CITIES AND THE NATURE OF CANADA

Although some 80 percent of Canadians are urban dwellers, Canadians have long held a somewhat ambivalent—even antagonistic—attitude toward cities, and especially large cities. Cities are rarely considered in discussions of “the nature of Canada” and amid the plethora of images of forests and prairies, cities hardly figure in definitions of Canada or the collective imagination of the country. Prevailing views of cities as power containers, and monopolisers of hinterland resource wealth pose a false dichotomy, conceiving of cities and their inhabitants as distinct and separate from the rest of the country.

The talk will place cities at the centre of Canadian nature and illuminate some of the social and environmental processes produced by urbanization in the 19th century. It will address three questions at the heart of debates about contemporary cities from an historical perspective: the ecological imprint of cities on Canadian space; the diversification of urban populations; and the urban metabolism produced by the exchange of goods between cities and their hinterlands. Finally, the talk will ask whether contemporary Canadian cities are on the way to becoming sustainable, bio diverse and healthy places.