Jan. 6 was the key date in what promises to be a tumultuous period in Canada’s capital.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The spring of hope, the winter of despair.
This tale of two cities, however, all took place in Ottawa, in a single day.
The best of times? The new north-south Trillium rail line, which had been closed for nearly five years to facilitate its expansion, relaunched on Jan. 6 with all the attendant bells and whistlestops and, to everyone’s relief, no notable untoward incidents. (Admittedly, it also launched without many riders but, to be charitable, it was a bitterly cold day that would forgive people for taking an “I’ll wait a couple days to see if this actually works” posture.)
The worst of times? That celebration was tempered by the uncertainly created by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced he would resign, then prorogued Parliament until March 24. This immediately raised the question of how the city’s efforts to squeeze some desperately needed money from the feds for transit might be affected.
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, casting himself in the mould of optimistic and calming mayors, suggested that the parliamentary work stoppage shouldn’t hamper his “Fairness for Ottawa” campaign, which aims to secure $36 million from higher levels of government to help balance OC Transpo’s books, currently redder that its logo.
“I don’t see this as an obstacle to the federal government following through on the discussions we’ve been having,” Sutcliffe said. “If anything, it brings a bit of clarity to what was a very uncertain political picture in December … I think it’s business as usual.”
His outward hopefulness reminds me of those signs at construction sites when a major street is torn up that say “Open for business as usual,” yet you can’t for the life of you navigate your way to any of the foundering retailers.
Evening Update
I wish I shared the mayor’s optimism, but I don’t see how his fairness campaign benefits from federal disarray. Surely it has moved down a rung or two in terms of priorities, with the Liberals scrambling to choose a replacement leader and ready themselves for an election. Federal money for Ottawa’s transit system? I doubt that plays well outside the 613.
Meanwhile, Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said in December that the province would pitch in money for transit if the federal government did so, a classic case of passing the buck while not passing the bucks.
Trudeau’s proroguing of Parliament may postpone the inevitable non-confidence vote and election, but his retirement announcement was a reminder that the next prime minister, after a brief interlude with Trudeau’s successor, will likely be Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
For someone who seems to dislike Trudeau as much as he does, Poilievre’s failure to make political hay by jumping on the Fairness for Ottawa bandwagon, or even commenting publicly, is telling.
First off, Fairness for Ottawa isn’t the sort of catchy, grievance-baiting bumper-sticker slogan the Tory leader favours, like Axe the Tax, Stop the Crime or Build the Homes.
Boost the Buses? Freeze the Fares? Maintain the Trains? That’s so not him.
Second, adding to Ottawa’s coffers isn’t the modus operandi of Poilievre, some of whose plans to Fix the Budget include largely gutting the CBC and greatly reducing the size of the federal public service. Those so-called efficiencies may be good for a country that Poilievre contends is broken, but they would take a bite out of Ottawa’s economic health.
Then there’s U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s continued threat to annex Canada or tariff us into submission, waging economic warfare. “Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State,” he claims.
Perhaps we’re just entering a fantasyland here, but that’s what I told myself heading into the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and look what happened. Would Ottawa even be a state capital in such a world? Would the public service be eliminated altogether? Who, then, would ride the trains at all, except to the airport to get away?
Not to challenge Dickens too much, but can we still turn these tempestuous times into the spring of hope, and not the winter of despair? After a week like this, who knows?
Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed.
