Truckers’ requests, politicians’ spiels are miles apart

Justin Trudeau’s announcement yesterday of a High Speed Train from Toronto to Quebec City sounded like a counter-balance to Doug Ford’s $150 billion Brampton-Scarborough tunnel.

It feels like we are engaged in some kind of political fantasy one-upping exercise, in which federal and provincial leaders compete to see who can come up with the most expensive and implausible ideas in order to win election.

Yesterday, I was gearing up to write an opinion column on my disappointment over the fact that the Ontario Leaders debate did not contain any questions about Truck safety and education generally, or about Truck safety on northern highways specifically, when Trudeau popped up with an announcement about a high-speed rail project running from Toronto to Quebec City.

Any such project would cost billions of dollars and take years and years simply to create feasible plan. California has been attempting a similar project for 20 years; it is still nowhere near finished.

The fact that Trudeau seemed to slip and called the high-speed rail project “High Spiel Rail” might have made it one of his most truthful statements ever; he even flashed a quick grin as said it.

(The definition of “spiel” is “a long or fast speech or story, typically one intended as a means of persuasion or as an excuse but regarded with skepticism or contempt by those who hear it.”)

Trudeau’s announcement started as I was reviewing the Ontario Leaders’ debate and sadly pondering professional Truckers’ comments on the accidents and deaths this winter. These events include an 81-year-old woman killed by a dump truck at a Toronto crosswalk, and the five drivers who died in one week in January.

Every question about roads addressed during the Ontario Leaders’ debate was answered in the context of new by-passes, tunnels, transit or public infrastructure.

Not mentioned at all were simple and relatively inexpensive safety improvements like Trucker education and curriculum updates; prosecution of fake trucking schools offering counterfeit certificates; or minimum experience requirement for commercial drivers including a mentoring program.

NDP leader Marit Stiles, whose party and northern members have made significant genuine efforts to call attention to Trucking education, enforcement and road safety, failed to press any of these topics.

Bonnie Crombie did refer to the roads in the north as being “treacherous,” and pointed to the successful twinning of portions of Highways 11/17. Crombie labelled Ford’s Brampton tunnel project as a “$150 billion fantasy” and suggested Truck-only lanes on the 427 and 407.

When Doug Ford mentioned Trucking, it was not in the context of education, enforcement, road safety or the egregious number of deaths in recent years; but rather, in the need for infrastructure and road expansions including the Bradford Bypass.

“You know, all 400 series highways are going to be maxed out in 10 years. The folks on the stage here they don’t believe in building highways; they’re against the 413, they’re against the Bradford Bypass, they’re against the the tunnel,” Ford said.

“They’re against everything we build, so I guess my question to all three of them is, ‘Where’s the traffic going to go?’

“You say ‘let’s put it on the 407’ what are you going to do in 10 years when it’s maxed out? You say ‘put the trucks on there.’  Talk to the Trucking Association, they don’t want it. We’re going to invest in transportation, and the only way can invest in transportation is by having a strong economy.”

I imagine a Venn diagram which addresses Justin Trudeau’s High Spiel Rail project; Doug Ford’s $150 billion fantasy tunnel; and Truckers’ calls for better education, enforcement, and licensing standards. There would be ZERO overlap between what the politicians are offering and what the Truckers are asking for.

Discussing the number of deaths on Ontario’s roads so far in 2025, the day after Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli was rear-ended by a transport truck on Highway 11, Travis McDougall of Truckers for Safer Highways notes that pedestrians and Truck drivers alike are worried about road safety:

“As Truckers, we have now become survivors of our own careers…those of us that make it home, we are survivors. I really want to get across to people that this is what it’s like: we get home on the weekends or the end of a trip, and it’s like, ‘Well, I made it this time.’

“You fear every time you go out that you will not make it. Every trip is like Russian roulette. Which trip is going to be the one where the bullet will strike?”

Billions of dollars spent on high-speed railways or “fantasy” tunnels along the 401 may make for dramatic announcements and exciting arguments during elections. But Ontario could spend a lot less to fix significant safety problems by making sure commercial drivers are properly experienced and fully qualified.

It’s a shame these topics aren’t even considered worthy of debate.

#WATCH: Man questions truck driver’s qualifications after accident blocks road. pic.twitter.com/yeZw4h4Crs

— 6ixBuzzTV (@6ixbuzztv) February 8, 2025

Canada’s failure to ensure commercial drivers have a suitable minimum period of time and education before they are allowed to drive professionally is a major issue with the experienced Truckers put at risk by newcomers on the road.