Raise the Hammer

"This is where the passivity of the City and Province have conspired to throw LRT into doubt."

"Instead, Council is saying that they won't make LRT a priority unless the Province agrees to fund it, and the Province is saying they won't discuss LRT funding unless the City states clearly that it is a priority!"


The fault for this debacle lies squarely with Bratina and possibly Murray. It was only them that derailed LRT, and their power to do that independently of Council is the right question to ask. The province's support for this is no 'conspiracy'. Are you saying the province should have stepped in and said 'no Mayor Bratina you can't make this statement independently of council'? Or 'I hear what you're saying Mayor Bratina but really we're going to support what we feel the public wants?' Isn't a better reading that when they hear a mayor saying LRT is not needed, backed by what until that point was a steady stream of indecisive statements by council - including Brad Clark, that progressive darling, saying we were being 'pushed against the wall on LRT' - then they will support whatever the municipal government claims to actually want? The province has never backed down from Metrolinx, but of course they're going to if the cities in question don't want the service!

Brad Clark and Tim Hudak want people to think that this is really about the province breaking their commitments to Metrolinx. Yet the writing's on the wall with regard to Hudak's position on that. I agree we need to keep the province to this commitment, but it starts with council making a clear and united motion of support - which Jason Farr should have done 3 weeks ago.

The second line I quote above is incorrect - council is not saying they won't make LRT a priority unless the province funds it. Bratina's position has been that operating costs will create too great an expense on the city, even though the GO expansion may result in greater costs for the city.

So I support the intiative but I can understand McHattie's tentativeness with regard's to Clark's motion, or rather pact with the devil. We need that motion reaffirming COUNCIL's support, then a strong message from the province. We need Bratina held to account for this fiasco. And we need to remember that the choice on October 6 is between one party that intends to increase sprawl and build highways, and two parties that advocate fairly similarly for transit and sustainable planning. Feels like it's last year all over again.