steveintoronto
Superstar
Or to be more cynical even, that CN's and QP's "Agreement in Principle" was nothing more than convenient vapour for PR exercises, and perhaps other 'benefits' unspoken for CN. I took flak for calling it that at the time, and still insist that it will take an imposed (or the threat of being imposed) rearrangement that involves both CP and CN, and it must come from the federal level.A) CN may have walked away from the table, thinking that with Wynne trailing badly in the polls, the bypass is back to being a hypothetical. That leaves ML needing to say they have a plan, when their plan just evaporated. They can't say they are still negotiating, because CN may say (or it may just leak out) that the negotiation is dead. So, we draw lines on a napkin that remove any need for a bypass negotiation. Er, map.
Precious time is wasting. This is going to cost a bundle to do, but it has to happen at some point, so with the Feds looking to put the other half of their Infrastructure Funding to use (barely half if that of it is yet accounted for), best they take an initiative on this, as I can't see it happening any other way.
And to continue with my cynical view on this, from the federal stance, it would be a 'nation building exercise' to justify the massive sums spent in Ontario, and it could well be justified as a large benefit to the nation.
At the same time, it would give the Provincial Libs some badly needed rope to announce some breakthroughs in actually completing promises made.