Karen Stintz and Rob Ford get passive-aggressive while celebrating the Spadina subway extension

Yesterday, transit adversaries Rob Ford and Karen Stintz met up (awkward!) to celebrate the tunnelling of the first section of the new Spadina subway extension up to Vaughan. And, even though it looked like MP Julian Fantino did his best to serve as a buffer, Stintz and Ford each used the occasion to allude to subway battles of yore. The mayor said he dislikes the idea of using a new tax to fund transit infrastructure, and talked up his favourite form of public transit, saying, “No other—I say no other—form of transit is as cost-effective and as useful over the long term” (it’s best if you imagine him saying it in the southern drawl of Foghorn Leghorn). Stintz, in contrast, said she is “absolutely” in favour of exploring a tax for transit projects, and reasserted that light rail was the right choice for routes along Finch, Sheppard and Eglinton avenues. However, Stintz also revealed she isn’t opposed to all subway, subway subways. She and TTC CEO Andy Byford both spoke about the urgency of the transit issue du jour: a downtown relief line that could ease overcrowding. [National Post]

(Images: Rob Ford, Christopher Drost; Karen Stintz, Mike Beltzner)