Tanzeel Merchant

Follow Tanzeel on twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/tanzeelio">@tanzeelio</a> and via the "+ Follow" option on this page. Tanzeel Merchant relishes complexity. Based in Toronto, Merchant has proven expertise in long-range growth and infrastructure management, strategic planning and implementation, and stakeholder engagement in the private, public, and non-profit sector. Tanzeel is also an architect, urban designer, writer, financial advisor, and flâneur. He was the founding Executive Director of the Ryerson City Building Institute, a multi-disciplinary centre focused on urban issues relevant to city regions globally. Prior to that, he played a key role in working with governments and the energy Industry to plan for a better, more sustainable future in the Athabasca Oil Sands region in Alberta, Canada, home to the world’s third-largest oil reserve. Since 2003, he has also worked on the implementation of Ontario’s award-winning Places to Grow initiatives in Canada's largest province and one of North America's fastest-growing urban regions. Tanzeel has journeyed with his professional, academic and community-building interests through five cities on three continents. He likes that the days in his life have meaning, and no two days are the same.

What you watch is how you vote

If we are what we watch, then it seems we also vote that way. This growing rift between communities, mirrored in the media they consume, is redrawing political boundaries across the planet. The boundaries we took for granted in our geography textbooks, and on which national policy and governance are premised, may no longer hold true.

Economy & Policy Aug 12, 2016

Gasping Tiger- Breathing Heavy in India

If you live in an Indian city, every breath you take is killing you. Here's why, and how you can change things...

Economy & Policy May 05, 2015

Turn the Dimmer Down- The High Cost of Urban Light Pollution

Urban light pollution is linked to higher rates of mental illness and cancer. Over 50% of the world's population now live in cities. As this ratio grows, the problem will get worse. When you sleep tonight, reclaim the night from the light.

Economy & Policy Jan 08, 2015

Disruptive power: How innovation is reshaping the energy landscape

Recent gyrations in the price of oil mask longer-term shifts, driven by innovation and fresh ideas, that are altering the very structure, geographies and politics of the energy industry.

Economy & Policy Jul 08, 2014

The Geography of Cyber Warfare

Cyber warfare presents a new landscape of rapidly shifting allegiances, and battles being fought by anonymous warriors, sometimes within a country's own boundaries. Addressing this problem will require swifter, more innovative, and far more nimble forms of diplomacy that have yet to be tested

Economy & Policy May 10, 2014

To Save Water, Pay for it

No amount of litigation, wealth, prayer, or political effort is going to make it rain. We have to stop pretending that we don't have a water problem and start paying the true cost of what we use

Economy & Policy Mar 14, 2014

Roadhogs - The Inequitable Distribution of Transportation Resources

There is only shame when one builds infrastructure that benefits only a few on the backs of the many. Globally, larger and larger shares of public infrastructure spending are being unjustly dedicated to roads built solely to move cars.