Trying to follow Toronto’s current mayor is an exercise in confusion. Trying to understand SmartTrack is hard. I’m not good at making sense of either.

Here is just one article on Smart Track. There’s a lot of confusion here.

I’ll give some (potentially unfair, out-of-context) quotes. You should read the article for yourself, and possibly look at others – if you care about Toronto transit.

As always, emphasis mine.

But his much-ballyhooed project has shrunk significantly from the 22-station vision he put forward on the campaign trail, and critics say it’s become virtually identical to the province’s pre-existing Regional Express Rail initiative.

The six new stations are fewer than half of the 13 new stops Tory had proposed, and the 15 total stops now being contemplated for SmartTrack are fewer than the 22 he pitched during the campaign.

But Councillor Gord Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale High Park) charged that “we’re not getting anything close to what the mayor committed to.” Perks said Tory’s SmartTrack promises “change day to day and they never add up . . . The fact of the matter is that the proposal that was made during the election campaign said: using existing rails, 22 stops.”

I could add more, but interested readers will simply click on the hotlink earlier.

Now for the dumb questions. These are not necessarily polite or nice.

• Can anyone name a significant promise kept by our mayor in regard to Toronto transit?
• Can anyone name a significant decision taken and implemented by our Toronto mayor?
• Is ‘SmartTrack’ the Tory equivalent of ‘Subways, Subways, Subways?’

And finally,

Is it conceivable that our political elite, including our Mayor, John Tory, will ever have the guts to replace the Scarborough Subway (Subway, Subway) with the light rail the province agreed to pay for, even if it’s not a SmartTrack?
Is it conceivable that our Mayor would lead such a charge to rationality?
Is it possible for our Mayor to make a sound, numbers-justified, ridership-tested, Scarborough transit decision?

Or is it all about provincial seats, and influential councillors, in Scarborough?

Comments? the usual rules apply.