Next to getting Ontario back to work, and recovering the 500,000 jobs that disappeared during the Liberals’ decade of economic neglect, it is important that we find a way to get people to their work — particularly in the GTA.

And that means supporting subways.

Toronto is already in gridlock. If we are going to move people from their homes to their work and then back to their families, the only way is to give them an urban transportation network of new roads and new subways that do not further contribute to an already congested system.

That means no more streetcars or “glorified” streetcars as represented by light-rail transit, and therefore the frustration that comes with them.

It means no more dedicated streetcar tracks like the one through the Little Italy section along St. Clair Ave. W. that threw it into turmoil, and continues today to drive people away from such a vibrant destination.

It means subways.

With the by-election victory of Doug Holyday in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, the Ontario PCs have a respected subway advocate with years of experience at Toronto City Hall who will lead the way in making sure Scarborough is no longer treated like a second-class after-thought by this province.

He will be the GTA’s transit champion. The GTA needs subway expansion east into Scarborough, west into Etobicoke, north into Richmond Hill and downtown via a relief line. That’s the package required.

While Premier Kathleen Wynne seeks out “revenue tools” to pay for a budget she has yet to craft, and has struck another “consultation panel,” I can define those “revenue tools” for you.

They’re new taxes, new tolls, and new user fees.

The Liberals have pushed the debt and deficit to new heights by spending money they don’t have, and they have no idea how to solve the problem without going again to the taxpayer, the only “revenue tool” they know.

The Ontario PCs, under my leadership, will build the right transit system for the GTA without a new tax.

We can do this because we know government isn’t 100% efficient until we make it so.

Under the Liberals, we see $10-billion a year in debt interest payments going to foreign countries to build their own subway systems, when we could be using it here to build our own if we could just balance our books.

And thirdly, we are willing to take on the unions and other vested interests to fix a system we all know isn’t working.

We will also end the on-going circus and finger pointing that goes on when it comes to subways and light rail by turning control over to the province.

Subways, light rail and GO Transit will go under one roof, the province’s roof.

The reckless spending that has been the Liberals’ hallmark for the last decade will end, and we will build from that to begin the job of getting the GTA both to work and home again — efficiently, effectively and quickly.

We will take the grind out of the daily gridlock that costs our economy millions a day in lost productivity.

We have the plan to get you where you need to be.

And it is ready to go.

— Hudak is the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario