In Montreal, the recent provincial law on the reorganization of municipal authorities has given rise to a new administration which brings together at the level of the "ile" (and not the metropolis) around thirty authorities with very different histories and internal characteristics. The source of this reform provides an insightful case study with which to observe the influence of urban issues upon the area's political system as a whole. Indeed, our study appears to show that at different stages of the reform's history to date (conception, transition, elections, implementation), Montreal has functioned as a political laboratory for the redefinition of competencies and responsiblities between the municipal and provincial levels of government. The central hypothesis developed here is that in terms of public policy-making the politicization of this urban public good reveals a rather unique political process. Indeed, during this process the political culture of Montreal's elites came to have considerable influence upon the new design for metropolitain power throughout Quebec.