See all that highway construction through Ajax and Whitby, heralding the eastward extension of Highway 407 toll road?

Little did you know it is politically linked — maybe, cynically so — to the subway extension to York University and beyond, up to the open fields of Vaughan.

Provincial heavyweight Greg Sorbara wanted the subway through his riding; the late federal finance minister Jim Flaherty coveted the 407 eastward through his riding. They schemed a secret deal in a Vancouver hotel to deliver the goodies that Sorbara readily admits were a boon to their political fortunes.

The 2006 back-scratching cost the province $1.5 billion towards the highway, and the feds contributed $660 million for the subway. A fair exchange wasn’t the goal — just the peddling of political patronage devised to maintain one’s status.

Sorbara, former deputy premier of Ontario and finance minister, writes in his memoirs:

“I will admit that if I could bring a subway to York (University’s) Keele Street campus — the southern boundary of York Region and my riding — it would not only be great for the people in the region, but also for my political prospects.”

We don’t often have our political leaders offer such unvarnished commentary on their actions and motivations. So, let’s linger a bit in The Battlefield of Ontario Politics and the segment with the heading, “The York Subway Saga.”

It’s 1986, and Sorbara is a rookie MPP in David Peterson’s minority government, the first taste of Liberal rule after decades of Conservative government. Sitting next to Sorbara in the legislature is Ed Fulton, an ex-Scarborough city councillor who did little to distinguish himself as councillor but now finds himself minister of transportation in the rookie-laden government.

So, Sorbara puts his pen to a TTC map Fulton is carrying and draws a line from Wilson subway station to York University. This is not the TTC’s priority or city council’s or even York Region council’s. It’s Sorbara’s, a politician who understands how to feather his nest and flatter himself into thinking he’s a transit planner.

He writes: “Certainly, I championed the subway in part because it helped the part of the province I represented in the Ontario legislature. I don’t apologize for that. It’s an essential ingredient in the recipe. Every project that goes forward has to have strong merit in and of itself. But that’s not enough. In our system, you need unrelenting political advocacy to win your case. The job of the politician is to make that case.”

But Sorbara does more than “make the case.” He greases its path, using the considerable resources of the taxpayer-funded provincial treasury to propel his pet project to the head of the line.

He hooks up with Flaherty at a finance ministers’ conference. “I made the financial and political arguments yet again. And then it was time to barter.”

The pricetag was huge and it took some stickhandling, but, writes Sorbara: “I also knew the federal Conservatives were looking to win more seats in the GTA, and this would help in that area.”

Some might consider this kind of secret wheeling-and-dealing corrupt, not in the legal sense, but in a moral construct where the citizen is prone to believe that competing transit proposals are given equal weight, and decisions are made on their relative merit.

It may be of some comfort to know that even with his power and influence, Sorbara needed a lot of help to accomplish his goal. Many others understood the political value of his advocacy.

By the time money flowed to deliver the two projects, Sorbara was no longer finance minister. Not knowing about the “deal,” new transportation minister Kathleen Wynne decided to fund just half of the highway, infuriating Flaherty.

“I did confirm to our people that my commitment was for the whole thing. Yes, Flaherty and I did the deal with a handshake. No, there were no notes or signed documents. But I’d given my word.”

Sorbara makes one more stunning claim. He chides then-mayor David Miller for not embracing the subway and the province’s largesse: “He should have been thrilled at the prospect of the province providing $670 million for more subway infrastructure, regardless of where it went.”

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As our political leaders make grand claims about our transit future, throwing money into corridors no one recommends, bypassing decades of knowledge gathered from study and deliberation, it may be wise to be entirely skeptical about what projects they trumpet and why.

Yes, ruthlessly question their motives — every one of them.