Mild Victoria, BC

Victoria has been a provincial backwater for most of its history. Despite being in a mild winter setting, it's so small when compared to Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec City and Halifax. 

https://victoria.citified.ca/news/35-storey-one-victoria-place-mixed-use-tower-unveiled-blanshard-st-pandora-ave

https://www.onevictoriaplace.ca 

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=37&status=15  

While Edmonton was eventually allowed to have a tall building, even by Toronto, Calgary and Montreal standards, Victoria was always supposed to have shorter buildings than Winnipeg, Quebec City and Halifax. That's part of the KEEP THINGS SMALL mentality on V. Island. 

Victoria should have had its first LRT line by now, but that might improve urban mobility. Eventually, Victoria and Nanaimo will merge into one linear urban area. Eventually, the Comox_Valley_Regional_District will have over 100,000 people, the Regional_District_of_Nanaimo will have over 200,000 people, the Cowichan_Valley_Regional_District will exceed 100,000 people and the Capital_Regional_District will have over 450,000 people. 

Of course there doesn't seem to be any big regional scale planning from Sooke to Courtenay. Perhaps the island's urban planners will wait until there is 800,000 and over a million residents on the island.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Island#Demographics 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Rail_Corridor#Vancouver_Island_Transportation_Corridor_Coalition

So, as more people discover that Victoria and Vancouver are the mildest winter cities in Canada, more people just might want to move there. Especially, when Canadian Snowbirds don't feel as comfortable with Florida, Texas & California.  

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=population+growth

No fireworks in downtown Vancouver for New Year's Eve or the rest of 2026

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-fireworks-2026-new-years-eve-nye 

While Vancouver hasn't been able to get most other cities across Canada and around the world to stop, ban or cancel their NY Eve fireworks, strange Vancouver will retain this part of its NO FUN CITY mentality and agenda. 

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/fireworks-banned-halloween-vancouver-fire-department-9726922 Why just ban them in October and January, when you can ban them throughout the year? 

https://www.ehnewspaper.ca/articles/third-year-of-vancouvers-fireworks-ban

For some strange reason, backwards Vancouver hasn't been able to get other cities around the world to adopt the same bizarre idiosyncrasies.  

Officially, there isn't supposed to be a Vancouver+Mind+Virus, but the backwards city is so stunted and strange. Other cities in a scenic setting such as Sydney, Auckland, San_Francisco and Seattle are able to have wider bridges in or close to their city centers. 

Despite warm and scenic Honolulu having some very short bridges, they are still wider than what extremely restrictive Vancouver allows. These two short bridges in Honolulu provide 4 lanes each way. Thus, they form an 8 lane crossing and they aren't even part of a freeway.  

There is also a very short 6 lane bridge in Honolulu. In addition to its 6 lanes, there is a turning lane and a one lane wide median, which makes it equivalent to being 8 lanes wide. Plus, there are 2 wide sidewalks, which are wider than the original sidewalks on the Granville Bridge in Vancouver. In other words, no bridge in Vancouver is allowed to be as wide as it. Despite regional population growth, the Granville Bridge was reduced from 8 lanes to 6 lanes. 

Considering how Vancouver has such a narrow road system, one would think that a regional network of bus and bike bridges would be essential. Of course the backwards city and greater urban region is too cheap to fund such infrastructure and rather opted for a congestive transportation approach.

In contrast, The+Helix+Bridge in Singapore is fine example of what backwards Vancouver refuses to build. No lanes had to be removed from the 6 lane Bayfront+Bridge or the 10 lane Benjamin+Sheares+Bridge. Stubborn Vancouver could really benefit from something like the Helix Bridge. 

While Vancouver went backwards after Expo 86, Brisbane really took of after Expo 88. The Kangaroo_Point_Green_Bridge, Goodwill_Bridge, Kurilpa_Bridge, Jack_Pesch_Bridge and the Go_Between_Bridge are all great examples of what strange Vancouver refuses to build. What's really amazing from a backwater Vancouver perspective is that those bike and foot bridges in Brisbane never required any lanes to be removed from the cities road bridges. 

