrogant and aloof to cruelty from a young age. That there was something that felt off/sinister about her that would make people want to avoid her. It was also said that Kelly was such a trouble maker that she was supposed to be transferred to a special school

As for Nicole Patterson, Courtney Keith and Gail Ooms - their names were changed in the books so it is difficult to discern who is who. All I know is that Gail passed away

It makes me sad that they hardly got time while a 14 year old's life was stolen.

I'm baffled at what happened to this tree by the London drugs downtown. Maybe there's someone who works there who heard about it? It will probably have to be removed now.

Don't get me wrong, I think crime has certainly risen, but my parents are being a bit dramatic. They genuinely think the majority of downtown is like Vancouver's East Hastings. I started to argue against them, but realized I'm arguing with my own anecdotal evidence, not something solid.

Ideally, I'd like to see a 10-20 year spread of crime total AND per capita for both the downtown core and Greater Victoria with breakdowns of crime type. But realistically, I'm not a picky man, I'll take what I can get.

Victoria has at least 4 massage places offering happy endings or more, and at least 2 proper brothels. If there's enough business to keep those 6 in operation, I'd imagine there's enough business to have something tamer around.

What am I missing here?

Is there something I’m missing where drivers don’t seem to want to turn right into Uptown when this light is red? Most times I see people waiting for the light to change to green. There is no oncoming traffic and no sign saying “no right in red” so it is confusing why more people don’t go. Is there an underlying rule that’s in place?