AFTER thirteen years in Northern Ireland where I began, I’ve returned to British Columbia and its capital Victoria on Vancouver Island. In my absence the city has undergone a sea-change.
When I left, the vast Empress Hotel on the harbour was the jewel in the city’s tourist crown. Opened in 1908, it was one of the majestic railhead hotels built across the country by the Canadian Pacific Railway whose steel rails sewed this sprawling landmass together.
