Since 2010, Toronto's headlines have been consumed by the outrageous personal foibles and government-slashing, anti-urbanist policies of Mayor Rob Ford. But the heated debate at City Hall has obscured a bigger, decade-long narrative of Toronto's ascendance as a mature global city. Some Great Idea traces how post-amalgamation, and under three very different mayors, Toronto managed to so quickly oscillate from one extreme to another, and how the city might proceed from here. Some Great Idea includes behind-the-scenes tales from the Miller and Ford campaigns, and explores recent turning points like the city's core service review and the mayor’s conflict-of-interest trial. Through personal history, keen reportage and revelatory analysis, it shows how the fundamental principles of diversity and democracy that have made Toronto such a vibrant, dynamic 21st-century city can produce an unlikely politician like Ford. And howthose same principles have vividly and repeatedly insisted that such politicians are only part of a larger, messier and more productive urban politics.

This is a story about both Toronto's past and present, how the city has relentlessly and collaboratively reinvented itself. But it's also a story about Toronto's future, and what that future might mean for all global cities. This is a story that says you can fight city hall.

EDWARD KEENAN is a writer, talk radio host, youth baseball and hockey coach, and father of three children who lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. He is the city columnist at the Toronto Star where he covers people and politics, and has previously worked as a senior editor at The Grid and Eye Weekly, and as a blogger for The Walrus. His first book, Some Great Idea, a study of the political history of Toronto, was published by Coach House Books in 2013.

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This is a story about both Toronto's past and present, how the city has relentlessly and collaboratively reinvented itself. But it's also a story about Toronto's future, and what that future might mean for all global cities. This is a story that says you can “ght city hall.

'A fascinating read and compelling snapshot of a city...' - Quill & Quire

'...[A] considered, and surprisingly personal, look at what makes Toronto tick.' - National Post

'...[A] book that should be on every nightstand in the city.' - Books Under Skin blog