Weird. I moved here in 1995 and it was commonplace. I thought it was very strange coming from Vancouver.
Very weird, because I'd say it's just as common in Vancouver as it is in Victoria. No difference at all.
Which only confirms yet again that most of these "local culture" things aren't real. People see whatever they want to see.
It used to be one of my pastimes, making note of the observations/declarations that people make about places/situations and how the declarations/observations are often contradictory. That's why I was really into those tripadvisor.com reviews for quite a while there. Also, the PCL bus and the ferries are gold mines for overhearing all sorts of curious stuff.
Example: I've heard just as many people remark about the warm and friendly nature of Victorians as I've heard remark about the cold and unfriendly nature of Victorians. As if any such generalization could ever be valid, even if you were personally acquainted with every single person in Victoria and also every single person in several other cities (for the purposes of the comparison). And I've heard the same absurd discussions about how friendly/unfriendly the locals are in just about every other place that I've ever been to.
That said, here's one of my local cultural observations: Victorians are very reluctant to call the police as compared to folks in other cities. An H-bomb could go off and people are like, "Should I call the police? Better not to get involved. Someone else will call them it if it's really something serious." There's also the whole "It could be worse... It could be happening in Vancouver" attitude, too. A criminal act in Victoria isn't quite as bad as the exact same criminal act in another place. We've talked about that before on here.