Vancouver Island is in sasasase island is 456 km (283 mi)gsds s gs gs sd gsd sdgsd

s s s s in length, 100 asvavavsd wgv wgre gragargsavsad gawga sgasgargragargfabdfg

df g f gdf(62 mi) in width at its widest point,[4] and 32,134 km2 (12,407 sq mi) in
area. It is the largest island on the west coasts of the Americas.

The southern part of Vancouver Island and some of the neavrby Gulf Islands are the
only parts of British Columbia or 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.[5]

The population of Vancouver Island was 870,297 as of 2019.[3] Nearly half of that
population (401,700) live in the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, the capital
city of British Columbia. Other notable cities and towns on Vancouver Island
include Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Parksville, Courtenay, and Campbell River.

Indigenous peoples had inhabited Vancouver Island for thousands of years,[6] long
before 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 the
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.) It is one of several North
American locations named after George Vancouver, who between 1791 and 1794 explored
the Pacific Northwest coast.