All true, but in fairness to Ford (and I'm not a fan) the city's handling of DRL was so pathetic that they deserved what they got.... and there are now shovels aplenty in the ground, on a longer more impactful routing, so Ford deserves the credit he will claim.
I am not opposed to a Harris-style reboot, from the perspective that (in my view) Ottawa collects far too much in tax revenue and this enables Ottawa to spend without sufficient restraint or acumen. I would be happy if a new government initiated a Harris-style downloading. Government works best when the people who spend the money have to raise the funding themselves. Premiers demanding that Ottawa fund all their pet projects and whining that Ottawa doesn't pay enough are part of the problem, IMHO. There is less need for income redistribution in this country than we allow, much of it is just giving provinces back money they had in the first place.
As to VIA, the long distance train replacement is a very large ticket item and rivals the cost of some of the social benefit programs that I could siee a right wing government wanting to curtail. I can't see the train item remaining in the budget while more controversial programs are being cut. Even a right wing government would look for alternatives before cutting social benefits.
The cost of shutting down the service however will not necessarily be cheap because of severance costs and (even bigger) pension fund maintenance costs. Those opposing will have things to argue in their favour.
I think people do care about things beyond the end of their driveway.... to a degree. I would not expect public opinion in Winnipeg to cheer a plan to shut down the Canadian - it is the crew base for on board staff in both directions. Similarly, Vancouver hosts the maintenance base for the HEP I fleet. Jasper would be opposed. Even a few jobs lost in small towns with running crew bases (Kamloops, Biggar, Melville) will catch the attention of public opinion in those locales.
The issue for the long distance trains will be identity.... and I have no idea how many westerners even know the train still runs, but I imagine most in towns away from the CN route will say "it's sad, but we lost our train a long time ago, and we are still here". But a "those bastards in Ottawa cutting our train" theme might still emerge. Probably not enough to carry the day, but it will not be something that happens quietly.
- Paul