GEOG 340: DAY 6 Evolution of the Canadian Urban System International Park(ing) Day in Nanaimo – Friday from 11-2 across from Serious Coffee

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS  Any observations about the field trip and the experience of the different neighbourhoods? (Thanks, Kate.)  For more information on Nanaimo’s neighbourhoods, see rtments/Community- Planning/NeighbourhoodPlanning.html and neighbourhoods.php, rtments/Community- Planning/NeighbourhoodPlanning.html neighbourhoods.php Note that Sherwood Forest has been absorbed and Harewood has been ‘rebranded.’ For more on Harewood, see lanning/Neighbourhood~Planning/Harewood/HarewoodC ommunityProfile.pdf

HILLER (CHAPTER 2) ON DYNAMICS OF CANADIAN URBANIZATION  Introduces the political economy approach – i.e. that “the different emerging patterns of urbanization… are not just the result of some kind of natural process but are the results of deliberate decisions and human action. This is known as the political economy perspective, because it points out that the decisions made by people in positions of power, especially in business and politics, have a major impact on how urbanization proceeds. Government policies, political and economic power, and investment decisions have played a huge role in determining the outcomes of the process of urbanization in Canada.” (p. 21)

HILLER ON DYNAMICS OF CANADIAN URBANIZATION  Some First Nations – especially those who combined farming with hunting and gathering, or who had access to exceptional rich marine resources – lived in fairly large communities (as large as 1500), but sometimes they were forced to move by warfare or local resource exhaustion.  When the British and French moved in, they were primarily interested in staples – fur, fish, timber for ship masts, and later, wheat and minerals. It was historian, Harold Innis, who came up with the “staples thesis.” The extraction and exploitation of these resources for the motherland was initially the engine of Canadian development, including urban development (think of Hudson’s Bay forts).

IROQUOIS OR HURON VILLAGE

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

 Initially European settlements were small and their role was administrative, military, and playing an intermediate role in getting the resources from the hinterland to the colonizing power. Early examples include Quebec, Montreal, and York (Toronto). Halifax and Louisbourg are other examples. Montreal and Halifax were important ports because of their location on the ocean or on navigable rivers.  After the British conquest, Quebec remained a stronghold of French culture while Montreal became the leading commercial, financial, and manufacturing centre for commerce. It also had a larger agricultural hinterland than most cities.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  The development and expansion of agriculture in the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario led to an increased role for cities in furnishing goods and services to farmers, and to process farm products and produce agricultural implements. This leads to the notion of backward, forward, and final demand linkages. Farmers need equipment (backward linkage), bakers need wheat (forward linkage), and consumers need bread (final demand linkage).  The movement of the Loyalists to Canada (Ontario, Quebec, and the Martimes) strengthened both the farming base and the urban population. After the War of 1812, cities like Quebec and Kingston lost their military significance.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 also provided an outlet from the Great Lakes to New York which provided new trading opportunities.  The author sees 1850 as a turning point when the importance of the internal hinterland/ market began to eclipse the colonial power (Britain) as the major trading partner. At this time, the population of key Canadian cities was as follows: Montreal (79,700), Quebec (45,500), Toronto (30,800), St. John’s (30,500), Saint John, NB (23,700), Halifax (20,700), Hamilton (17,600), and Kingston (11,600). Quebec and Saint John were important shipbuilding centres.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  Montreal, dominated by English-speaking interests remained dominant, until the 1960s when there occurred the ‘Quiet (and not-so-quiet) Revolution,’ whereby Francophones began to challenge English hegemony, and many corporations began moving their headquarters to Toronto. Between 1971 and 1981, Toronto overtook Montreal as Canada’s largest city, variously known as ‘Hogtown’ or ‘Tronna.’  The development of the railway network (Canadian Pacific) had the effect of opening up the West for settlement and other areas for more extensive resource development.  After Confederation (1867), Ottawa – midway between Toronto and Montreal – was chosen as the capital.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, at the behest of business interests and to consolidate Canada against U.S. penetration, initiated the National Policy, which erected a tariff wall against U.S. goods to stimulate the development of Canadian industries.  This facilitated the economic centralization of the country and the further development of cities.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  The completion of the Halifax to Toronto railroad in 1876 meant that Atlantic capital couldn’t compete against central Canadian capital, and the Maritimes become increasingly a backwater – mainly noted for fish, coal, and a large number of universities (e.g. Dalhousie, St. Mary, Mt. Allison, Memorial, etc.).  Halifax remains a major shipping centre and ’business capital’.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  The new national government also began to recruit settlers from Europe and the U.S. to occupy land for farming in the prairie provinces. Although not on the scale of the U.S., this led to conflicts with First Nations and Metís who wanted to retain their autonomy and ways of life.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  Immigrants were offered cheap land and access to the railway, and small hamlets and towns sprung up (usually at terminals on the railway) to meet the needs of farmers.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  Eventually, the CP Railway reached Vancouver (Port Moody) in 1885, supposedly a condition for BC entering Confederation, and the company got free land in a corridor all the way out in exchange for building it.

TREATMENT OF CHINESE RAILWAY WORKERS

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  Manitoba became a province in And by 1874 Winnipeg had a population of Poised almost “at the hundredth meridian, where the Great Plains begin” (Tragically Hip).  Had it not been for central Canadian dominance, Winnipeg might have become the ‘Chicago of the north’ (see William Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West), drawing on its potentially vast hinterland to become a major manufacturing and provisioning metropolis.  As it was it attracted a diverse immigrant population (Jews and other Eastern Europeans) and became an important architectural and cultural centre.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  Moreover, Winnipeg became a major transshipment and warehousing point for east and west traffic and became a node for banking and insurance services and the Grain Exchange and the like.  After the CP Rail was completed, the Canadian National (CN) was created along a more northern axis, which fostered the development of Saskatoon and Edmonton.  Edmonton had previously been a fur-trade post, a missionary station, and a military outpost. It then became the capital of Alberta.  The decision by CP to make Calgary a major railway centre tgave considerable impetus to its development.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  Once cities began to get established, the phenomenon of ‘civic boosterism’ occurred whereby local elites began to market their towns as places to settle and do business. In some cases this led to improvements in planning and civic infrastructure.  By the end of World War II, the basic pattern of Canadian urbanization was established, but large cities expanded dramatically. Between 1901 and 1951, Montreal and Toronto expanded almost five-fold.  After World War II, the nascent phenomenon of suburb- anization of people and businesses/ urban sprawl exploded, aided and abetted by government and the growing ownership of cars. Air travel increased domestic and international links.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  Rural depopulation has been a key trend. In 1941, there were 733,000 farms in Canada. By 2011, this had declined to 206,000, and mixed farms had largely been replaced by large corporate single-crop farms.  Today, as a result of earlier policy, Central Canada maintains its dominance, but there is beginning to be a seismic shift to the West (what is it based on?).  Toronto today is still the country’s largest city. Moreover, it is the most multicultural city in the world!

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  In the Lower Mainland, Surrey and Abbotsford have arisen to somewhat challenge Vancouver’s dominance, and economic commuting is no longer suburb to central city, but largely suburb to suburb.  The growth of Vancouver in the last decades has not been based on the traditional factors. What is it based on?  Large cities are magnets for immigrants, with almost 2/3rds of all foreign-born residents living in the Big 3. Toronto’s foreign-born population is 45.7% and Vancouver’s is 39.6%, with both cities having over 40% visible minorities.

HILLER ON CANADIAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT  Finally, the author talks about resource towns, most of which have been ‘boom and bust.’ The one major exception is Fort McMurray which, with the exploitation of the oil sands, has grown from 2000 people in 1967 to somewhere between 65,000 and 104,000 in  It suffers from a lot of social problems – transience, substance abuse, and family discord. Lack of adequate housing is a major problem.