What a great idea for a book -- discussing how Mike Harris's
suburban backlash revolution stemmed from the politics of
California's sprawling "edge cities." Stephen Dale takes an
intelligent look at the politics, and investigates the surrounding
issues with many MPPs, mayors etc. There's also plenty of
thoughtful academic analysis of the polarizing of modern society
through suburban/city tension.
Yet this book never really bothers to consider the people. Stephen
Dale is happy to stereotype suburbanites as car-driving, TV-glued
nonentities -- but I don't he actually talked to many of them.
Maybe people in the burbs actually have other interests, such as
salsa dancing, oil painting, hiking -- whatever! He rarely
researches the opinions of the people who vote for Mike. Don't get
me wrong, I'm a expatriate inner Torontonian who can't drive and
wouldn't know one end of a snowblower from another. But I don't
engage in generalizations when I'm trying to explore a important
topic.