During the 1960s, city politics changed dramatically in Canada. The comfortable world of old-guard municipal politics was challenged by citizen groups and reform-minded candidates.
In this book, John Sewell provides a frank, informal account of his involvement in the key issues in Toronto city politics during this period of change. The result is a valuable look at how city government really functions and how citizens and reform-minded politicians can have an impact on city hall.
First published in 1972, Up Against City Hall is a inside look at a period of remarkable change in Canadian municipal politics penned by one of the nation's most effective reformers.

JOHN SEWELL served as an alderman on Toronto City Council during the 1970s and was mayor of Toronto from 1978 to 1980. He chaired the Metro Toronto Housing Authority from 1986 to 1988 and the Commission on Planning and Development Reform in Ontario from 1991 to 1993. Sewell wrote an urban affairs column for The Globe and Mail from 1984 to 1986, currently writes for Now, a Toronto weekly, and is the author of Up Against City Hall, Police: Urban Policing in Canada, and the recently published The Shape of the City: Toronto Struggles with Modern Planning.

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