In comparison, Vancouver removed 2 lanes from the Burrard Bridge, 1 lane from the Cambie Bridge and 2 lanes from the Granville Bridge. If urban planning in Vancouver was wise and the city never got rid of its trams or streetcars, perhaps something like the Tilikum_Crossing could have been built across False_Creek.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=fireworks

Japan to restart the world’s biggest nuclear power plant, 15 years after Fukushima disaster

 https://www.accuweather.com/en/climate/japan-to-restart-the-worlds-biggest-nuclear-power-plant-15-years-after-fukushima-disaster/1847018 

Apparently, some people thought that it was a good idea to build a Nuclear_Power_Plant close to an earthquake faultline. 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/22/japan-set-to-restart-worlds-biggest-nuclear-power-plant 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Plant#Site_layout Plus, built it closer to sea level so that it could be more vulnerable to a tsunami.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Japan#Strongest_earthquakes_by_prefecture_(since_1900) 

https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/place/403203/earthquakes/date/largest.html

https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h20002 

Perhaps there is a kind of wishful thinking going on, a belief that there won't be anymore big earthquakes in Japan. Just rub your tummy and pat the top of your head and all such dangers go away, because it could never happen again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_earthquake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Plant#Incidents_and_accidents_prior_to_March_2011 

While many want it to be fully dismantled, others want to boot it up again. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_Nuclear_Power_Plant#Dismantling_of_reactors  

https://earthquaketrack.com/p/japan/fukushima/biggest  

Perhaps if it can be built back better and bigger, there can be an even greater chance for it to become another disaster zone.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-of-2011 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-population-decline-60-minutes/

With less people being born in JAPAN, one might think that there will be less of a demand for energy.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/4199 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/07/asia/japan-biggest-population-decline-record-intl-hnk 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74dnzr4jdvo 

https://www.dw.com/en/japan-sees-record-drop-in-population-in-2024/a-73562758

Calgary ranked the top place for GTA families moving out of Ontario

 https://dailyhive.com/toronto/gta-families-move-to-calgary 

If you move from Toronto to Calgary, you will still be in a real city. However, Calgary has about a 3rd of the population. The GTA is so much more vast and dense than Calgary. The Calgary_Tower is only a 3rd of the height as the CN_Tower.

For those that move from Toronto, Montreal, Calgary or Edmonton to Vancouver, you will be shocked to see mostly 4 lane bottleneck-chokepoint bridges. The few 6 lane bridges in Greater Vancouver have no proper bus or HOV lanes, so its the epitome of congestion planning.

Broadway Subway Construction as of November 2025

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uot7oIA9-ZE The station platforms will be 80m, which can only accomodate a 5 car train.

Unfortunatly, even if this segment had 500' or 152.4m long stations like the Montreal Metro, the rest of the first 2 lines only have 80m stations. Thus, 80m is only about 52% of the length of a Montreal Metro station, which can accomodate 9 car trains. It's taken until 2025 for the SkyTrain to gradually start running 5 car trains. In theory, if two Vancouver 80m trains run at twice the frequency as one 152m Montreal Metro train, a similar capacity could be attained. 

However, in the long run, it would have been much more cost effective to have the first 2 SkyTrain lines stations already roughed out to 152m, or a least have enough level clearance to eventually become twice the length. But that's what a proper big city would do, something that Vancouver is against.   

Even as an initial cost saving measure, the YVR-Canada Line should have opened with 100m stations, instead of the inadequate 50m joke. Then it could immediately accomodate 5 car trains. The station platforms should have had enough level clearance to eventually accommodate a 160m long train consisting of 8 cars reaching both ferry terminals. Of course there seems to be no plan to connect YVR to both ferry terminals.

Its very difficult for BC cities to allow proper big city size infrastructure, because that would symbolize a pro growth initiative. Since the world is mostly composed of non-white people, a slow growth agenda became a clever way to symbolically demonstrate a refusal to build big. BC is multicultural, but Canada has less than 1% of the worlds population. Even in the 2020s, BC still retains some of its colonial outpost mentality. Just keep things small and backwards and try to remain a backwater for as long as possible. 

