Where’s Nanaimo Going?

Daxton Comba | Associate Media Editor

Photo of the score between the raiders and the rebels game

10.02.26
| Vol. 58, No. 1 | Vol. 58, No. 1 | Video

In the first video from Volume 58 of The Nav, you are invited to spend a few minutes with Nav Videographer Daxton Comba as he tours the city of Nanaimo, reflecting on how it’s changed since he first arrived on the boat in Departure Bay in 2018. After years spent growing from stranger to resident, he’s concluded that the harbour city is going through a bit of an in-between phase. The city has, in some ways, outpaced its public image throughout the rest of Canada. It’s grown, it’s changed, but it has yet to establish a wholly new identity for itself. Daxton speaks to a lifetime resident of the city, asking how the character of Nanaimo has changed throughout their lives.

Canadian Travel Intentions & Emerging Trends, Leger: https://leger360.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Rep_Leger_CanadianTravelTrends_5Jun2025-1.pdf

Tourism Nanaimo Summer 2025 Performance Report, Tourism Nanaimo: https://pub-nanaimo.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=60370

Tourism Nanaimo Website: https://tourismnanaimo.com/plan/visitor-centre/

Daxton Comba

Daxtonis a fourth-year Creative Writing student at VIU, a Graphic Designer, physical media hoarder, and filmmaker. He served as Script Editor and Audio/Visual intern forPortal2025, and moved to Acquisitions Editor forPortal2026 while working as videographer forThe Nav. His writing has been published in bothPortalandGOOEYmagazines, and he received the Meadowlarks Award for Fiction in 2025.

A short stage play of his was produced for VIU’s 2025 One-Act Festival, and over the summer he wrote and directed a stage play titled Funeral Cake for the 2026 Nanaimo Fringe Fest. He is now the Associate Media Manager for Vol. 58 atThe Navigator, and insists that he has overcome his fear of ghosts.