Fed Money for Toronto Transit: More Tory Seats Down the Road?

Prime Minister Harper made Dalton McGuinty's day on Monday with a $1 Billion cheque for the Toronto GTA transit system, and another half billion for Ontario to help pay for an east-west transmission grid to Manitoba. The grid will allow Ontario to import cleaner electricity from Manitoba, thus help to clean up some of Ontario's worst polluters. This is all good. It must be a nightmare to experience those long clogged commutes into the populous Toronto. It's a big gift from the feds, which probably won't soon be forgotten, at least Harper hopes so. This transaction has a familiar ring - fix up the roads, some time before an election, and get some political payback. The CPC's really need to make some headway in Toronto, no seats in the last election. He'll pick up some seats there next election. That could neutralize the threats of Premier Williams to have the province vote for anyone else if the equalization deal doesn't go his way. But you still can't burn any bridges when you need every seat.