Vancouver, the model city
How Vancouver got its groove back
Canada's treatment of aboriginal people its "Achilles heel"
Are the suburbs the future?
Toronto's traffic jams cost $3.3-billion
The Leading Thinkers
Destroy the urban obstacle course: Rybczynski
Witold Rybczynski, author and urban thinker, says cities often stand in the way of the private sector, which is where wealth is created.
How Vancouver got its groove back
Larry Beasley, former co-director of city planning in Vancouver, discusses transforming the city into one of the most liveable in the world. "Vancouver was a very conventional city," Mr. Beasley says. "We wanted to draw people back into live in the city."
Why food banks are starved for ideas
Nick Saul, executive director of The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto, says food banks lack imagination and vision. As well as helping feed the less fortunate, Mr. Saul says The Stop is trying to rethink Toronto's relationship to food.
Toronto's traffic jams cost $3.3-billion
Bronwyn Guthrie, vice-president of global process services for IBM Canada, discusses the cost of traffic in our cities, as well as the solutions.
How cities make us smarter
Edward Glaeser, Harvard economist and author of Triumph of the City, argues cities create "chains of creative collaboration" that lay a path from poverty to prosperity.
Why Winnipeg's future is tied to aboriginal people
Lloyd Axworthy, president of the University of Winnipeg and former minister of foreign affairs, argues Winnipeg could "collapse" if it does not work to provide aboriginal people in the city a brighter future.
The city as global landing pad
Doug Saunders, the Globe's European bureau chief and author of Arrival City, discusses the global shift from rural to urban living. Arrival cities are "where the great opportunites for development" will happen, he argues, but if things are done wrong, they're where "the great conflicts and uprisings and struggles and violence will occur."
Why our future is in the suburbs
The suburbs aren't dead, argues Joel Kotkin, author of The Next Hundred Million. In fact, he says the suburbs will continue to be where our cities our blossom and innovate. "The vast majority of people will continue to live in suburbs."
Let's rethink the role of the city, says Nenshi
Naheed Nenshi, newly elected mayor of Calgary, gives his take on what Canadian cities need to succeed in the future. With 80 per cent of Canadians living in cities, he argues "cities require the ability to act as the senior levels of government that they are."
Economic development in cities can solve social ills
Majora Carter, eco-entrepreneur, says it's in a city's best interest to support communities on the fringes. "City halls don't do great when there's a lot of unemployment in an area. So you want to figure out local economic development strategies."
Canada's treatment of aboriginal people its "Achilles heel"
Paul Martin, former prime minister of Canada, says we should be proud of our diversity but that we've failed in our relationship with aboriginal people
On the Ground
Tapping the city's bounty
Laurel Atkinson, program manager with Not Far From the Tree in Toronto, taps a maple tree in a residential backyard to collect sap in this slideshow.
Are the suburbs the future?
For many gazing into the future of our cities, the suburb just isn't in the picture. But Joel Kotkin, author of The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, says suburbs will not only exist but will be where urban growth and innovation will be focused.
Q&A: The aboriginal city
First Nations, Metis and Inuit people are some of the fastest growing segments in Canada's cities. This creates challenges and tensions, but also opportunities. Lloyd Axworthy, president of the University of Winnipeg, and Kevin Chief, of the university's Innovative Learning Centre, believe meaningful partnerships are the way forward.
About Reimagining the city
The planet’s future is urban. More than 80 per cent of Canadians live in the city. And globally, for the first time in history, more people call a city home than a village. For scale, consider that China alone has more than 160 cities with more than one million residents. Or, realize that if you combined Shanghai and Mumbai, you’d nearly have as many people as all of Canada.
Teeming with wealth, poverty, congestion, opportunity, beauty and crime, cities are the new centres of power. The new nation states.
In this, the third of six Leading Thinkers discussions, we talk to experts about cities − about buildings, communities, immigrants, economies, to find out what ideas need to be injected into our urban spaces.
Reimagining the city poll
Are Canada's biggest cities, like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, world class?
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