It looks like the fix was in even before the debate started. Word broke late yesterday that the West Harbour, next to the CN railyards and the bayfront parks, is off the list of sites for the Pan-Am Stadium. Now up front is the East Mountain, a greenfield that will become the start of a public sewer when 30,000 people flush and the waste goes down the Red Hill Parkway. This sudden turn of events is no thanks to inteference from, you guessed it, Stephen Harper. Even the city's mayor, a Conservative no less, is pissed.
If people wanted the arena on a park, then why did the city take Confederation Park off the list in the first place? It's not like anything's going to happen to the campground, in fact it's being abandoned. And at least it'd be within some walking distance of public transit.
Message to Bob Young: You wanted the East Mountain, and it looks like you won. Fine. Now, reach into your billions and pay for a spur line for the forthcoming Hamilton LRT. With your own money. Not all of us care for or want the "driveway to driveway" experience. If you don't want to do that, you don't get a stadium. Period.
We may lose the Ti-Cats in the process, but we should get something that benefits everyone and not a greedy computer geek for eight or nine home games while the place sits empty the rest of the year. It's a fair quid pro quo. A stadium and an LRT.
At this rate, the Pan-Am committee will look at the mess we've gotten into and say screw it, Hamilton gets no facilities at all. We already lost track and field. Now it looks like we'll lose soccer and cycling as well. For shame. Then again, it's Toronto that's the host city in 2015, not Hamilton.
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