ABSTRACT
Public space theorists have long noted the importance of outdoor gathering
places for a properly functioning democracy (Habermas 1989; Mitchell 2003).
The political activity of taking to the streets to publicly air concerns and griev-
ances has a long and productive history. In the late nineteenth and early twenti-
eth centuries, it was not uncommon for masses of striking workers to parade
through the streets of Canadian cities – actions that resulted in significant
advances for the labour movement (Heron and Penfold 2006). Yet while these
types of public political actions still enjoy wide public support elsewhere (see,
for example, Chatterton 2006; McNally 2006), in North America acceptable
political activity is increasingly limited to the ballot box. Keller notes that in
Western societies “the idea of the public forum has dramatically faded in the
twenty-first century, and non-celebratory public gatherings have declined”
(2009: 13).
