Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax: How do Canada's gateway city-regions position themselves within global value chains? How do they plan and deliver transportation infrastructures that facilitate trade? And why do their strategies raise democratic concerns? Gateways to Trade compares the approaches to trade-enabling transportation investment in these four urban centres to provide a novel perspective on trade policy.
The authors investigate local urban governance relating to global production networks, value chains, and trade. They show that in planning transportation infrastructure for international trade, urban regimes in each city-region operate as executive democracies, consulting private actors, port authorities, and senior governments but bypassing citizen organizations. Gateways to Trade underscores the important role of local governments, which are often regarded as bystanders in questions of trade. Its key insights into Canadian policies on trade and infrastructure are deeply relevant in a changing global economic environment.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1 Canadian Cities in the Global Context
2 Value Chains, Urban Regimes, and City-Regional Governance
3 A History of the Federal Government's Approach to Gateways and Trade Corridors
4 Vancouver and the Asia-Pacific Gateway
5 Toronto and the Continental Gateway
6 Montreal and the Continental Gateway
7 Halifax and the Atlantic Gateway
8 Canadian Gateways, City-Regional Governance, and Executive Democracy
Notes; References; Index
About the Author :
Dorval Brunelle is a retired professor in the Department of Sociology at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He acted as director of the Observatory of the Americas and the Institut d'études internationales de Montréal (UQAM). His publications in English include From World Order to Global Disorder: States, Markets, and Dissent and, with Jackie Smith and others, the second edition of Global Democracy and the World Social Forums. Claudia De Fuentes is a professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary's University. She is an editorial board member of Innovation and Development and the International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation, and Development, and has guest-edited special issues of Science and Public Policy, Innovation and Development, and the International Business Review. Peter V. Hall is the vice-provost and associate vice-president, academic, and a professor of urban studies at Simon Fraser University. He is co-editor, with Robert McCalla and others, of Integrating Seaports and Trade Corridors and, with Markus Hesse, of Cities, Regions and Flows, and co-author with Pamela Stern of The Proposal Economy: Neoliberal Citizenship in "Ontario's Most Historic Town." He is also an associate editor of the Journal of Transport Geography. Jean Michel Montsion is a professor in the Department of Global and Social Studies, Glendon College, and director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York University. He has worked in the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. He is co-editor, with Ann H. Kim and Elizabeth Buckner, of International Students from Asia in Canadian Universities: Institutional Challenges at the Intersection of Internationalization, Inclusion, and Racialization.
Review :
"Gateways to Trade is a groundbreaking study of the very different economic, geographic, and governance factors affecting the interaction of port facilities, multiple governments, business groups, and community actors across Canada. It is an outstanding contribution to the study of Canada's varied political and economic geography."-- "Geoffrey Hale, professor emeritus, Political Science, University of Lethbridge"
"This important topic has never before been the object of such extensive research. Gateways to Trade: Global Value Chains and Governance in Canadian Cities is an essential reference on the connection of the Canadian urban system to global trade and on how urban gateway-related decisions are made."-- "Pierre Filion, professor emeritus, School of Planning, University of Waterloo"
