
Once you drive (or fly) past Hope heading west you really really are beyond Hope.

Actually (and I'm very leary of statistics) I've heard recently on a per capita basis Victoria has more crime than either Vancouver or Nanaimo, BUT I'm thinking it's more to do with number of incidents more than severity of incidents. Personally I doubt if crime in Nanaimo should concern the average wise and law abiding person.

Russia has been claimed to have a higher crime rate than most countries in Africa but we all know that, especially if you are not black, you will have a higher chance of being kidnapped and murdered in Africa!
In in our metropolitans to some extent, most of the crime is underreported, written off under technicalities, the police avoid certain areas of town, or the locals see no need to report crime (or are unable to report it because of a lack of police infrastructure), and have to consider their status (legal or illegal resident), et al.
Crime rates are always higher in your ''bumpkim'' towns in British Columbia, namely because police presence is much larger, they can shut off the roads more easily, people trust the police more, et al, so more crime is reported even though it may just consist of spousal abuse, drunkeness in public, lewd behaviour, the rare assault, et al.
I know from personal experience, I'll take a "hick town" before staying overnight in the rough parts of Vancouver or Surrey.

Sunshine coast is nice. You get really nice sunsets through the discharge of the pulp mill across the sound.
That old boy is the look and smell of money.
Vancouver is great but expensive (I've lived west of Main St in the better part of the city all my adult life)-the eastern suburbs are just that-faceless/car choked and not really that much cheaper.