From inside the Ottawa bubble, it can be hard to see Canada. A few features stand out — for the current government, the most obvious example is the Alberta tar sands — but the country, let alone its cities, remains largely invisible.

Every so often, an emissary ventures forth from the capital to remind us they know who we are, but their visits are infrequent. In Toronto, they usually occur when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty drops by to dispense federal largesse for a cause of his choosing (Waterfront Toronto, Evergreen Brickworks) or to help out a family friend (Rob Ford’s Scarborough subway).

But as the same minister has made clear, unless there’s something in it for him or his party, cities aren’t his problem. Ottawa, he has famously said, is not in the business of fixing potholes.

Now there signs some federal politicians want to go beyond the potholes and help Canada’s cities realize their potential. When the New Democrats recently named Beaches-East York MP Matthew Kellway their urban affairs critic, it sent an important signal.

“No one has been looking at these issues,” says NDP Leader, Tom Mulcair. “A lot of Canadians don’t realize that we’re one of the most urbanized countries in the world. City issues require a national vision. For example, Canada is the only OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) country with no national plan for transit.”

Though Kellway has no one to shadow, he has lots to keep him busy. A couple of weeks ago he convened a meeting of urban thinkers in Toronto to discuss his Urban White Paper.

“The federal paradigm now is to think of cities as just another order of government,” Kellway argues. “Federal help is considered optional, almost charitable. In fact, what is global in the Canadian economy is urban. Cities, and helping cities, is in our national interest. There has to be a kind of localization of the federal government.”

Kellway insists that Canada’s global role has less to do with Ottawa than its cities. It is through cities that international connections are established and maintained. Indeed, the idea of Canada is too abstract to have much practical meaning. Canada’s cities are the places where these global exchanges — economic, social and cultural — happen.

As Mulcair points out, however, even Toronto, Canada’s most important city, is viewed by the Tories as little more than Rob Ford-land.

In the meantime, a succession of federal and provincial governments has balanced their budgets on the backs of cities, downloading much of the cost of the social and physical infrastructure onto municipalities. If that weren’t destructive enough, these same municipalities must cover 60 per cent of infrastructure spending with 8 per cent of the tax base.

Kellway also worries about “socio-politico polarization by income” and the “suburbanization of poverty.” He fears that across Canada, the rich are growing richer, the poor poorer. And as cities become enclaves of the wealthy, the poor are being pushed out into car-based post-war communities with inadequate transit and substandard social services.

This phenomenon, which has had dramatic effects on this city, was first identified in 2007 by the University of Toronto’s David Hulchanski in his seminal “Three Cities” study. Though patterns vary from city to city, in every case, the underlying cause is a shrinking middle class.

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Finally, says Kellway, cities bear the brunt of climate change. He points to the 2013 Calgary floods and Toronto’s ice storm. Though “senior” levels of government pledged support, little has been done to deal with the underlying causes of such extreme weather events. As the climate grows hotter, Ottawa grows cooler.

Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca

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