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Politics: Tim Hudak's Plan for Ontario if he becomes Premier

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BurlOak said:
Because it hasn't happened for the past 40 years. You can't continue doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results
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Your logic... it's completely void of any logic. What does the TTC being managed by the people of Toronto have anything to do with frequency of GO lines?
 
Hudak’s plan to upload subways is a raw deal for Toronto
By Matt Elliott Metro

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak’s plan to create — pause for dramatic effect — ONE MILLION JOBS includes a pledge to “put the province in charge of all rail-based transit and major highways in the GTA.”

In subsequent interviews, Hudak has clarified that by “all rail-based transit” the PCs don’t actually mean all rail-based transit. They’d leave out Toronto’s streetcar system, even though it seems reasonable to say streetcars do run on rails.

Anyway, under Hudak, streetcars would stay with the TTC. And the pledge wouldn’t mean taking control of the planned rail-based transit lines on Finch or Sheppard, or the LRT in Mississauga and Hamilton. He says he’ll just cancel those.

So, through process of elimination, we get to the core of Hudak’s plan to upload Toronto’s subway system to a provincial agency, freeing it from TTC control.

This is a disastrous idea for Toronto, one that would dramatically hurt the TTC’s ability to offer quality service across the city. If Toronto voters needed another reason not to support the Ontario PCs, this is it.

Toronto’s subway system can’t just be cleaved off from the rest of the TTC’s operations. The TTC operates a complete transit network, with buses and streetcars feeding into subway corridors. Separating that network by uploading a key piece of it threatens the system’s ability to provide efficient service.

Toronto’s subways are often described as profitable because they draw high ridership, but this is an oversimplification. Subway ridership greatly depends on inter-connectivity with surface routes, which generally require higher subsidies — if those subsidized surface routes vanished, subway ridership would drop significantly. As would the system’s supposed profitability.

Under Hudak’s plan, there would be a genuine risk of that happening. City hall would be left with a surface system that looks a lot like a hopeless money-loser on their operating balance sheets, while the province would gain an asset that shows an annual surplus. But those subway profits would still be largely driven by surface ridership subsidized by Toronto taxpayers.

In effect, Hudak’s plan is a recipe for Toronto to continue to pay more than its fair share for transit operations, or else cut bus service and ultimately hurt transit ridership. It’s also a recipe for dysfunction.

And for what reason?

Hudak bases his plan on a notion that transit planning in the GTA has been messy — which is certainly true — and streamlining the GTA’s transit agencies will help get things done more quickly. But this ignores that most of the squabbling we’ve seen around transit planning has been driven by provincial electioneering and bait-and-switch funding promises. But, anyway, even if we buy Hudak’s rationale, why stop with the TTC’s subways? Why not propose uploading the entire TTC system, preserving network connectivity?

But — oops! — that would mean Queen’s Park would actually have to spend money providing transit service.
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http://metronews.ca/voices/ford-for...-to-upload-subways-is-a-raw-deal-for-toronto/
 
308 is now predicting a Liberal majority
LPO: 55
OPC: 37
ONDP:15

Liberals also lead in opinion polls:
LPO: 38.7%
OPC: 34.6%
ONDP: 21.1%

http://www.threehundredeight.com/p/ontario.h
tml?m=1
 
TheTigerMaster said:
308 is now predicting a Liberal majority
LPO: 55
OPC: 37
ONDP:15

Liberals also lead in opinion polls:
LPO: 38.7%
OPC: 34.6%
ONDP: 21.1%

http://www.threehundredeight.com/p/ontario.h
tml?m=1
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Still to early to say what will take place, but PC are shooting themselves in the foot which is no surprise to me and NDP saying very little to maintain the seats they have now.

If this is close on June 12, Transit lives and finally going to get thing built. If holds up, expect to see some house cleaning at MTO as well Metrolinx.

Come 2015/16, expect to see new funding tools being added at the time of the budget that couldn't be on the table now.

It would be a good time for the Liberals to put more teeth and backbone into Metrolinx to prevent the mess that took place for the SRT happening again. I have being said this before Metrolinx was created when it was only a bill at the time.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
308 is now predicting a Liberal majority
LPO: 55
OPC: 37
ONDP:15

Liberals also lead in opinion polls:
LPO: 38.7%
OPC: 34.6%
ONDP: 21.1%

http://www.threehundredeight.com/p/ontario.h
tml?m=1
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That is not what the body of the page says though:

http://www.threehundredeight.com/ said:
The PCs retain their lead at 35.8% (or between 34% and 39%), while the Liberals dropped slightly to 34.3% (or between 33% and 38%). The New Democrats were up to 23.4% (or between 22% and 25%), while the Greens held steady with 5.2% (or between 4% and 7%).....

