What troubles me most about this City/NCC exchange is that substantially critical comments were made by one level of government about another level of government … in public.

Naturally, this will be the end of any productive discussion on running an LRT line along the riverfront – but – that then begs the question, “Why on earth is this happening in public?” To that I can only come up with two answers:

First, having determined that Chairman Mills won’t budge on the issue, Watson and City have chosen a “Scorched Earth” strategy to inflict as much PR damage as possible on the NCC.

Second, having failed to secure the NCC property for the LRT, Watson and team are now going to turn their failure into an advantage by campaigning on the necessity for a strong City presence to combat what they will portray as a fickle NCC.

I could be wrong of course but we’ve just seen an entirely unnecessary display of petulance and aggression and I don’t believe Watson and team would do anything so amateurish without prior consideration of the political calculus.

Mike Maguire

Read Mayor Jim Watson's letter to the Prime Minister re: NCC >>