as in 1974 and 1978) did not impede the process. However the constituent municipalities of the RMOC were unified in a single City of Ottawa in 2001 by the Fewer Municipal Politicians Act of Ontario (1999), by the government of Premier Mike Harris, re-elected promising a "Common Sense Revolution." Several other Ontario conurbations were also unified under the Act, listed at. Ottawa thus became in sheer area one of the largest municipalities in Canada, roughly 65 kilometres by 32, much of this farmland, although 90 per cent of the population live in urban concentrations. On formation in 1969, the RMOC was a Council of members selected by the municipal councils, who elected among themselves a Regional Chairman. In 1991, the Regional chairman was for the first time directly elected by the people of the Region, which municipal mayors earlier resisted, fearing the chairman would effectively become a "super mayor". In 1994, Regional councillors were directly elected to represent Regional wards, rather than being appointed from the lower-tier municipal councils. Many of the new Regional wards crossed municipal boundaries, which in the eyes of many local residents undermined local or historical differences. Generally in Ontario regional government reforms of the 1990s were sometimes mistrusted as preparation for eventual creation of unified "mega-cities", but this was not before 1999 a topic of local political anxiety in Ottawa-Carleton, (see discussion in.) Regional Chairs See Regional Chair of Ottawa-Carleton. External links 1969 establishments in Ontario 2001 disestablishments in Ontario Ottawa Former municipalities now in Ottawa Populated places disestablished in 2001