The Last Spike was a momentous event in Canadian history, a hundred and thirty-eight years ago. The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway across Canada also marked the beginning of the end of a dream. In a country that pioneered inter-city rail, passenger traffic on our railway’s has given way to freight. We have crassly declared that passengers are not as important and relegated them to the asphalt of the highways and to the pollution of air travel.
But it will only be by reviving enthusiasm for high-speed travel by train that we can bind our country back together. We’ve talked about high-speed rail long enough. The Quebec City to Windsor corridor needs high-speed trains today. Halifax to Vancouver is the challenge of the next decade.
And the Americans are already beating us to the punch. High-speed trains in the 160 miles per hour category are already being prepared for the Boston to Washington corridor. The first really high-speed line is being built from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Forbes Magazine tells us that billions of dollars are already committed to high-speed trains. Even the gamblers cannot wait.
But what is Canada doing? Nothing. If any prime minister ever needed a positive legacy, it is Justin Trudeau. Is it a proud legacy to have fired a justice minister for doing her job? Did it make Canada proud when Justin Trudeau and his family visited the Bahamian island owned by the Aga Khan, or when they played dress-up in India?
You need to do something positive for our country Mr. Trudeau. If Sir John A. Macdonald can leave us the first cross country rails, you can do it one better.
This cannot be left to provincial governments. The Ontario government of Kathleen Wynne was preparing for a high-speed test track west from Toronto. The next step would have been Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal. And that needed federal and inter-provincial cooperation. Yet the plans for trains and the electricity from Quebec were all swept aside by the Ford government when it came to power.
The only thing worse than the failed legacy of the Trudeau government is the rapacious and self-centred role of the Ford government in Ontario.
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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