Originally published in 1987, this book presents a wide-ranging review of urban, regional, economic, and environmental planning in Canada. A comprehensive source of information on Canadian planning policies, it addresses the wide variations between Canadian provinces. While acknowledging similarities with programs and policies in the United States and Britain, the author documents the distinctively Canadian character of planning in Canada. Among the topics addressed in the book are: the agencies of planning; on the nature of urban plans; the instruments of planning; land policies; natural resources; regional planning at the federal level; regional planning and development in Ontario; regional planning in other provinces; environmental protection; planning and people; and reflections on the nature of planning in Canada. The author documents how governmental agencies handle problems of population growth, urban development, exploitation of natural resources, regional disparities, and many other issues that fall within the scope of urban and regional planning. But he goes beyond this to address matters of politics, law, economics, social organization. The book is pragmatic, eclectic, interpretive, and critical. It is a valuable contribution to international literature on planning in its political context.

The Political Culture of Planning is written for two quite distinct readerships. The main body of the book synthesizes a mass of information to provide an overview of a complex and amorphous field. This material is designed to meet the needs of students who require a succinct account of the American system of land use planning. These readers can ignore the notes. For those who are embarking upon a much wider and deeper study of land use planning in the US the notes are crucial: they provide the guideposts to an immensely rich literature. The first four parts of the text present the main issues of land use planning in the US. Part 1 assesses the US zoning system. The introductory chapter discusses the meaning of zoning (and its difference from planning), the primacy of local governments, the constitutional framework and the role of the courts. Chapter two provides the historical background to zoning and an outline of the classic Euclid case. Chapter three discusses the objectives and nature of zoning and the use which local governments have made of its inherently inflexible character. Chapter four acts as a corrective to this view, describing how lawyers and planners have shown remarkable ingenuity in adapting zoning to the demands of a changing society. Part 2 deals with the perennial issues of discrimination, financing infrastructure for new development and the process for negotiating zoning matters. Part 3 presents a discussion of two overlapping issues of increasing significance - aesthetics and historic preservation. Part 4 focusses on the main issue facing land use planners: attempting to channel the forces of development into spatial forms held to be socially desirable. Part 5 consists of a series of broad-ranging essays which discuss land use planning in the US, its institutional and cultural framework and the reasons for its particular character. Part 6 discusses the limited possibilities for land use reform in the US - drawing on the author's considerable experience in both Britain and Canada - in order to interpret the limitations and potentialities of land use planning in the US.

This collection contains a selection of papers presented a the very First All-European Canandian Studies Conference that took place in The Hague, October 24-27, 1990. This unique meeting took place for the first time in the history of Canadian Studies. The focus of the papers is on the future rather than the past and it took place at a moment in time when Canada went through major crises that raised serious doubts about the country’s future. The papers of this volume explore the main issues and problems that Canada faces. The volume contains sections on demography, environmental problems, economic transformations, Canadian identity, political power structure, aboriginal issues and Canada’s international relations. As a whole the book takes stock where Canada stands and where it is going.