J. W. Bengough and the Millenium in Hogtown : A Study of Motivation in Urban Reform

Abstract

The ending of Victoria's century saw urban Canada experience a variety of changes. In cities west of the Maritimes, commercial activities made way for industrial concentrations, populations soared, and the compact pedestrian city changed into a socially differentiated order as streetcar tracks imposed their metallic will on the social geography of the city. Agitation for pure milk, public ownership of utilities, housing codes, city planning, playgrounds, and efficient provision of essential services represented a response to this urban revolution. This response, arising from a belief that the process of change could be directed, was, from the perspective of many of those involved, an attempt to make the city into what they felt it should be.