2013 Vincent Lemieux Prize

Winner: Gabriel Eidelman (University of Toronto)

Landlocked: Politics, Property, and the Toronto Waterfront, 1960-2000

Excerpt from jury report: This is a dissertation of urban politics on the development of Toronto’s waterfront. The thesis is a fine case study in multilevel governance and it is counter-intuitive in its analysis and outcomes. Based on international experiences, the presence of strong public ownership should facilitate urban renewal projects. The opposite is occurring in Toronto. Rather than creating innovative solutions in a network setting, multi-level governance produces entangled responsibilities and joint-decision traps. The thesis stands out for being pithy and succinct, both in the presentation of its data and the subsequent analysis. It features multiple interviews, rich archival research and the use of geospatial data. Beyond urban politics, this dissertation enriches the policy implementation literature. It also exemplifies scholarship of Canadian governance and how a Canadian case study can inform a broad body of international literature on both the level of theory and policy.