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You know, it’s the kind of thing I’d reeeeeeally like to believe. That’s how David Miller is quoted in the Globe today:

With a election camp unfolding now in Ontario, and the potential for an NDP-Liberal minority government in Queen’s Park, it would be possible to better finance public transit, Mr. Miller, saying that his old proposal could easily be revived.

“The plan’s there, the environmental assessments were done. You could turn it on like a switch. If you wanted to, you could start construction on Finch in two months and Sheppard probably next week.”

And again in the Star:

The entire Transit City network could have been delivered by 2020 with the first line ready by 2015, Miller said. But it’s not too late to turn back.

“The plan is there, the environmental assessments are done. You could turn it on like a switch. If you wanted to, you could start construction on Finch in about two months and Sheppard probably next week.”

This is almost like watching Peter Pan, and thinking you can bring Tinker Bell back to life if you just clap hard enough. It’s got that kind of intuitive and emotional appeal.

And you want to think, having seen Team Ford’s essential venality, childish vindictiveness and uncompetence (once again, h/t @IvorTossell) on full display in the waterfront debacle, that enough councillors in the Mushy Middle are ready to abandon the Clusterfuck Cabal and embrace sane, rational, evidence-based decisionmaking. It’s what adults do, after all.

But, as we’ve seen, wishing really hard doesn’t necessarily make it so. Which is why we can’t spend too much time high-fiving over the waterfront. This bunch has still got plenty of time and plenty of scope to find new ways to wreck our communities, waste our money, and turn us against one another, and they’ve got powerful friends. We can’t let that happen.

To paraphrase Joe Hill: Don’t exult — organize.

Related posts:

Really, @IAmDavidMiller? #TransitCity can be brought back to life if we just wish hard enough? | #TOpoli

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