I’m not sure if the ‘person of interest’ here should be our mayor, John Tory, or our TTC CEO, Andy Byford.

In today’s Toronto Star, our mayor invented a new reason for the one-stop Scarborough subway: it will be better for underprivileged riders.

The fact that it will not be better than the seven-stop LRT has been conveniently ignored. There will be ‘more studies’ to verify or deny this subway-supporting claim by John Tory.

I think it’s bafflegab.
Worse than that, I think it’s a sad progression of John Tory toward the styles of Rob Ford and Donald Trump: say anything.
I apologize to Rob Ford as he can no longer defend himself. Rob was exceptionally effective as a councillor – agitating for what he wanted. Those skills did not serve him so well as mayor. He did, often, get what he wanted.

John Tory will probably get what he wants, too. Like Donald Trump, he can change on a dime and use a new approach to attack what he perceives as being in the way of his vision.

What John Tory really wants is, imho, for everyone to like him. Difficult decisions are not his forte. Taken decisions, conversely, must be defended. (Changing a decision takes real guts and can be unpopular.)

What John Tory really does, imho, is like Trump: sound bites. Like Subways, Subways, Subways, we have SmarTrack, SmartTrack, SmartTrack. And, Scarborough deserves a subway.

Everyone who has followed the Toronto transit debate probably realizes that:

• The fully-province funded Scarborough light rail was the best solution
• The fully-province funded Scarborough light rail was the cheapest solution
• The fully-province funded Scarborough light rail served the most disadvantaged well

and

• The first Scarborough subway proposal was pandering to save (only one?) a Liberal provincial seat in a by-election
• Even a one-stop subway will cost north of three billion dollars
• We get to pay for it

and

• John Tory will come up with a new ‘reason’ justifying this subway to Scarborough until hell freezes over, or the subway is built
• We taxpayers will fund this monstrosity
• Development and riders will not automatically appear: look at the Sheppard Stubway, which cost a billion dollars and now runs special short trains
• Every rider on the Scarborough subway will cost us something like $18.00 per trip in subsidies, forever

and

• The same genius team lobbied for, and got, the UPX train, which loses money every day. To increase ridership, fares were slashed to increase the daily cash loss
• Toronto citizens do not have an effective leadership team with real brains in their heads driving their speeches and (in)actions.

That’s a pretty snarky criticism of John Tory, SmartTrack, and much of our City Council. How did Andy Byford, TTC CEO, get included in this rant?

Byford has been the voice of reason. Byford has apologized for mistakes. Byford has fixed things. Byford has been shafted by Bombardier (streetcars that don’t meet specs, are late, etc etc.) and improvised.
Byford is a genius at running the TTC.

and

Andy Byford is onside at not re-opening the Scarborough light rail option for discussion. An option which the province of Ontario recently confirmed it will still pay for.

Now it’s time for the dumb questions.

Do we get the mayor we deserve?

Is Andy Byford’s new position on Scarborough light rail a mis-step?