https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria,_British_Columbia
Unlike little Victoria, New_Westminster is part of an urban region with over a few million people.
https://www.britannica.com/place/New-Westminster
Victoria like NW, was started off as just a backwater provincial capital.
Despite the reluctance for most of its history, Greater_Victoria might start to exceed Halifax,_Nova_Scotia. Then eventually, it could catch up to Quebec_City and Winnipeg, which are known for their very cold winters. Of course as more people in Canada realize that SW BC has the mildest winters, there will be more growth.
Toronto is the largest provincial capital in Canada & is more on the scale of the state capitals of Melbourne & Sydney. One might have to go back to the Edmonton of the 1960s, to see when it was just starting to emerge from being a provincial backwater like Victoria. Despite the very cold winters and the lack of Chinook-winds, Edmonton has become the largest provincial in Canada, after Toronto.
For Greater Victoria to ever catch up to or rival Edmonton, there would have to be a Victoria-Naimo urban region. There would have to be a proper passenger & freight corridor of 2 fenced off tracks & eventually at least 4 tracks. Plus, a proper highway with truck, bus & HOV lanes & parallel bike paths.
Over the decades, the Vancouver Island_Rail_Corridor was allowed to become dormant, as it just happened to fit in with the backwater BC approach to things. However, the half-assed planning approach that is so common in backward BC, has to be challenged & corrected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Rail_Corridor#Railway_dormancy_and_delayed_re-openings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Rail_Corridor#Rapid_transit_on_E&N_in_Victoria
