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The Progressive Conservatives will contribute the $1 billion in provincial money Ottawa needs for the next phase of its light-rail plans, leader Doug Ford promised publicly on Tuesday.

He was answering a warning from Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne that money her government has promised for years isn’t locked in, a mundane statement of fact that blew up into an election issue thanks to political spin, a quick headline and the fact we have about half a dozen elections in the time it takes to build one consequential transit project.

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First, the promise: “The people of Ottawa can count on me to build transit,” Ford said in a written statement. “The Ontario PCs are fully committed to moving forward with Phase 2 of the Ottawa LRT.”

This is the extension of the soon-to-open first rail line between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair Road. The larger second phase is to connect to Moodie Drive and Baseline station in the west and Trim Road in the east, and extend the existing O-Train south to the airport and Riverside South. Construction starts in 2019, pretty much as soon as the first phase is done, but it can’t go without provincial (and federal) money.

Back in 2014, Tim Hudak, then the Progressive Conservative leader, said flatly — but mistakenly — that if he were elected premier a Tory government wouldn’t pay its share, effectively killing the project. He reversed himself hastily, making a special trip back to Ottawa a couple of days later to undo the damage. Four years later, we’re talking about the exact same billion-dollar commitment.

The money’s been promised a lot. Politicians have had so many gaudy announcements I’ve lost count. The federal government promised its billion in a letter in 2015 and again in a public event a week later in case we missed it. Then, because those commitments came from Conservatives, Justin Trudeau promised the same billion last year.

Any normal person would think that the money is sitting in a city account by now.

In reality, that’s not how any of this works. Funding a big transit project is a long, delicate process. Politicians circle each other like teenagers at a dance, making eyes, looking away, getting a little closer, drifting apart. Until they fall into each other’s arms while the DJ plays his last song, nothing is definite. For the LRT, nobody has signed a binding “contribution agreement,” as it’s called, because that just doesn’t happen until Stairway to Heaven is on.

Which is more or less what Wynne said in Ottawa on Monday, answering a question at a public event.