Dreaming of 'the perfect city' : the Halifax Civic Improvement League 1905-1949

Abstract

Research concerning Canadian urban reform in the early 20th century has generally neglected to include the activities in the City of Halifax. While cities such as Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg were thought to have been the centres of urban reform, Halifax, in fact, also provided a valuable contribution to the debate. From 1905, the Halifax Civic Improvement League worked to raise public awareness of the city's problems and propose solutions. Working from the premise that the "environment influences behavior," the middle class membership of the League sought to implement various beautification schemes and gradually broadened their scope to advocate for town planning and municipal reform. Although interest in urban reform waned during the Great War, the Civic Improvement League resurfaced in the mid-1930s on a wave of "New Deal" optimism and increased efforts at promoting tourism. Aiming for "a Perfect City" to celebrate Halifax's 200 th birthday in 1949, the League nevertheless failed to meet such an objective as class biases and war ultimately undermined such efforts.