Issues of urban policy are increasingly complex and important. Whether considered from a social, demographic, or economic perspective, Canada is overwhelmingly an urban nation and healthy, prosperous cities are the key to its well-being. What then, is our national policy toward urban affairs? In Urban Affairs leading experts in a variety of disciplines explore this question.

Canada's last experience with national urban policy-making was in the 1970s. The authors focus on what has happened since, exploring how both our city-regions and our ideas about the urban policy-making process have changed. The authors also examine both the past and present roles of the federal government, and what it can and should do in the future. Contributors include Caroline Andrew, Paul Born (Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement, Cambridge), Kenneth Cameron (FCIP, Policy and Planning, Greater Vancouver Regional District), W. Michael Fenn, (Ontario Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing), Pierre Filion (University of Waterloo), Katherine Graham, Pierre Hamel (Université de Montréal), Christopher Leo (University of Winnipeg), Barbara Levine (World University Service of Canada), Sherilyn MacGregor (PhD, Environmental Studies, York University), Warren Magnusson (University of Victoria), Beth Moore Milroy (Toronto Metropolitan University), Merle Nicholds (former Mayor of Kanata), Evelyn Peters (University of Saskatchewan), Susan Phillips, Valerie Preston (York University), Andrew Sancton (University of Western Ontario), Lisa Shaw (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives), Enid Slack (Enid Slack Consulting Inc.), Sherri Torjman (Caledon Institute of Social Policy), Carolyn Whitzman (doctoral candidate, School of Geography and Geology, McMaster University), David Wolfe (University of Toronto), and Madeleine Wong (University of Wisconsin).