Local government has rapidly become both more important and more complex and the quality of municipal management is becoming more significant every day as local governments deal with a vast array of organizational and community challenges. The Role of Canadian City Managers brings together experienced city managers and municipal chief administrative officers (CAOs) across Canada to analyse the daily issues that they face. Each chapter deals with a particular issue or challenge, such as council/staff relations, collaborative initiatives, and crisis readiness. The book contributes to the literature on local government and public administration by providing insights from the "real time" lived experiences of city managers, spoken in their own words. The book also speculates about the contemporary leadership role of the city manager and the future of the city management profession. The Role of Canadian City Managers is a useful resource for scholars and students of local government and public administration, as well as public servants who work with or aspire to leadership roles within local government.

The success of a municipality is determined partly by the quality of the mayor and councillors, and partly by the quality of the public servants who serve those elected people. [...] In Canada, the distinction between the perspective of the mayor and councillors, on the one hand, and that of the CAO and management staff on the other hand plays a major role in policy-making and service delivery. [...] Journalists and other observers of local government might not understand the value of the CAO model or might prefer the more colourful model of "political management." Efforts to clarify and strengthen the role of CAO have not produced a substantive response in the latest set of proposed reforms to the Municipal Act. [...] After the Enron, WorldCom, and sub-prime loan debacles, and the financial crash of 2008, good governance was at the top of the corporate and business 8. In practice in Ontario, the elastic and variable application of these principles is reminiscent of the humorous observations drawn from the screenplays of Ghostbusters and Pirates of the Caribbean, that principles "are not rules, but more like gui [...] Change culminated in the Dodd-Frank legislation and a focus on the fiduciary duties of boards of directors, conflict of interest, strengthened audit and human resources functions (including the link between performance and compensation), and maintaining a clear distinction in the roles of chair of the board of directors and the chief executive officer.

The federal government and its policies transform Canadian cities in myriad ways. Canada in Cities examines this relationship to better understand the interplay among changing demographics, how local governments and citizens frame their arguments for federal action, and the ways in which the national government uses its power and resources to shape urban Canada. Most studies of local governance in Canada focus on politics and policy within cities. The essays in this collection turn such analysis on its head, by examining federal programs, rather than municipal ones, and observing how they influence local policies and work with regional authorities and civil societies. Through a series of case studies - ranging from federal policy concerning Aboriginal people in cities, to the introduction of the federal gas tax transfer to municipalities, to the impact of Canada's emergency management policies on cities - the contributors provide insights about how federal politics influence the local political arena. Analyzing federal actions in diverse policy fields, the authors uncover meaningful patterns of federal action and outcome in Canadian cities. A timely contribution, Canada in Cities offers a comprehensive study of diverse areas of municipal public policy that have emerged in Canada in recent years.

In most municipalities across Canada, the top public servant is the chief administrative officer (CAO) or city manager. Compared to elected politicians such as the mayor and the council, the work of a CAO is often overlooked and not well understood. InLeaders in the Shadows, David Siegel brings the CAO into the limelight, examining the leadership qualities of effective municipal managers. Using the examples of five exceptional CAOs who have worked in municipalities of varying sizes across Canada, Siegel identifies the leadership traits, skills, and behaviours which have made them successful. Interweaving the stories of his subjects with insights drawn from leadership theory, Siegel offers an engrossing account of how CAOs must lead “up, down, and out” in order to succeed. Offering well-rounded accounts of the challenges and opportunities faced by public servants at the municipal level,Leaders in the Shadows is a valuable resource for academics and practitioners alike.