Vancouver, British Columbia is ranked among the most liveable cities in the world. The kind of political separation of central city and suburbs, so common in American metropolitan areas, is not part of this city's reality. In the Vancouver experience, strong direction has emerged from time to time to deal with spontaneous change in the public understanding of their region in its demographic, economic, political and cultural contexts.
The City of Vancouver, as it is known today, was formed through the amalgamation of the original city and the municipalities of Point Grey and South Vancouver in 1929. The upshot was a major transformation in the scale of the city, its institutions, and its landscape between 1929 and 1937, including the professionalization of the civil service and the institution of a non- partisan form of government. …