It’s morning rush hour, the subway is packed and I’m late: NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is about to announce her political agenda at a Queen’s Park news conference.

The Bloor-Yonge platform is brimming with commuters, slowing down our train. Time enough to stare back at a transit ad, bemoaning gridlock, from CivicAction:

“Demand action from your elected officials,” it exhorts us.

Good point. And part of my job description.

Arriving at the Horwath event, emboldened by the ad, I listen for clues from the leader of Ontario’s New Democrats. You know, the party that considers itself the conscience of the province.

But on transit, there are no hints from Horwath, just hectoring: She warns against making people pay a penny more for an expanded transit system that will cost $40 billion over the next two decades.

Beyond making corporations pay, Horwath won’t say how she’ll pave the way.

And I wonder: Does Horwath ever ride the underfunded and overflowing subway at rush hour?

And I ask myself: Has the NDP leader signed that pro-transit petition that the subway ad showcased?

CivicAction, a non-partisan NGO, tells me it emailed all MPPs 10 months ago, and followed up with Horwath by phone several times. All of her Toronto MPPs have signed the petition, which states:

“I pledge to support new ways to raise funds for a better transportation network in the GTHA — ways that are dedicated, efficient, transparent & accountable, regional, fair, and sustainable.”

But not Horwath. One can only imagine how awkward the NDP’s six-hour caucus meeting earlier this week must have been.

At first, Horwath’s office tells me it can’t find any sign of the request. Four hours later, her spokesperson confirms that Horwath declined to sign, but won’t say why; it takes another half-hour for the full explanation:

“The office of the leader of Ontario’s New Democrats endeavours to respond to all correspondence, but generally does not sign petitions, and instead focuses on delivering results for people.”

New Democrats don’t do petitions? That’s a new one for the conscience of the province (Anti-poverty activists who failed to win her support for a higher minimum wage discovered that before the rest of us.)

For added certainty, her office repeated: “The NDP does not support new taxes, tolls and fees that hit middle-class families.”

Her plan: Just make corporations pay.

But that bounty goes only so far — and won’t bankroll the $2 billion that’s needed for transit expansion annually — especially if you double-count corporate taxes. The NDP has already earmarked any future revenues to pay for everything from health care to child care. Pretending it can repurpose corporate taxes twice to create a dedicated transit revenue stream is a shell game.

Horwath may be cynical, but she is not stupid. She sees how Premier Kathleen Wynne’s minority Liberal government has painted itself into a corner on transit expansion, because it has candidly told voters that the money must come from somewhere.

You don’t have to be a political mastermind to know that proposing new transit taxes would prove unpopular. And opposing them would boost the NDP’s popularity.

She is also tapping into an anti-Toronto strain that leaves the Liberals vulnerable. After all, people outside of the GTA are tired of hearing about gridlock in the province’s biggest city.

But Toronto New Democrats are uncomfortable with Horwath’s hostility to transit revenues. And lest we forget, the GTHA’s Big Move plan includes her own Hamilton riding, whose economy is directly affected by gridlock across the region.

Transit advocates say they need politicians who will champion their cause. Horwath aspires to be a different kind of champion — not an advocate, but a victor in the political sweepstakes.

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Transit in the GTHA would get chump change from this champ. Instead of building more subways, the NDP is on track to derail them by taking the path of least resistance and least taxation.

Rather than seek common ground on transit, Horwath is driving a wedge on taxes. Her political victory would come at the expense of our transit system, leaving us all losers.

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