We here at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation rarely agree with federal Liberal backroom ninja Warren Kinsella. But his comments on Toronto’s transit battles are so good, and fit the B.C. TransLink file so perfectly, I actually pinched myself to make sure I was reading his site, and not ours.

Like the Lower Mainland, Toronto politicians and latte-sipping downtown elites have been endlessly whinging about their transit system needing more money from cash-strapped taxpayers.

Warren has had enough. From his April 2 blog post:

DEAR TORONTO POLITICIANS,
If you impose tolls and yet more taxes to pay for this Metrolinx thing, you’re all dead men (and women) walking. Make better use of the tax dollars we already entrust you to manage. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Warren and four million friends

This caused much nattering in his comments section, including the go-to question I’ve heard a thousand times: “So, no taxes, no tolls. Just how do you propose paying for transit?” Warren’s response:

With the taxes WE ALREADY GIVE THEM, genius.

Amen, sir.

The next day, April 3, Warren went into further detail. It’s like music to my TransLink-weary ears and wallet (I’ve edited it down, but his full piece is worth the read):

I wrote a couple weeks ago that I was fed up, to the teeth, with the incessant nattering in Toronto about transit. “Two things that drive me nuts about Toronto, ” I wrote.  ”One, the manic focus on transit issues, 24/7, to the total exclusion of all other issues, like poverty, health, crime, environment, etc.  Two, the fact that, despite the continual yammering about transit, nothing ever friggin’ gets done about transit.”

When a city – any city – gets bigger, it becomes harder to get around.

Polls show urban folks consider transportation issues to be numero uno, I know.  Polls also show they don’t want to pay for it.  Also, they favour unicorns.

The so-called experts don’t have a single, understandable solution.  They fight about everything.  And they couldn’t organize a two-house paper route, let alone intelligently design an entire transportation system for a big city.

Citizens might’ve gone along with paying more for a better commute – if they hadn’t seen successive governments, at all levels, for decades, promise transportation bliss and deliver yet more gridlock and empty treasuries.

Again, I am SICK – as a progressive, as a liberal – of this goddamn issue eating up the entire political landscape, every single bloody day.  Can we not focus on some other issues, for once – say, a dramatically-aging population, and an increasingly-expensive health care system?

Anyway, thus concludes my rant.  Any politician who wants to stake their political future on getting voters to pay yet more for what they feel their tax dollars should already be funding is hurtling towards ignominious defeat, full stop.

So, after all that, I can see the transit Philistines angrily demanding that I, Warren, come up with a solution to our transit woes.

My answer?  There isn’t one.  And, again, if you don’t like how hard it is getting around where you live?

Move to the country.

Warren Kinsella, for the win!