The bottom line is that there must be a business case/budgetary case that somehow supports any political decision. You can craft that case in Southern Ontario and the GTA with more ease and conviction than N. Ontario. I am a rail transit supporter and a previous resident of N Ontario, but I have doubts on just how long, or if ever, the Northlander runs. And the same for the HSR project. And the reason is budget, deficit, debt service costs, and economic and political uncertainties. All of those things have been keeping bond yields at higher levels and political actions (such as the ongoing French election and the strong shift to a more radical right vote) have pushed yields higher and debt service costs higher as well. In the USA the costs to service their national debt may exceed 1 trillion dollars shortly, in Canada , well over 80 billion dollars in federal and provincial aggregate totals. Increasingly bond markets seem to be reflecting unease with the growing GDP to debt ratios and interest rates, investment appears to be showing the effects. Does it mean none of this may happen, well those are political decisions. And the politicians hands are being increasingly restricted by the realities of their fiscal budgets. And when debt service is the number 1 item in your fiscal budget, your other options become more constricted.