Burnaby apologizes for decades of discrimination against people of Chinese descent

 https://globalnews.ca/news/11528001/burnaby-apology-discrimination-against-chinese-community 

Asia is the most populated part of the world and until recently, China had the biggest population. Thus, people from China or people who are of Chinese descent, live all over the world. There was a strong, KEEP CANADA WHITE agenda, right into the mid 20th century. Of course this mentality wasn't just directed towards Asians, but towards anyone who was nonwhite. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_head_tax 

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/multiculturalism-anti-racism/chinese-legacy-bc/history/discrimination

It took until the 1970s for Multiculturalism to challenge the, KEEP CANADA AS A WHITE MAN'S PARADISE. 

https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/canadian-multiculturalism-policy-1971

https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/200920E#:~:text=In%201969%2C%20the%20Royal%20Commission,Its%20key%20objectives%20were%20these: 

https://publications.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/CIR/936-e.htm#:~:text=A%20Ministry%20of%20Multiculturalism%20was,fully%20participate%20in%20Canadian%20society. 1973 

https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/multiculturalism

While Canada hardly has that much of a Pacific Coast, when compared to the US and Australia, the BC part of Canada should have had at least one major city on the scale of Montreal or Seattle, Brisbane or SF. Unfortunatly, Vancouver has retained several of its overlapping restrictions, which prevent it from being on a scale similar to that of Montreal, Seattle, Calgary, Brisbane & SF... 

Despite Burnaby & Grater Vancouver being multicultural for several decades, so much of the restrictive BC mentality remains like an old disruptive computer program that hasn't been deleted. Unfortunatly, after the WW2 era, Greater Vancouver and BC continued with a backwater mentality. Just look at how much bigger things are allowed to be in Australia's 4 largest cities. Look at the scale of Seattle & Calgary & see how much of Greater Vancouver is still held back. Look at how big Edmonton as a capital is, while Victoria remains as a small provincial backwater. 

Unlike Melbourne, SF and Toronto, backwards Vancouver made sure that it was one of the first cities to get rid if its streetcar and tram-train (interurban) network before the 1960s. To make matters worse, the Greater Vancouver Region had and still does, have a system of mostly narrow bridges. 

There was such a push to have a tracks to tires agenda, no one seemed to realize that all the bridges should be wide enough to accomodate 2 bus lanes, or at least build a bus bridge or tunnel next to an existing bridge. 

Just because Multiculturalism in Canada started to officially get going in the 1970s, the city & municipal councils and planning departments were still predominantly managed by people of European descent. For most of the Colonial and postcolonial history of BC, the main municipalities were Vancouver, Burnaby, NW & Victoria. It was that way right into the 1970s. 

Since the predominantly White civic structure was firmly in place well into the 1980s, there was plenty of time to implement and maintain a social engineering agenda. An unofficial (White) Urban Livability Plan was cleverly devised by scaling almost everything down. Since BC can't control non-white immigration, "Livability" had to be symbolically quite visible. Livability was an ingenious way to impose various overlapping restrictions throughout the decades. How does the Livability agenda work? Suppose that there was a mostly subconscious mentality to refuse building up proper big city infrastructure for non-white people. Thus, by symbolically constructing inadequate transportation infrastructure, it becomes a way demonstrating that you are not properly building for the future, despite most of the world being non-white. Now, Burnaby & the Greater Vancouver region are so far behind now, its difficult to catch up to other proper metropolitan areas around the world.  

Despite Canada being the 2nd largest country in overall size, it has such a small area on the Pacific_Rim and Asia is the most populated part of the world. By keeping most of the bridges narrow and the trains short compared to most cities, that fits right in with the symbolism of antigrowth towards a predominantly non-white world. Canada is nowhere near close to having 1% of the worlds population, but most of the world is non-white. Its been that way since the beginning.  

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Burnaby+apologizes

City of Burnaby makes formal apology for decades of discrimination against people of Chinese descent

 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/burnaby-apology-discriminating-chinese-descent-9.6980642 

Since BC started out as a British Colonial outpost, people of European descent were at the orchestrated top of the human hierarchy. Chinese and Asians & nonwhites in general were a concern to the White majority of early BC.  

