The Usable Urban Past: Planning and Politics in the Modern Canadian City ed. by Alan F.J. Artibise, and Gilbert A. Stelter (review)

978 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW PrivyCouncilconfirmedtherightof thefederalgovernment todisallow Manitoba 's school legislation. Thisisnotquitecorrect. The timefordisallowance had longpassed. What the litigationestablished wasthe powerof thefederalgovernmenttoenactremediallegislation . Later,wearetold(xxii)thattheLiberals wonthe provincialelections of •896.This shouldbe •897. I foundfewother mistakes anywhere intheimmense volume.Hopefullyitisanisolated case, but in thereviewcopypages5 and8 of the6th session areblank. Saint-Pierre andher teamhaveseta highstandardfor thosewhocontinue theproject. LOVE LLCLARK University ofManitoba TheUsable Urban Past: Planning andPolitics inthe Modem Canadian City. Editedby ALA•v.J. ARTIBISE andGILBERT A.STELTER. Toronto,Macmillan,•979.PP.383, maps,illus.$9.95. The thirteenessays assembled in thisvolumeattestto thecontinuinghealthy growthof researchin Canadianurban history,both in scopeand timespan. Notwithstanding amodest disclaimer fromtheeditorsaboutthisfieldof historybeingstillin itsinfancy, thereisoverallasense of confidence andbalance here whichis well merited.Excuses for tentativeexplorations, for hybrid cross-breeding of social, economic, andadministrative themes, havebeensensibly leftbehindbystudies which,onthewhole,candrawonandareconfirmed by an impressive rangeof primaryand secondary material.The bookitself makesaninterdisciplinary gesture in leadingoff withanexamination byeconomicgeographer James Simmons of 'The Evolution of theCanadian Urban System.' Simmons's veryreadableattempttoarticulatehistorical developments from the geographer's pointof view- he stresses factors of uncertainty, the resourcebasebehind mostcities,and their network of interdependencestandssomewhat apart from, rather than constitutes a frameworkfor, the paperson politics and planningthat follow,notleastin concentrating on the smaller primary-producing cities in theurbanmatrix,thoughthefocus elsewhereismainlyonthemetropolitan centres of thecountry. Of thepolitical pieces, therearethreecase studies andtwousefully linked analyses ofwestern Canadian developments. JohnWeaver takes Torontoatthe thresholdof the reform era of the newcenturyand offersa sharply-drawn profileofitspolitical andsocial shortcomings, andthereformimpulses which were to work on both.The welterof reform concernsacross thesepre-war yearsis well described, thoughWeaver's centralcharacter,MorleyWicket, seems tometogetrathertoomuchcreditforboththeideas andthesuccessful implementation of localgovernment reformin thisperiod.Hisadvocacy of betterstatistical accounting incityaffairs,for instance, washardlyuniqueata timeofwidespread Americandemands onthisscore, withwhich Wickettwould REVIEWS 279 certainly havebeenfamiliar.(Indeed,Weaverisgenerally concerned tolocate Toronto's reformexperiences squarely withinthewiderNorthAmericancontext .) More locally,too,it wouldhavebeenhelpful to lookbehindWickettto institutions liketheBoardofTrade,tosupportmorefullytheconclusion that structural reformssucceeded in partbecause theywere'intrinsic totheexpectations of ...thebusiness community.' Terry Copp'sexaminationof Montreal'sresponse to the Depression of the 193osisa moreexplicitlydefinedstudyof a charactercentralto the period, CamilienHoude,andin ananalysis of thethreeadministrations ledbyHoude he describes with compellingdetailhowbadlythat cityfared in thisdecade, particularlyin comparison to Toronto,and howbadlyit wasservedby parsimonious and partisanQuebecprovincialgovernments. While the latter reportedbudgetary surpluses in thelate3os,theprovince's principalslidinto bankruptcy, tothepointwhereresponsibility forlocalgovernment in Montreal wasusurped byaprovincial commission in 194o.Coppexplores theantipathy between cityandprovince togoodeffect;henotesaswellthesignificant exclusionoftheanglophone business •litefrompowerinlocal citypolitics. Buthere at leastfurther analysis wouldhavebeenwelcome. With Montreal's industry stagnatingin old-fashionedlabour-intensive channels,with its traditional financial strengths in comparative decline (thepoorperformance duringthe decade of the city'sstockexchange, relativeto Toronto's, mighthavebeen mentioned), whatwasthebusiness elite's perception ofitsrole,bothinrelation to thecityandto the province? Perhaps therewerefewconstructive alternatives totheiropposition tothe'people's mayor'Houdeinthisdecade. Bywayof contrast, theWinnipeg •lite discussed byJ.E.Reaknewnotonly whotheirenemywasin citypolitics but precisely nowto respond. With conspicuous success theyestablished themselves after1919 astheopponents of all locallabour interests(in whateverpoliticalguise)and under the spurious bannerof non-partisanship haveneveroncelostcontrolof municipal affairs• Perhaps, oneisleftwondering, thevoters simplylikeit thatway. And yetasthe twoperceptive studies byJames AndersonandAlanArtibisemakeclear,there aredeeperproblems thathavestultified thepolitical responsiveness notjustof Winnipegbutof western cities in general. The thrustofAnderson's argument isthat the movementfor urbanreform in the Westprior to 192owasitself strongly biased inclass terms:thatitworkednotmerelyforefficiency, honesty, andgrowthbut alsoagainst the interests of the workingclass, includingtheir participation in localgovernment. In citiesfearfulof their immigrantmasses andof labourmilitancy, anddesperate to competefor development against easternadvantages, city-sponsored growthpolicies (concessions to industry, bonusing) andmunicipal reformpractices derivedfromOntarioorAmerican models(biggerwards,commission government) were manipulatedto serve andsecure thenarrowinterests of thebusiness •lites.Thisisnotnecessarily a startling conclusion, andin places islaboriously drawn- afterall,democracy 280 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW anduntramelledfreeenterprisescarcely flourished in otherCanadiancities. What Artibisedemonstrates, however,is the degreeto whichthese'booster' policies, formulatedbefore•9•4 whenwesterncitieshadboomed beyondall expectations, calcified intoarigidsetof responses perversely inappropriate to the thirty yearsof declineandcontraction thatwereto follow. The resulting failures inwestern urbanmanagement Artibise sees aspowerfully contributing tothepolitical andeconomic erosion - atthehandsof provincial andfederal governments, easternbanks,and branchplants- of the region's citiesasa whole.In lamenting thesemorecurrentconstraints ongrowthandautonomy, hisessay betrays atouch itselfofthebooster spirit,I suspect; butitconstitutes a powerfulindictment,nonetheless. The paperson planningare morediverse,and althoughintroducedby a concise andusefulreviewofthegeneral subject, theycomplement eachother considerably less well.Indeed,ontheadmittedlyrathercomplicated relationshipbetween planning andzoning, quiteincompatible views areadvanced by PeterMooreandWalterVanNusconcerning theinterwaryears: Moorefroma somewhat narrowadministrative perspective developing adistinction between 'populist'zoningand 'reformist'planning;Van Nus (to my readingmore accurately) portrayingzoningasfar morethepassive retreatof abeleaguered planningprofession consistently thwartedin itswideraimsbypowerfulpropertyandreal -estate interests. Admittedly, thereareinconsistencies interminologyhereandneitheranalysis isinthatsense invalid(elsewhere similardifficultiesoccurwiththeuseof...