The Tiny Perfect Mayor

When David Crombie won his surprise victory in the 1972 mayoralty race in Toronto, everyone thought it was a victory for citizen activism and for a saner approach to urban development. Was it? This book examines Crombie's performance on a range of major issues--housing, highrises, downtown development, environmental matters, Toronto Island, subways and expressways. Caulfield contends that despite the efforts of a cadre of committed reform-oriented civic politicians, Crombie's mayoralty largely buttressed the status quo and the old-guard politicians he fought so hard to defeat in the first place. The Tiny Perfect Mayor is a pointed, critical examination of one of Canada's most prominent civic politicians of the 1970s.