Articles and reviews

Abstract

Cities face growing pressure to justify how scarce urban land is allocated and whose needs it serves. This article analyzes spatial exclusion in Vancouver, British Columbia, a Canadian city under housing and land-use pressure. The analysis centers on municipal golf courses as an understudied site of urban governance: they occupy extensive public land while limiting everyday use through pricing, design, and activity-specific requirements. I use a mixed-methods design that combines distributional spatial analysis of golf courses across Vancouver, including inequality metrics and tract-level models, with qualitative analysis of governance processes. The spatial component examines the concentration and socio-demographic patterning of proximity to golf-course land. I examine Langara Golf Course as a focal, revelatory governance case through which actors contest yet ultimately stabilize these broader land-allocation patterns. The qualitative analysis draws on interviews with former mayors, councillors, and Park Board commissioners, alongside planning documents and deliberations. The analysis identifies three governance… Read full abstract

Suggested citation

Kropp, Kael. 2026. “Spatial Exclusion on Public Land: Fragmented Governance and Vancouver’s Golf Courses.” Cities 179: 107476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2026.107476.

Abstract

Agencies, boards, and commissions (ABCs) in Canada have a distinct character and set of governance dynamics compared with the conventional public service. ABCs are often conceived to deliver a particular service or regulate or adjudicate matters with some distance from the government of the day, yet are among the few remaining sites of patronage-like appointments in Canada. This article compiles ABC appointment data (N = 2,248) from the Province of Alberta over two distinct periods, the Notley government (2015–2019) and the Kenney/Smith governments (2019–2024), to explore the character and patterns of appointments. We find mixed evidence that appointments to ABCs with more formal autonomy are more likely to be politicized. Some metrics also suggest that conservative party appointees are slightly more often politically connected, particularly in ABCs that reside in high-priority policy areas for the appointing government, and in particular in crown corporations and regulatory agencies.

Suggested citation

Doberstein, Carey, Katelynn Kowalchuk, and Kael Kropp. 2026. “The Political Character of Agency and Board Appointments in Alberta.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 59: 98–119. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423925100553.

Summary

A review of The Role of Canadian City Managers: In Their Own Words, edited by Michael Fenn, Gordon McIntosh, and David Siegel. The volume examines municipal administration through contributions from experienced Canadian city managers, with attention to leadership, governance, strategic planning, crisis management, intergovernmental relations, Indigenous–municipal relations, and professional practice.

Suggested citation

Kropp, Kael. 2024. Review of The Role of Canadian City Managers: In Their Own Words, edited by Michael Fenn, Gordon McIntosh, and David Siegel. Canadian Journal of Political Science 57 (3): 716–719. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423924000209.