Dalton McGuinty made two interesting flip-flops which cost him dearly. He started work on two gas-electric generating plants, and then cancelled them to save four plus one seats. Since then, the flak has been unending, as the cancellation costs become increasingly revealed.

Kathleen Wynne is a savvy politician, as presumably is Mitzie Hunter. Hunter ran in the Scarborough by-election held in Ontario on August 1. Hunter was part of a city council-appointed panel that previously recommended that Toronto build an LRT rather than a subway along the Sheppard Avenue corridor. However, Hunter campaigned on a subway for Scarborough, and Wynne supported her. Now we find that there isn’t going to be enough money for a subway. (There was enough for an LRT, which would be longer, with more stations, serving more people, and about half-full by 2025.)

So, did Wynne and Hunter, and the Ontario Liberals, do a flip-flop to win a by-election? This article seems to say that they did. Is the entire Scarborough transit situation now at a dead stop? This article says it is, and that all the money needed isn’t going to be there. And, that that was clear right from the beginning: if Scarbourough gets a subway, some of that money gets diverted to the Eglinton LRT.

The dumb question is this: have we just had demonstrated that, even with a new leader, the Ontario Liberals have not learned this lesson from the past? Will the damage continue, as costs come out and delays to transit improvements go on and on?