ABSTRACT
On 25 May 1914 an elite group of international city builders and urban reformers fi lled Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto to hear Robert Gourlay present his keynote address to the Sixth National Conference on City Planning-the fi rst such conference to be held in Canada. Gourlay, an original member of the board of directors of the Toronto Harbour Commission, represented the newly established harbour minding and urban development corporation at this gala international event. The Harbour Commission2 was indeed pleased that Toronto had been selected as the site for the conference, in part to showcase the major waterfront plan it had adopted just a few years earlier. The plan was used as a springboard to discuss fundamental issues faced by this fl edgling professional association of city-planners. Frederick Law Olmsted, the conference president, addressed the gathering that day and welcomed the participants, who included such prominent planners as Thomas Adams of the Town Planning Institute in London, England.