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/multiculturalism-anti-racism/chinese-legacy-bc/history/discrimination

https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/people-and-stories/chinese-canadians

South Asians were also a concern to the colonial power structure.  

https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/komagata-maru 

https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2016/08/the-komagata-maru-incident-of-1914.html 

Of course Indigenous and Black People were part of being categorized as a lesser class of human. 

It took a very long time for the British_Empire to respect the people of a multicultural world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_the_British_Empire 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography_of_the_British_Empire#Decline_and_decolonization 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography_of_the_British_Empire#Postmodern_and_postcolonial_approaches

Multicultural Canada has less than 1% of the world's population. Yet, so many smaller countries are able to have a higher density and larger population than Canada. 

Burnaby in Greater Vancouver is part of Canada's largest urban area on the Pacific_Rim. There are still many people who would like to thwart the scale of growth in Greater_Vancouver. They don't want the region to become as big and dynamic as Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Seattle, SFBA, Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane. 

A big & dynamic urban region means more Asians and more nonwhite people in general. Unfortunatly, some people are still too uncomfortable with that notion.  

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Burnaby+apologizes

Surrey primed to surpass Vancouver population in the very near future

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-vancouver-population-estimates-rennie Fortunatly, the Vancouver Mind Virus won't be able to stop Surrey from having taller residential buildings. While Vancouver still won't permit any office tower to have 40 floors, Surrey will very likely have the first office tower in BC to have more than 40 stories.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-metro-vancouver-population-growth-forecast-bc-city-2038 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Surrey

Majority polled in Calgary and Edmonton are unhappy with the pace of population growth

 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/too-much-too-fast-majority-polled-in-calgary-edmonton-unhappy-with-pace-of-population-growth-9.6935121 

If you are visiting Vancouver or Victoria from Calgary or Edmonton, you will be shocked as to how narrow most of the bridges are in Greater Vancouver and Victoria. Edmonton was wise in the 1970s to have 125 m long underground LRT stations. Foolish Vancouver opted to only have 80 m stations on its first 2 lines and an absurd 50 m for the 3rd line. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_(Calgary) , https://www.calgary.ca/green-line.html 

https://www.calgarytransit.com/plans---projects/lrt/green-line.html

https://engage.calgary.ca/greenline/UndergroundStations Fortunatly, any underground stations in Calgary will be closer in length to that of the Edmonton LRT and not backwards Vancouver.

https://www.railjournal.com/regions/north-america/tunnel-preferred-for-calgary-lrt-green-line/

https://www.tunnelsandtunnelling.com/news/calgary-city-council-approves-green-line-lrt-construction/?cf-view

https://www.calgary.ca/green-line/stations.html

https://www.tunnelsandtunnelling.com/news/calgary-city-council-approves-green-line-lrt-construction/?cf-view 

The main roads and bridges in urban parts of Alberta are allowed to be wider than their counterparts in backwards BC. So while people in the urban parts of Alberta are concerned or even angry about rapid growth, at least Alberta can easily build more urban infrastructure. That's because Albertal isn't affect by the (unofficial) BC Mind Virus (BCMV). 

A timely example is a new bridge between Surrey & NW. Despite Surrey being expected to become the largest city in BC, the new bridge will only open with 4 lanes. No 3rd or 4th lane each way for busses, HOVs and trucks. Thus, all the road traffic at either end is funneled into just 2 lanes each way. Plus, there are no breakdown or emergency lane, just like the old bridge.   

While this new bridge can eventually be widened to 6 lanes, there is no provision for a lower deck for LRT, busses and trucks. Despite SW BC being a seaport area, trucks are funneled onto mostly narrow bridges. There has been a lack of interest to build bus bridges next to almost all of the bridges in Greater Vancouver. Yet, there is a Half-A$$ED attempt to have a better regional express bus network. This regional Rapid Bus attempt will always be a joke, unless a series of bus bridges are built. The Half-A$$ED approach is to try to have bus lanes on 4 to 6 lane bridges. Designating 2 bus lanes would reduce the narrow bridges to only 1 or 2 lanes each way for general traffic in what is suppose to be a major seaport and urban area.   

Most of the worlds population is non-white and for a big part of the history of BC, there has been a refusal to build up bigtime infrastructure for everyone. While some Albertains might wish that there was a wall built around their province or a force-field like out of Star Trek, BC is almost pretending like there is. Thus, the keep things small and backwards mentality. 