.....While the precise seat estimate favours the Liberals, the ranges favour the Tories. They are projected to take between 38 and 54 seats, just grazing the minimum needed for a majority. The Liberals sit at between 32 and 52 seats, while the NDP is at 16 to 23 seats.

Recall that these are just the most likely outcomes. There is a 9% chance that the Liberal total will fall between the High to Maximum level (52 to 64 seats). That increases to 14% for the PCs (54 to 67 seats).
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These numbers will move around, a sure bet in such a tight race.
 
drum118 said:
Still to early to say what will take place, but PC are shooting themselves in the foot which is no surprise to me and NDP saying very little to maintain the seats they have now.
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The NDP is making the exact same mistake the Hudak made in 2011.

Then Hudak just stayed quite and wishy washy, assuming that no one would support the left wing NDP or the corrupt and incompetent Liberals - and by default, the support would all go to the PC's.

Now, Horwath is staying quiet and hoping that Hudak will shoot himself in the foot (which is happening) and is assuming that no one would support the corrupt and incompetent Liberals - and thus by default, the support would all go to the NDP.
 
drum118 said:
Come 2015/16, expect to see new funding tools being added at the time of the budget that couldn't be on the table now.
Click to expand...

Aside from not dealing with the deficit, this is the main thing worrying me about the Liberals.......2 weeks before introducing a budget that they suspect will lead to an election they announce a transit strategy that promises a $29B 10 year fund that will deliver 15 minute service on all GO lines, a DRL commitment and HSR to London (amongst other things)....yet uses very few of the recommended funding tools.........and, yes, you are not the first person to suggest/hint/infer that they will use other tools when they get a chance to do another budget once the house sits again.....so, this transit plan we are being enticed with, is it just a bait and switch?
 
Well the good thing for Liberal supporters is that the polls have been trending heavily in their favour. But theres still 21 days to go. We still have a few unknown variables that could come into play. Namely the yet to be released NDP party platform and the debates. Those could be game changers.

Anyways if the Liberals manage to win a minority, I'd say that LRTs (SELRT, FWLRT, Hurontario-Main, Hamilton) as most of the GO enhancements should be safe. If they win a majority then they may even be able to get shovels in the ground for HSR before the next election rolls around.
 
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TOareaFan said:
That is not what the body of the page says though:

These numbers will move around, a sure bet in such a tight race.
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I think they had not updated the comment based on the latest poll. It is interesting that there have not been 2 polls in a row that show the same party leading.
 
BurlOak said:
I think they had not updated the comment based on the latest poll. It is interesting that there have not been 2 polls in a row that show the same party leading.
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Comments were updated yesterday....has there been a poll since the Abacus poll the comments are about?
 
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BurlOak said:
So you would rather have a Regional body determine the locations of the stops on my local bus route, than to have the subway system (which is clearly used by many passengers from the GTA) uploaded to the Provincial government so they can integrate it with their current (GO) system and so they can pay for the expansion which is beyond the means of the City.
The status quo tells us one thing. Improvements of GO to serve Toronto will never happen under the current arrangement. The longer the TTC subways stay out of the hands of the Province, the longer it will take to have frequent service on GO to serve Toronto.
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What I'd like to see eventually is Metrolinx become an umbrella corporation with 8 different divisions: Planning, Rapid Transit, Toronto, Durham, York, Peel, Halton, and Hamilton. The first one would fill the current Metrolinx role. The second one would look after the operations of all rapid transit in the GTHA. The rest of them would look after local transit in those areas. Seamless to the end user, divided enough to still maintain a narrow enough focus, but intertwined enough to still work together.
 
TOareaFan said:
Aside from not dealing with the deficit, this is the main thing worrying me about the Liberals.......2 weeks before introducing a budget that they suspect will lead to an election they announce a transit strategy that promises a $29B 10 year fund that will deliver 15 minute service on all GO lines, a DRL commitment and HSR to London (amongst other things)....yet uses very few of the recommended funding tools.........and, yes, you are not the first person to suggest/hint/infer that they will use other tools when they get a chance to do another budget once the house sits again.....so, this transit plan we are being enticed with, is it just a bait and switch?
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I don't think the transit plan is a bait and switch, I just think the funding mechanism that was proposed in the budget was structured the way it was to make it more palatable to the NDP. If the Liberals win a majority, they can tell the NDP's faux populist stance to go take a hike, and implement the funding recommendations of the Golden panel.
 
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