Tory showing his true colours on transit
Re Why I support the Scarborough subway,
Opinion June 27 There is no shame in admitting that I voted for John Tory both times he ran for mayor of Toronto as well as in his successful leadership bid for the Ontario PC Party. But perhaps shame is what I should feel, if not profound regret and vexation. My astonishment at his decision to continue supporting the $3.2billion Scarborough subway boondoggle lingers, particularly at a time when Toronto council faces a massive budget shortfall. I can find no defence for his blatantly incorrect posture. Nor can I begin to speculate what angle he might be playing in backing a plan to spend billions the city doesn’t have on something that it quite plainly doesn’t need.
Over the years, many have mistaken Mayor Tory for a sedate, lucid, pragmatic, flexible conservative. But he never got a chance in office until now to show himself to be the opposite, doing so with a petulant sophistry that is insulting, frustrating and completely retrograde to the well-being of our city.
If John Tory continues with his fi- nancially ruinous policies, defenced by obtusely contrived put-downs of those who disagree with him, he might well emerge as the worst mayor Toronto has ever had and, if you know your history, that is really saying something. Jason Daniel Baker, Toronto I fail to see why the City of Toronto should fund John Tory’s reelection campaign to the tune of $3 billion. I hope city council will have more sense and guts than it has exhibited till now.
As for Tory’s thinly disguised accusation of racism, he completely misses the point: it’s not about spending $3 billion in Scarborough. It’s about spending $3 billion stupidly. Jean-Dominique Sellier, Toronto It is interesting to note that the cost of extending the subway one stop into Scarborough, $3 billion, is about half the amount spent to double the capacity of the Panama Canal. With cost overruns, the two projects could easily become comparable. At least as to money spent. Doug Moffat, Toronto