Sure, it's straightforward as a piece of populist theatre. But as we actually start talking about signing cheques and putting shovels in the ground, it should be pretty readily apparent that it's a poor idea and a hugely expensive one.
And unlike, say, the PanAms, there's no obvious chance that the rest of town might, despite themselves, end up seeing some fun and profit from this. It spends $3.5 billion (at a minimum) to buy some goodwill in Scarborough and nowhere else.
If he's looking at this as a strategy for his own mayoralty or for the provincial/federal conservatives, that's a very, very risky gambit. It's going to be hung around his neck when this thing inevitably goes overbudget and overtime, and he doesn't want to be remembered at the man who saddled Toronto with a big white elephant.