James Lorimer
pp. 3–9
Record
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of organized citizen groups on the contemporary city in terms of architecture, built form, and planning. Five sections discuss the physical forms of the postwar Canadian city and the basic planning strategies in place at the end of the 1960's; the rise of organized citizen groups and their critique of that set of urban prototypes; the shift in political power that occurred as a result of citizen group activity; the new conditions which came to exist for urban development and planning, and the new city forms that have arisen; and the combination of circumstances which emerged in the early 1980's which put the revised Canadian city on the edge of a serious economic crisis.
Jean-Pierre Kesteman
pp. 11–28
Record
Abstract
The cycles of depression and expansion in the history of capitalist countries can also be studied at the level of the industrial city.Sherbrooke's tax rolls — which are as accurate as any annual municipal census — make it possible to trace the irregular growth pattern of a burgeoning city. This article looks at how employment, housing, material and social living conditions and tendencies toward residential permanency or transience changed from 1875 to 1913 with the unequal and combined movement of long-term trends and short economic cycles.The study of eleven neighbourhoods makes it possible to identify different growth development rhythms in relation to ethnic or socio-professional traits and by residential sector.
Kenneth C. Dewar
pp. 29–38
Record
Abstract
In June, 1897, the electrical utility companies of Ontario launched their first organized offensive against municipal ownership. Their objective was to secure an amendment to the Ontario Municipal Act that would protect the vested interests of local utilities and perhaps slow the reform movement then gathering momentum throughout the province. Two years later, they achieved success in the form of the so-called "Conmee Clauses", requiring municipalities to buy out privately owned local electrical and gas utilities before inaugurating their own systems. The industry united behind the campaign only with difficulty. Its spokesmen expressed a view of the role of the state at once flexible in its conception of the limits of government regulation, and fixed in its perception of government's responsibility to protect fundamental business interests. In the short term, opponents of the legislation were unable to prevent its passage; in the long term, this dispute was but one episode in the conflict over municipal ownership which culminated in the establishment of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario.
P. H. Wichern
pp. 39–43
Record
Abstract
This article argues that the claim that "the General Strike was the fundamental
determinant in the modern political history of Winnipeg" is incorrect, not only
because the claim cannot be substantiated properly with evidence, but because more
extensive historical analysis suggests that civic boosterism is a better candidate
for the accolade of "fundamental determinant" than the 1919 Strike. An alternative
interpretation of the nature and significance of the Strike is provided, and civic
boosterism is argued to be a good example of "the third face of power" proposed by
Steven Lukes — that is, a dominant cultural value of a particular political economy.
As such, the concept may have more widespread application as well as better
summarizing the dominant influences in Winnipeg's civic political history.