“Toronto – Canada’s version of a Democrat run city”

Many readers will have heard by now about Toronto’s latest public transit debacle: the Finch West light-rail line, on which the cars move slower than a person can run. What they might not know is that the debacle had its roots in a desire to serve the disadvantaged. Seldom has the road to hell been so well-paved.

To understand how this happened, we need to go back two decades to the mid-aughts. David Miller, a left-leaning former Bay Street lawyer, was mayor. Toronto was booming, spreading in all directions and adding throngs of new residents from every corner of the globe.

Transit ridership never recovered from the pandemic. We asked why — and what could bring them back

Toronto in February 2020 hustled and bustled in blissful ignorance.

The roads were clogged with cars, and the trains were full of people. The TTC logged 10 million weekly trips, a healthy bump from the year prior.

Then, in the span of two weeks, that motion shuddered to a halt.

In the five years since the COVID-19 pandemic stalled Toronto, much has recovered. Car congestion, to drivers’ chagrin, is back.

The TTC is an open sewer.

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Toronto Public Health is warning that this holiday season saw a sharp uptick in opioid overdose calls compared to previous years.

The organization said Monday that there have been 122 reports of suspected opioid overdoses between Dec. 20 and Dec. 28, a 35 per cent increase over similar periods in the last two years. However, this surge in calls has not resulted in a corresponding rise in fatalities; officials reported fewer than five opioid-related deaths, a figure consistent with last year.

The headlines have been merciless.

“Toronto man outruns newly opened Finch LRT by 18 minutes.” – CBC.

“‘Slower than buses’: Toronto’s new Finch West LRT under fire for sluggish travel times.” – Global News.

“We raced TTC’s Line 6 on a bus and it was so slow we had time to stop for a snack.” – blogTO.

More than half a decade after the COVID-19 pandemic emptied Toronto’s buses, subways and streetcars, the city’s transit agency is still struggling to recover and hit its ridership targets.

The Toronto Transit Commission has frozen fares for three years, slowly ramped up service and opened a new rapid transit line, but ridership is still lower than in 2019 and falling below expectations.

According to the agency’s 2026 budget document, hopes that more mandatory return-to-work orders would result in more passengers were misguided.

I suggest they have the insane and drug addicted make room for the homeless asylum seekers to boost ridership.