TTC Price Rises - Down with our governments!

After praising some recent films, I think I've earned the right to make my blog snarky and political today.

It was just announced that a monthly Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) MetroPass will cost $109. It's jumping over that $100 psychological barrier, which means that it will lose ridership. Tickets, tokens and single-fares are all going up too.

So, I decided to see how these prices stack up against other North American transit systems.

In New York City, you can get an unlimited 30-pass to cover buses and subways for only $76 (US). And they have a much larger transit system than Toronto.

So too does Chicago, which charges $75 (US) for their 30-day unlimited pass.

And then there's Boston with a monthly pass of $59 (US) for the bus and subway. And if you add in some extra commuter rail services and local harbour ferries, you can get a weekly pass for only $15.

The fault lies with our governments - municipal, provincial and federal - all of which refuse to adequately fund transportation systems in the major Canadian cities. The Americans figured out that investing in public transit is something you just have to do. When are our governments going to come to the same realization?

Of course, the TTC and its commuters are just pawns in the pissing contests between the levels of government. Choking off a city's economy is just one way that higher levels of government can prove they are tough. After all, politicians have claimed that city residents - which make up about 80% of Canada's population - are "special interest groups".

Allen

Faith-based schools - more politcal snark

A big issue in our upcoming elections is the matter of faith-based schools.

Right now, there are two publicly funded school systems in the province of Ontario: the Catholic school system and the "public" school system. In recognition of the historical basis of this madness, people often refer to the "Catholic schools" and "Protestant schools". But that's not the case -- it hasn't been for decades. The public school system isn't Catholic -- it's everyone else: Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Pagans Atheists, Agnostics and even a fair number of Catholics.

I'm not wild about there being a competing school system for one religion only, but it sounds like a major constitutional pain-in-the-ass to fix it. (Mind you, a lot of social progress has come from fixing such pains in the ass.)

Now, John Tory, the aptly-named leader of Ontario's oxymoronically-named Progressive Conservative party (aka the Tories) wants to make things worse. He wants people of other faiths to be able to divert their tax dollars to fund other faith-based schools.

This would leave the public school system an under-funded rump. Rather than being an inclusive system for all, the public school board would become merely "and the rest" (to quote the first season Gilligan's Island opening song).

But worse, as a Toronto Star article pointed out, at least the Catholic schools do admit a broad range of people. If schools are divided up more and more, then students are only going to interact with people of the same cultural and social background. Segregation isn't a good idea. It doesn't help tolerance. It doesn't broaden one's view of the world.

What the public school system needs is a huge injection of cash -- not money taken away from it.

Sure, I can understand why other religions are upset that one gets special treatment. But I don't think broadening faith-based funding would help the educational or social needs of this province. It feels like Tory is just pandering to religious voters. And that often spells trouble.

And yes, a lot of this rant comes from my Jeffersonian belief that politics and religion are both a lot less corrupt if they don't have much to do with each other.

Looks like my vote is going to the NDP again, as I can't vote for the governing Liberal Party either. Sigh -- it would be nice if I could cast a protest vote for someone other than the third party.

Allen