I think those who surmise the SSE will be at the top of the project list are likely correct.
There is little question the PCs have nowhere near enough money to fund their promises, I will be fascinated to see HOW our new premier answers that challenge, his choice being massive cuts or an un-promised tax hike.
Regardless, I think SSE will end up near the top of the list, as noted elsewhere likely back to 3 stations. Which if one is going to build it, is surely the way it should be done. Steve Munro himself said he thought any credible argument for the line hinged on not only the Lawrence stop but adding one at Brimley and Eglinton.
This project is one of the few where I vary from progressive bretheren, as I have favoured the SSE since day one.
The arguments to me had to do w/closing the existing line which was required of the LRT project, for at least three years and the formidable challenge of replacing that service with buses. As well as support for removing an 'orphan' technology form that required its own shops and parts set; and a belief that the metrics being used to evaluate the subway proposal were unreasonable (as portions of Spadina and Bloor today would never pass, nor would lines in many other cities around the world.
That said, I was also firmly of the belief that the Relief line was a much bigger priority, that Sheppard East proposal was downright preposterous (Scarborough section) and that the SSE project was being managed in such as way as to make it untenable (one station, too much over-the-top spending on that one station too).
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I will take a moment here to note a problem I see w/some progressives............an almost universal recognition that they would not want to live in Scarborough, and an equal determination not to make Scarborough look/feel a away that would make it livable to them..........and then complete and utter shock that people there might vote differently.
Making an investment, perhaps even an excessive one that helps redefine a place, not only changes the people who are there, it attracts people to that place who think/feel a certain way.
Put another way, want people to walk more in Scarborough, throw some money at streetscapes out there. More transit riders? Build comfortable transit that does not give a feeling of second-classness.
That's not an invitation to waste money; or to entertain the BS of certain populists.
Its an urgent message on how to counter that BS and diffuse it.
