As the Great Gardiner Debate winds its way through the heart of Toronto, one thing is clear: whenever called upon, this city is ready, aye, ready to offer itself up on the altar of the automobile.

The sorry state of the 60-year-old raised expressway has brought us to one of those moments where nothing less will do. Despite a close call several years ago when city staff actually recommended taking down the easternmost stretch of the Gardiner, its future once again shines bright. Phew. Under the leadership of Mayor John Tory, bureaucrats have come to their senses and realized that the answer was not destruction but construction, rebuilding the relic bigger and better than ever.

The nod to reality comes in shifting the expressway slightly to the north of the Keating Channel, thus opening up a bit of space for development. But don’t worry, the drive is safe. Indeed, by all accounts, the Gardiner will be faster and freer than ever when finally completed sometime in another eon.

Torontonians are mighty relieved. For a while it seemed they would be forced to join the 21st century. Then Tory came to their rescue and single-handedly turned back the hands of time. Henceforth His Worship has decreed, in Toronto, it will always be 1958, OK, 1961. And the future is still one long upwards trajectory that will never end.

True, the least offensive solution, Hybrid 3, will cost more than $1 billion, significantly more than the others, but just think of how much we’re getting for our money, a seamless transition from the Gardiner to the Don Valley Parkway and a new elevated highway that will last who knows how many years.

Some will complain that such driverly convenience simply isn’t worth the price, but who says? Besides, no one takes transit seriously until some other level of government has agreed to ante up. So even after years of debate, no one’s sure where things are headed. The discussion has taken so many twists and turns, most Torontonians have lost track of where we are.

The thing to keep in mind is that in Toronto, the TTC, GO and the like are considered starter transit; it’s what you use until you can afford something better.

Sure, an organization like the Council for Canadian Urbanism can huff and puff about how the “expensive ‘hybrid’ option . . . maintains the failed car-oriented paradigm by providing only incremental changes to the existing transportation system,” but what’s wrong with that?

Others might wonder why a community unable to pay for the upkeep of subsidized housing can spend a billion to save a handful of drivers a couple of minutes on their daily commute. As one knowledgeable tweeter argued, “A city that cannot afford basic improvements to so many services certainly cannot afford any of the hybrid options.”

That’s the not the point; though we can’t afford what we need, we still manage to afford what we want. The poor are a problem, and for some, a moral and economic dilemma. After all, congestion is everyone’s problem; poverty is someone else’s.

Meanwhile, Torontonians can feel good that decisions such as this put them at odds with contemporary urbanism around the world. While other cities explore ways to get drivers out of cars and into transit, Toronto does the exact opposite.

But there will be experts from such august institutions as the University of Toronto willing to justify our backwardness. The 21st century is barely 16 years old and already we’ve had enough. The past looks better than ever.

Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca

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