Backgrounders
- Find out why Montréal's public bike system was ranked one of the best inventions of 2008
- Discover why business and civil society organizations will be key to helping cities meet 21st-century challenges
- Review politicians' speeches from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' 2009 annual conference
- Check to see where your city ranks on Maclean's' best- and worst-run cities in Canada
Databox
- Canada has the world's 7th largest ecological footprint, nearly half of which is due to our carbon footprint.
- In a recent ranking of the world's most innovative cities, four Canadian municipalities were listed among the top hundred: Toronto (19), Vancouver (48), Montreal (49), and Quebec City (81).
Video
Why large cities are important
Toronto Mayor David Miller discusses cities' role in Canadian economy; notes infrastructure, environmental, funding challenges cities face.
Topics: The Future of Cities

The 21st century will come to be known as the urban century. For the first time in human history more than half of the 6.8 billion people on Earth live in cities. Over the next 17 years, another 1.7 billion people will join our species – what I call homo urbanis. Canada is no different. In 1867, 20 per cent of Canadians lived in cities; now over 80 per cent do.
As such, getting cities right, and making them as sustainable as possible, is fundamentally important to our survival. Overconsumption of scarce natural capital (water, soil, forests, the ocean’s bounty, oil and gas, coal, minerals) causes major environmental problems – foul air, contaminated water and soil, deforestation and desertification, loss of biodiversity, climate change from human-produced greenhouse gases.
Ballot Box
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Cities News
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B.C. cities' budgets outpace real growth
Vancouver mayor blames recession, provincial downloading for shortfall
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Cities to rebound from recession: economist
Expects U.S. dollar recovery next year will boost export, tourism markets
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Vancouver: North America's greenest city?
Suburbs, commuters main obstacles cited at Gaining Ground summit
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Don't rush cities on stimulus: budget watchdog
Warns Ottawa's March 2011 deadline encourages hasty project decisions, forces construction costs up






