12-20-2018, 11:07 AM
(12-20-2018, 11:01 AM)MidTowner Wrote:(12-19-2018, 11:38 AM)timio Wrote: The people wanted change and didn't stop to consider the ramifications of electing a dumpster fire because the PCs are the typical change option from the Liberals and vice versa.
This is not the fault of Ontarians. They were signalling strongly for a long time that they were going to elect a PC government this year, and it didn't matter who the leader was. This should be laid at the feet of the party's membership, who chose this leader with that knowledge. Or perhaps the party leadership, which chose a voting method that resulted in the candidate for leadership who received the most votes (Christine Elliott) not being awarded the most "points" and losing the race.
Either way, it is the party's error, and I expect it will be punished for it. Ontario doesn't have a history of giving a party only one term in office before another change, but this will be an exception.
Which means I think this will be an unfortunate setback, but just a setback. Maybe KW will get a few extra trains over the next few years. The more serious issue, travel time, unfortunately won't be ameliorated, but there could be some incremental improvement there, too.
There really is a limit to how much damage can be done in four years. And a silver lining might be that the indicators of congestion impacting economic competitiveness become more and more obvious to everyone, and a big program of transit investment might be sell-able by the next government.
The party leadership was chosen before the general election. Every person who voted knew they were voting for Ford...with full knowledge of his personality and qualifications. I don't forgive them that. There are plenty of other parties to vote for.
In fact, the biggest thing I put on the party right now, is their unwillingness to stand up for their values against their leader. Christine Elliot included.
This is more than a small setback, this is an absolute minimum 4 year extension to an already way too late project. The tech industry won't wait around, the damage of the lack of transportation will already be done. Even if this doesn't serve as a deathblow to transit in general, by serving as a failure, it won't be this area that justifies investment by the time this comes up again.