Nanaimo

Back in the old days, little old Nanaimo (once touted as the ”Hub City” for some curious reason — now it’s promotional slogan is the “Gateway to the Island”) was regarded by us snobs in Victoria as… um, how shall we say… a seedy, downmarket, almost “Appalachian” sort of place; noted more for its biker gangs, crime-ridden neighborhoods, scurvy remnants of the rust-bucket coal-mining industry, drug culture, and its ludicrous bathtub race, than anything else. My, how times have changed.

p.s. It’s always fun to hear people mispronounce its name on “Larry King” or wherever. Right up there with the tortured mangling of “Saskatchewan”…