Western Canadian cities experienced two distinct phases of development between 1870 and the 1960s. In an initial phase of city-building, which stretches from the beginnings of western Canadian urban development to the Great War, the urban network of the region was established and most communities enjoyed a decade or more of rapid and substantial growth. During this phase, communities were dominated by civic commercial elites who identified closely with their communities and who practiced a policy of municipal boosterism. In a second phase, just getting underway prior to 1914 and lasting through to the 1960s, western urban centres experienced relatively slow growth and numerous problems. Increasingly, civic elites identified with regional, national, or even international corporations and were far more concerned with large-scale issues than with particular communities. This change from boosterism to corporatism was a result of several factors, including a decline in municipal autonomy, the changing nature of municipal politics, and the rise of corporate capitalism. The impact this shift from boosterism to corporatism had upon western city-building was profound.
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