Canadian cities in transition: new sources of urban difference

Abstract

Cities, increasingly, are the principal arenas in which global, national and local forces inter-sect. Canadian cities are no exception. Those cities are currently undergoing a series of profound and irreversible transitions as a result of external forces originating from different sources and operating at different spatial scales. Specifically, this paper argues that Cana-dian cities are being transformed in a markedly uneven fashion through the intersection of changes in national and regional economies, the continued demographic transition, and shifts in government policy on the one hand, and through increased levels and new sources of immigration, and the globalization of capital and trade flows, on the other hand. These shifts, in turn, are producing new patterns of external dependence, a more fragmented urban system, and continued metropolitan concentration. They are also leading to increased socio-cultural differences, with intense cultural diversity in some cities juxtaposed with homoge-neity in other cities, and to new sets of urban winners and losers. In effect, these transitions are creating new sources of difference - new divides - among and within the country=s urban centres, augmenting or replacing the traditional divides based on city-size, location in the heartland or periphery, and local economic base.