Within minutes of Ford's announcement, TEA staff sat down to figure out how to respond. We decided three things:

1. Mayor Ford had set up the issue as subways vs. Light Rail Transit. We had to focus on this, even though the real choice was LRTs or nothing because there was no funding for Ford's dramatically more expensive subway plan. (Learn more)

2. We had to have one-on-one conversations with Torontonians, especially in neighbourhoods along the LRT lines that would be cut (Finch West, Eglinton, Sheppard East).

3. This would be a lengthy campaign needing hundreds of volunteers to get the word out.

Why not subways?

TEA supports subways, but only if there is the money to build them. There was absolutely no indication that the Federal and Provincial governments were going to fund the dramatically more expensive subway plan Mayor Ford was talking about. Which meant the real battle wasn’t subways vs. LRTs, it was the provincial LRT plan vs. doing nothing.