| This study examines the Mactaquac Regional Development Plan, one of the largest and most comprehensive schemes undertaken by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in the 1960s and 1970s to address economic and social underdevelopment. It is a case study in the larger history of regional development initiatives and efforts to "modernize" economically disadvantaged regions in Canada and elsewhere during this period. It approaches regional development from the perspective of both the planners and counselors administering lofty and expansive plans and the people that were most affected by the changes that took place in the area. Informed by a broader international movement, Canadian regional development policy began increasing its scope beyond industrial infrastructure in the 1960s. In the end, the Mactaquac scheme raised expectations that it failed to meet. The residents of the Mactaquac area dramatically altered their existence in the name of progress and modernity but were not the principal beneficiaries of the economic development that was created as a result of the plan. |
