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It’s completely ridiculous. But with Mr. Ford creeping up on 30% support in the Nanos Research poll released this week, it’s not hard to imagine a fair number of people nodding in agreement. One of the tangible downsides of Torontonians’ relentless defeatism on transit matters is that it emboldens half-baked plans like this. “Nothing ever gets built,” people moan. “We might as well not build it underground instead of messing up traffic.”

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It would help if either of Mr. Ford’s leading competitors was offering a stable alternative. People could embrace something approaching the status quo. And to be fair, relatively speaking, both Olivia Chow and John Tory offer very sensible plans. But by backing the Scarborough LRT over the subway — a perfectly defensible position in isolation — Ms. Chow all but guarantees further chaos. The provincial Liberals are stuck in on the subway plan, and all indications are they’ll govern Ontario until the sun burns out. Asked how she would pay for the Downtown Relief Line (DRL), she says it’s too far down the line to worry about now. And we wonder why it’s so far down the line.

Mr. Tory, meanwhile, offers an excellent regional express rail plan … that isn’t really his to offer: He essentially grabbed hold of Metrolinx’s plan to electrify the GO train network and run 15-minute service through Union Station, added some stops, then slapped a Tory for Mayor bumper sticker and a laughable seven-year timeline on it. He did this after allowing us to assume he supported the DRL, and indeed criticizing Ms. Chow for offering no financial specifics.