Several decades ago, BC implemented a symbolic slow-growth approach. Despite BC not having any control over immigration, or trying to establish an internal passport & checkpoint system, to KEEP PEOPLE OUT, it opted for the next best thing. Stunt or scale back the urban infrastructure to project a strong symbolic reluctance to growth and thinking big. 

When you realize how much larger things are allowed to be in Alberta, Washington State and even Western Australia & compare them to watered down BC, you see quite a difference. Despite BC & Canada in general, being multicultural, BCs cities keep finding ways to water the scale of things down. Canada has yet to have even 1% of the world's population, despite its size.  

While there are good arguments to occasionally slowdown immigration, that can eventually become problematic, just like too much immigration. Even in the 2020s, some people in the former White colonial parts of the world still wish that Canada & Australia, etc., could be a White Man's paradise. However, that seems so impractical on a planet that mostly has a non white population. 

https://humanrights.ca/story/chinese-head-tax-and-chinese-exclusion-act

https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chinese-head-tax-in-canada 

https://royalalbertamuseum.ca/blog/chinese-head-tax-george-yees-story 

https://www.musee-mccord-stewart.ca/en/blog/chinese-exclusion-act/

https://parks.canada.ca/culture/designation/evenement-event/exclusion-chinois-chinese

https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/asian-heritage-month/important-events.html

https://stanleyparkvan.com/stanley-park-van-monument-komagata-maru.html

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2022/10/05/vancouver-komagata-maru-memorial

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/01/30/vancouver-komagata-maru-memorial-vandalism/

Even if Alberta were to eventually become its own country, it would be extremely unlikely that it could ever impose a White Man's Paradise Agenda. The same could be stated for backwards BC. However, something very peculiar has been happening in BC for several generations. 

Several BC cities and municipalities play off each other with various slow-growth agendas. Vancouver being one of the most restrictive & backwards on the the planet. Somehow the legitimate anti freeway fears of the 1960s & 70s didn't get the city & region to still build a series of bus & HOV bridges. Plus, a long-term, high capacity urban rail system.

While Montreal planned for 152.4 m stations to accomodate 9 car trains, backwards Vancouver only built 80 m Skytrain stations for the first 2 lines. Then to top that, was a plan to build a line to Richmond with only enough level clearance for 50 m stations. The 1st line only started to run 5 car trains in 2025. Eventually, the 2nd line will also have 5 car trains. However, the line to the airport was deliberately designed not to have 5 car trains. Just a Half-A$$ED 2.5 car train, someday. WTH?

For Greater Vancouver to mostly have narrow bridges, one would think the all the stations could ultimately be at least as long as a Montreal Metro train station. Indeed, Greater Vancouver should have built for 10 car trains, but will only have 5 car trains on the 1st  two lines & a 2.5 car joke of a train on the 3rd line. As of 2025, the 2nd & 3rd lines are still only running 2 car trains. Such a great way to symbolically show the resistance to eventually link YVR to both of the main BC ferry terminals. 

The inadequate 3 lane Lion Bridge still has no bus & HOV tunnels near it. Urban parts of Australia never seemed to have a similar reluctance to build tunnels as does backwards Vancouver. Tunnels for Montreal & Seattle aren't a problem either. At least BC is slated to have a new and improved tunnel by 2030, that's only a couple of generations late.   

Oh, if only people would stop moving to BC, especially Vancouver & Victoria. Well, that's not the case, its just that various BC cities want to only build urban infrastructure that is inadequate. Despite the frustrations that some people have in Alberta, at lest wider bridges, longer trains & taller buildings are allowed there. This watering things down in BC approach is symbolically indicative to refuse to properly build for a growing population. 

Surrey should have already had at least 1 hospital the size of VGH. At least Surrey like Burnaby, can build up taller in what is still mostly a mountain wilderness province. 

BC is a long way from New England & Southern Quebec. The restrictive urban planning measures in Greater Vancouver keep preventing it from becoming a proper big metropolitan area like Greater Boston and Montreal. 

