-I admire your optimism
I live in Thornhill and we just had a by-election, it seems like it was 2 weeks ago. Transit is a hot button issue and IMHO, my newly elected PC MPP has no idea what she's talking about on transit. She wants to cancel the Viva lanes they are building on Centre Street and redirect the $ to the Yonge subway. By my math, that would provide about 3% of the funding and yet she is adamant, because we need SUBWAYS. (We DO need that one, actually, but that doesn't mean we don't need bus lanes; but then ,again, those run on ROADS so they aren't useful in the PC playbook).
Moreover, the whole point of the white papers was to define the PC positions on issues and while they'll obviously be more detailed in a campaign, the urban white paper was terrible and ill conceived, IMHO. If they're building off that...well, let's just say I don't personally trust Tim Hudak to build subways all over any more than I would have trusted Rob Ford to do the same. But one is born every minute.
-I guess someone can poll Miss. residents as to whether they want an LRT now or a subway at some indeterminate date. I do know that Hazel McCallion told him to stick that plan where the sun don't shine. I think you're just making the point rather than endorsing it but I think we've all learned over the past year what happens when you give people the line they "want" or "deserve." What's relevant is what they need and what the density justifies etc. Everyone would probably WANT a personal helicopter to get to work faster. (And again, my MPP is all about what people WANT.)
-No, Hudak's INITIAL position was scrapping Metrolinx, a bunch of useless overpaid bureaucrats on the Liberal dole. then he shifted to uploading TTC. I think you overestimate Metrolinx's "reputation" in Toronto. We know what they did and didn't do in that debate but most people don't know who they are or just wonder, generically, if something like that wouldn't be their purview. Really, it's a slim minority who grasp what we're talking about here. They didn't do much to distinguish themselves there, that's for sure.
-I understand differentiation (even if I'm not sure Horwath does) but Metrolinx has a plan which means the onus is on Hudak to explain why it's flawed or paint it as some kind of "Liberal" document rather than starting from scratch. He can't articulate why LRT and BRT are bad, beyond Fordisms; he just knows people "want" subways so he pitches it, even if (for example) Mississauga council has planning purposely designed around an LRT they do want, and not a subway, they don't. Which is to say, obviously, he's pandering.
I could not possibly defend the Liberals on any number of files but if we're talking solely about transit, it seems to me they are miles (or km) ahead of anyone else. We'll see if Hudak can do better, but he didn't when it counted in my riding, and we'll see if Horwath has any ideas at all.
(Oh, and the Leslie portal is in Wynne's riding, isn't it? You think he's going to make a dent by appealing to the 1,000 people who might care in a riding he can't win anyway? He should figure out how to actually pay for his half-formed ideas first.)
