One key factor that contributed to starting the Kamloops initiative was the very recognition of it as a small city, and as noted, one that is relatively isolated. Small cities in Atlantic Canada may not be as remote geographically but there are several of them - St. John's, Moncton, Saint John, and to a lesser degree, in terms of population, Fredericton, Sydney and Charlottetown. That these cities have remained small, i.e. not over 150,000 and not become mid-size, such as Halifax, may be regarded as a lack of economic progress. Yet smallness is increasingly becoming a virtue. As we are discovering in Kamloops, this kind of scale has a better chance at translating into more livability, and especially as large cities continue to expand and are beset by more sprawl.
