Quote:
Originally Posted by Uhuniau
They love talking about subways to suburbs.
That is all.
They will talk such transit projects to death. They don't care one bit if they ever get funded or built.
"Ford Nation" hates transit.
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I grew up in a riding that flipped PC in a byelection in 2016, after 30 years of Liberal rule. My parents still live there. And I am there often enough. It was the local councillor who ran on a promise to extend the Scarborough Subway. Nobody should underestimate the desire of a lot of Ford's suburban voters for transit.
The SSE has become a lightning rod in Toronto respresentative of a whole bunch of social issues. And so that subway is a huge part of the Ford brand. If he fails to get shovels in the ground this term, a lot of his Scarborough MPPs will be under threat.
Ottawa has a different dynamic. In Ottawa, it's not so much Ford that is relevant as his west end MPPs. Ottawa is the only other Ontario metro where they made gains. They didn't win much in Kingston, London or Windsor. You can bet they'll want to lock those gains in with Phase II. Besides, they already know how waffling on LRT last time cost Hudak seats in Ottawa.
Quote:
Originally Posted by J.OT13
Correction; they hate urban centers and urban transit. But they love subways to suburbs. Stage 2 and 3 are right up Ford's alley.
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Exactly. Literally a train line to Conservative ridings. And far cheaper than any subway line in Toronto.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kmcamp
There's no dependencies, the only factor is the municipal election. It depends on how much traction Clive gets with his "let's wait if I'm mayor". Whether or not he wins, if the talking heads start to latch onto that idea the next council might not sign on schedule even with Jimbo as mayor.
If that happens, all bets on existing funding commitments are off, and we run a risk that phase 2 will be significantly delayed. While there's lots of debates about the Trillium Line and service in Vanier, I think pretty much everyone here that without Phase 2, the confederation line is actually a downgrade compared to the previous transitway. It would only be half a system.
Without it being an election year, there would be no risk to phase 2.
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This is a very far-fetched scenario. You're telling me all those councillors clamouring for LRT to their wards will simply agree to a delay to just "wait and see what happens", despite risk to outright cancellation? I don't see much chance of council going along with that. Stage 2 has even more councillors who will see LRT benefitting their ward than Stage 1. Fat chance they vote for any delays. Heck, the fact that they asked if Stage 1 delay would impact Stage 2 should tell you how badly they want Stage 2 underway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kmcamp
As LRT's Friend will no doubt remind us, a previous election caused us to cancel a contract *after* it was signed, so regardless of what you thought of that plan, don't kid yourself that there's no risk to phase 2 now despite what logic says.
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This might be a valid consideration if there wasn't already an LRT in the downtown core. We aren't talking about a brand new line any more. This is about extensions. That whole question of whether the LRT picked is the right strategy is now moot. The only reason to cancel LRT at this point is to push Doucet's moronic regional rail plan or more buses. There's no alternative LRT proposal now.
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