Brent Toderian wants the federal government to establish a minister of cities.

If positioned, led, and funded properly, a ministry of cities could be the place where a new national strategy on transportation, both within and between cities, could finally be born. A place where a true, long-overdue visionary approach to national urban housing could be re-built. A place where everything from smart taxes, urban mobility and infrastructure deficits, to urban sprawl, better suburbs and inner-city transformations could be better understood and debated.

A ministry of state for urban affairs previously existed in the 1970s.

One problem: the cabinet is already arguably too large. Adding a cities minister might be a good idea, but could we also get the total population of the cabinet down to something like 30?