If you look at local houses built 100 years ago or older they are often on narrow lots, shoulder to shoulder.
New arrivals to Victoria from points east carried with them bad memories of the crumbling row houses and subsidized council flats back home and instead looked toward the new subdivisions on old farmland in places like Gordon Head and Broadmead where the lots were wide and the massive, broad CMHC mid-century modern SFD was sweeping Canada.
So true townhomes never took hold except recently in isolated pockets, like some of Zebra Design's projects like Carberry Gardens.
Carberry Gardens was quite nice, the former CFB base commander and his wife are friends and used to live there before selling and moving to Vancouver in 2013; sale price was in the $680K range as I recall. Lots of space for their family of 3 at the time - I think it was in the 1800 sf range, but small kitchens and that narrow design made it look at one Christmas party that 25 guests were more like 50. Otherwise nice neighborhood, great location. Can only imagine what one of those units would command today since its right on the edge of Rockland.