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The Tiny Perfect Mayor: David Crombie and Toronto's reform alderman
When David Crombie won his surprise victory in the 1972 mayoralty race in Toronto, everyone thought it was a victory for citizen activism and for a saner approach to urban development. Was it?
This book examines Crombie's performance on a range of major issueshousing, highrises, downtown development, environmental matters, Toronto Island, subways and expressways. Caulfield contends that despite the efforts of a cadre of committed reform-oriented civic politicians, Crombie's mayoralty largely buttressed the status quo and the old-guard politicians he fought so hard to defeat in the first place.
The Tiny Perfect Mayor is a pointed, critical examination of one of Canada's most prominent civic politicians of the 1970s.
This book examines Crombie's performance on a range of major issueshousing, highrises, downtown development, environmental matters, Toronto Island, subways and expressways. Caulfield contends that despite the efforts of a cadre of committed reform-oriented civic politicians, Crombie's mayoralty largely buttressed the status quo and the old-guard politicians he fought so hard to defeat in the first place.
The Tiny Perfect Mayor is a pointed, critical examination of one of Canada's most prominent civic politicians of the 1970s.
164 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
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January 21, 2020
Are you interested in the history of how the City of Toronto, especially downtown, transformed itself from low density communities to intensely developed residential high rises and office spaces? If yes, I suggest reading this book.
It is a thoroughly enjoyable account of Toronto Council during the 1973/74 term, which touches on major issues that primarily revolve around housing in one way or another. This includes the rise of big development and rampant speculation, the decline in public spaces, the history of the Toronto Island, the post-war housing crisis, the ever increasing sprawl throughout the rest of the Metro, and the manner in which three levels of bureaucracy (City Council, Metro Council, Queen's Park) tackled these issues (or failed to do so as was mostly the case). Caulfield does a great job illustrating the dominant trends that helped radically transform Toronto in the preceding decades prior to the Council of the early 70s. He also does a fantastic job at dispelling the prevailing mythology that David Crombie as mayor was the city's reformist in chief and instead displays how it was the reformist Aldermen (Sewell, Jaffary, and Vaughan chief among them) who provided the thrust of the backlash towards developers running rampant through the city, yet have historically received very little credit in holding the mayor's hesitant feet to the fire.
It is a thoroughly enjoyable account of Toronto Council during the 1973/74 term, which touches on major issues that primarily revolve around housing in one way or another. This includes the rise of big development and rampant speculation, the decline in public spaces, the history of the Toronto Island, the post-war housing crisis, the ever increasing sprawl throughout the rest of the Metro, and the manner in which three levels of bureaucracy (City Council, Metro Council, Queen's Park) tackled these issues (or failed to do so as was mostly the case). Caulfield does a great job illustrating the dominant trends that helped radically transform Toronto in the preceding decades prior to the Council of the early 70s. He also does a fantastic job at dispelling the prevailing mythology that David Crombie as mayor was the city's reformist in chief and instead displays how it was the reformist Aldermen (Sewell, Jaffary, and Vaughan chief among them) who provided the thrust of the backlash towards developers running rampant through the city, yet have historically received very little credit in holding the mayor's hesitant feet to the fire.
Displaying 1 of 1 review