Frontier City: Toronto on the Verge of Greatness by Shawn Micallef (review)

Toronto's civic politics gained international attention between 2010 and 2014 during Rob Ford's rollercoaster mayoralty. The subsequent election of John Tory and Doug Ford's run for provincial premier may grab headlines, but Shawn Micallef's Frontier City looks elsewhere to understand Toronto today.

The book has two core strands. Micallef begins by reflecting on Rob Ford's Toronto, and the ground-level politics of populist dissent. Early chapters in the book present a re-evaluation of Ford's tenure as mayor, unpacking the complex geography of his support and a historical appreciation of Toronto's problems with inequality. His study then opens out to survey the contemporary city, taking stock of how people live and work across a sampling of the 44 wards fought in the 2014 municipal election. The geography is broad, but the attention is focused and detailed. Exploring the social and political geography of Toronto, Micallef walks the avenues and culs-de-sac of the city with ten candidates for city council and two prospective members of the Toronto District School Board, measuring how his instincts on the workings of city hall resonate with their experience on the ground.

Throughout the book, Micallef acknowledges the legacy of the megacity's amalgamation nearly twenty years on. One chapter hones in on the area around Victoria Park and Danforth. Renamed here 'three corners' based on its proximity to the meeting place of the old boundaries of East York, Scarborough, and Metro Toronto, Micallef's inclination is to consider how the city today has more in common than such old borders imply. However, the old affiliations remain important to many. Micallef recalls how a former member of provincial parliament for Beaches-East York objected to notions of a common post-amalgamation identity, while still representing the very same post-amalga-mation city.

Other chapters refer to the city's transit system and the ways in which differing neighbourhoods have benefited or been omitted from new subway and light rail transit (LRT) plans. Micallef's pedestrian companions walk us through the intensely local issues bearing on everyday life. From ravines to parks to waterfronts, attitudes towards urban nature and the city's green space are contextualised by a history of civic policy. A discussion with one council candidate, Keegan Henry-Mathieu, takes in Black Creek and Rowntree Mills Park, providing a chance to discuss park usage, community organisation, political vision, and the incumbent councillor Giorgio Mammoliti's politics. As isolated case studies such walks and reflections could be fragmentary but Micallef develops a deeper narrative, considering how city building and urban development can cohere with liveability for all of Toronto's residents.

Micallef is a highly readable conversational narrator, an empathetic listener, and a deeply analytical observer of the city. We learn of food supplies, hidden walking trails, Drake's influence on city politics, R.C. Harris's life, multiple brickworks plants, the theatre of door-to-door canvassing, and gain fresh insight into how Jane Jacobs's life and work are reflected in Toronto today. Moreover, there is optimism, as we see the chances Torontonians still have to pursue the dream of a more liveable, equitable city.