[1] As a young geography professor in 1962, Hardwick made news discussing the plight of students living in substandard conditions due to the city's zoning policy against secondary suites in the area adjacent to the University Endowment Lands.
[2] He was part of a team of professors who assisted UBC President John B. Macdonald in the production of his influential report, "Higher Education in British Columbia and a Plan for the Future," published in 1962.
[3] Hardwick had suggested Burnaby as the site of the future Simon Fraser University and later got into a public dispute with SFU's president on what the building cost should be; he stated that the target of the fundraising campaign was double what it needed to be.
[7] In the late 1960s, he helped to organize a successful movement against the proposed freeway through the Vancouver, a scheme planned in relative secrecy at the time by the City and the Province.
Following the defeat of the freeway proposal, he was a founding member of "The Electors' Action Movement" (TEAM)[8] and was elected to Vancouver City Council under that banner for three terms in 1968, 1970 and 1972.
[9] Hardwick chaired the city committee planning the redevelopment of the south shore of False Creek from an industrial area to a residential district of about 10,000 people, with the emphasis on access by foot and transit rather than cars.
[11] Hardwick was both chair of the Urban Studies Committee at UBC and a Vancouver alderman when the city committed funds to the Inter-Institutional Policy Simulator (IIPS) project.
In 1990 he completed a similar follow up study "Creating Our Future" to compare the results and to offer policy makers further insight into the priorities and concerns of Greater Vancouver residents.