Calgary and Edmonton each should have hand an airport+line by now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_(MBTA) Calgary will have its own version of a Green Line, eventually. https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Calgary+Green+Line

Multnomah County, Oregon and Clark County, Washington

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multnomah_County,_Oregon While Portland is so tiny when compared to NYC, it still has the potential to become a big city like Seattle, someday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_County,_Washington Vancouver, WA is basically a suburb of Portland. However, V-WA could eventually become like a smaller version of Jersey_City,_New_Jersey. 

Its a case of a smaller river city next to a larger river city, that is part of a metropolitan area. 

The New_York_metropolitan_area is the most densely populated and the biggest in the US. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_metropolitan_area#Geography 

The Portland_metropolitan_area could potentially become as big as the Seattle_metropolitan_area, some day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_metropolitan_area#Metropolitan_statistical_area  

Seattle is already a larger city than Boston. However, the Seattle_metropolitan_area still isn't quite as big as the Greater_Boston Area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_metropolitan_area#Geography 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Boston#Metropolitan_Area  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England Boston

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest Seattle 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Northwest#Population

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City-Windsor_Corridor Montreal and Toronto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary-Edmonton_Corridor No hindrence from backwards BC.

Then there is backwards Vancouver and the Lower_Mainland part of BC. Short trains and mostly narrow bridges are hindering the region, by design. The regional passenger rail and the freight rail lines all need to be properly upgraded.

Don't forget the provincial backwater that is Victoria,_British_Columbia. At least Greater_Victoria has the potential to become a major island metropolitan area, someday. There should be a 4 track passenger and freight line between Victoria and Nanaimo and even up to Comox.

Population growth of Metro Vancouver slows due to federal immigration policy changes

 https://globalnews.ca/news/11416760/population-growth-metro-vancouver-slows-federal-immigration-policy-changes/

Surrey's population could exceed Vancouver's in 2038

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-metro-vancouver-population-growth-forecast-bc-city-2038  

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-population-growth-forecast-update-2051

Modular school additions a Band-Aid for classroom crunch in Surrey, BC

 https://globalnews.ca/news/11355992/modular-school-additions-no-solution-classroom-crunch-surrey-parent-leader/

Despite Surrey eventually becoming the most populated city in BC, it's still been scaled back for most of its history. It sure would have been nice if the SkyTrain between Vancouver & Surrey had 10 car trains. It's been tough enough just to finally start having some 5 car trains.

https://www.translink.ca/plans-and-projects/strategies-plans-and-guidelines/area-transport-planning/burrard-peninsula 

Unfortunatly, transportation connections between the Burrard_Peninsula and Surrey are too few and that's by design.

Fortunately, the BC mentality of limiting infrastructure hasn't been adopted in Portland, Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton & Winnipeg. Thus, they are all able to have a lot more bridges. One can clearly see that a lot more funding has been properly applied in several cities. However, Greater Vancouver has a lot less bridges than many other urban areas. Short trains are expected or forced to do the job of a proper big city, long train. Most of the regional bridges are so narrow, there isn't enough space for 2 bus lanes & 2 HOV lanes. 

Then, there is a multi-generational refusal to build a regional network of bus & HOV bridges. Even the (2030) tunnel wasn't designed to have 2 HOV lanes & especially a double track train tunnel component. At lest the (2030) tunnel will have 2 bus lanes & 3 general lanes each way.   

https://www.peacearchnews.com/local-news/surrey-mayor-looks-to-repair-lack-of-healthcare-services-in-this-city-7975235  

Of course the Surrey+Memorial+Hospital wasn't designed with a series of 5-10 story buildings with a capability to eventually add another 10-15 floors.

https://www.surreynowleader.com/local-news/surrey-mayor-aghast-at-citys-dearth-of-hospital-beds-compared-to-vancouver-7873315

"Despite having a population of similar size to the City of Vancouver, Surrey has 671 hospital beds compared to Vancouver’s 2,572. Even with 168 beds slated for the new Cloverdale hospital that is under construction, Vancouver will still have triple the number of hospital beds for a population of similar size..." https://www.surrey.ca/news-events/news/surrey-mayor-proposes-health-care-administrator-address-inequity  

https://globalnews.ca/news/10342083/surrey-healthcare-crisis-hospital-capacity/ 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/surrey-memorial-hospital-emergency-department-crisis-doctors-letter-1.7325687

