The overall purpose of this study is to provide new insights into the Canadian urban system through an analysis of economic activities at the inter-urban scale. The thesis analyses the urban system in terms of secondary economic activities, more specifically through the manufacturing industries of 41 Canadian cities with a population of over 30,000 in 1961. The investigation contains elements of traditional classification oriented and economic base approaches to urban economic functional analysis. However, an attempt is made to use the idea of the urban system to provide a more productive analysis of inter-urban economic functions. Correlation and bonding techniques are used to establish patterns of manufacturing similarities, upon which to base further analysis. Eight sets of cities and five distinct types of manufacturing profile are identified for the 41 cities, and the structural-spatial regularities identified are felt to be consistent with a center-periphery model of the general overall manufacturing structure of the Canadian economy. The analysis is pursued in terms of the investigation of the relationships between predominant manufacturing similarities of cities and various aspects of city size and location. Forward stepwise regression was considered an appropriate statistical procedure for the purpose of examining these relationships. From this analysis similarities between the cities are partially related to factors of size, relative location and historical evolution. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate