Is there opposition to high-speed rail in #Canada?

[straphanger@urbanists.social]

Is there opposition to high-speed rail in #Canada?

Yes. The media, loving a conflict narrative, amplifies the voices of the few property-owners who are protesting Alto.

But guess what? A new Abacus poll shows broad, cross-party support for the project.

62% for, only 18% against...

🧵

[straphanger@urbanists.social]

The study was commissioned by AltNo, a protest group, who can't be happy with the results. The project is especially popular with young people, who are hungry for transport alternatives.

Here's a link to the full report:

https://www.altno.ca/_files/ugd/f1a60d_f91a3f0ada144cb981f03a0da603e347.pdf

[straphanger@urbanists.social]

Failing Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has urged cancellation of the project—in spite of the fact that high-speed rail was CPC policy, and only 25% of Conservatives polled oppose it.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/poilievre-calls-for-cancellation-of-multibillion-dollar-high-speed-rail-project/article_ed2a4ab0-e4bf-567c-94e1-9970213bffc5.html

[straphanger@urbanists.social]

I dig into what's behind the attempts to make modern, sustainable transport (high-speed trains now run in 28 countries) into a Canadian culture-war issue in this High Speed dispatch:

Not in My Back Forty!

Every Transport Project Worth Building Faced Protests. Canada's Alto High-Speed Rail Line is No Exception.

High Speed (www.highspeed.blog)

[accordionbruce@mastodon.social]

@straphanger
Canada lacks gun-control and abortion as stand-ins for substantive debates on things like wealth inequality and land-reform

So we get bike paths

[majeriisli@indieweb.social]

@straphanger The campaign works well, unfortunately: one of my friends has gone either reactionary or NIMBY.

She is very active on their facebook page. Facebook facepalm.

[cawguy@thecanadian.social]

@straphanger A recent Reddit post that partially touches on that topic:

[kuniti_shino@pounced-on.me]

@straphanger the infection that are nimbys