Australia's housing crisis

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia

https://www.fresheconomicthinking.com/p/australias-housing-crisis-was-just

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5wlevy647o

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/population-clock-pyramid Still under 28 million in mid 2025.

https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/housing-affordability

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-01/home-values-hit-record-highs-june-property-prices/105477426

https://www.globalpropertyguide.com/pacific/australia/price-history#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20latest%20data%20from%20the,compared%20to%20the%20same%20period%20in%202023.

https://population.gov.au/population-topics/topic-population

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia#Cities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Australia_by_population#Significant_Urban_Areas_by_population

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/17/melbourne-overtakes-sydney-as-australias-most-populous-city

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Australia

Canada's rising home prices and rents

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canada-immigration-home-price-rent-increase-impact

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area#Countries_and_dependencies_by_area Despite Canada being the 2nd largest country in overal area, it has less than 1% of the world's population. 

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710000901 Still less than 42 million in mid 2025.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada#Demographics

https://www.biv.com/news/retail-manufacturing/strong-vancouver-data-helps-bc-top-canada-for-retail-sales-growth-10988450

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City-Windsor_Corridor

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Canada

Vancouver mayor wants to unlock ‘exceptional’ industrial areas for housing

 https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/07/23/vancouver-mayor-industrial-lands-housing 

"As of last July, Vancouver’s population was 756,008, after adding 23,790 people in 2023-24." https://vancouversun.com/news/population-booms-langford-surrey-metro-vancouver 2025

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/metro-vancouver-population-three-million-1.7449282

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-population-growth-three-million

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/data/statistics/people-population-community/population/quarterly_population_highlights.pdf

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710000901

Not so accurate.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/canadian-cities/vancouver Aproimatley 688,000 in 2025.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/massachusetts/boston 639,000

https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/california/san-francisco 767,968

SkyTrain's Rupert and Renfrew stations

 https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/vancouver-neighbourhood-next-broadway-plan-treatment

Most of BC is wilderness and there are only a handful of potential big urban areas in BC.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/rupert-and-renfrew-station-area-plan-vancouver-final

The Greater Vancouver Region has been held back for several decades. Of course affordable housing should be part of the overall growth plan. All of  BC still has less people than just the Greater Toronto Area & Canada has yet to have even just 1% of the world's population.

The 3 lane Lions+Gate+Bridge and the 2 car joke that is the Canada+Line are fine BC examples of the reluctance to build proper big city size infrastructure. There should have been at least 2 bus tunnels & 2 HOV tunnels near the LGB. If the C Line couldn't have 10 car trains, the stations should have at least been designed to accomodate 5 car trains, not an eventual 2.5 car joke of a train. There also should have been a train tunnel near the LGB by now, but that's what a proper big city would have done.

A New grocery store slated to be on West Broadway in Vancouver

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/sobeys-toys-r-us-1154-west-brodway-vancouver-new-grocery-store

Given the planned population density increase, there needs to be more stores & other services.

Some tunnels in Australia and Canada...

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tunnels_in_Australia

Despite having a smaller population than Canada, Australia seems to have more urban highway tunnels than Canada has.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/highway-401-tunnel-study-1.7523029#

HOV lanes & express bus tunnels would help to relieve the surface route. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/401-tunnel-cost-1.7464404

A truck lane system could also speed up shipping & efficiency.

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/ford-carney-highway-401-tunnel

https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/municipalities-transit-and-infrastructure/we-wont-be-using-it-premier-ford-suggests-hell-die-before-401-tunnel-is-built-10652845

https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/government/2024/09/highway-401-tunnel-expressway-could-become-a-reality

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/09/25/ontario-highway-401-doug-ford-tunnel-proposal/

Why Nobody Wants To Live In Upstate New York

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtlGzVZjf2k

There just isn't enough bricks, steel & concrete upstate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstate_New_York

Most of New_York_State is wilderness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_New_York_(state)

Most of the population prefers to live in NYC or the New_York_metropolitan_area, because that's where most of the people, employment, bricks, steel & concrete is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population#State_and_territory_rankings