Cutting-edge questions on BRT

• COLUMNIST

Thirty questions (if you read closely, you will find more than 30 — this pundit overdelivers; I am just trying to make up for all my colleagues who underachieve, poor saps!) for those of you who have been insulted with pro-BRT (bus rapid transit) publicity and punditry.

1. Has anyone come up with any numbers on what the system will truly cost Winnipeg taxpayers?
2. When the pro-BRT crowd tells you that we ought to make this happen now because so much of the money is coming from non-Winnipeg sources, do they tell you that tens of millions are coming from a non-Winnipeg source known as the province of Manitoba?
3. Since two-thirds of Manitobans live in Winnipeg, doesn't that mean Winnipeg taxpayers are on the hook for a lot of money?
4. How come Glen Murray never did a real feasibility study to find out how necessary this new system was, how much ridership there would be and how much more it was really going to cost 10 and 20 years into the future?
5. Is it possible the former mayor didn't want to do a study because a study would be costly?
6. Isn't this the same guy who blew a million dollars publicizing his new deal, even though he had never made a deal with anyone but his own ego?
7. Is it possible he didn't commission a real study with real facts because he feared his opponents would turn facts into weapons and destroy his pet project? Is it possible he didn't commission a real study with real facts because he feared his opponents would turn facts into weapons and destroy his pet project? Is it possible he didn't commission a real study with real facts because he feared his opponents would turn facts into weapons and destroy his pet project?
8. If facts were on his side, why didn't he present them? By the way, is global warming a fact? This pro-Kyoto lunacy is all about global warming, isn't it? Has anyone in Winnipeg noticed any global warming lately?
9. If the mayor was serious and meticulous, why did he leave out the price of buses?
10. Is it possible Glen Murray thought buses have nothing to do with bus transit?
11. Might that be because Glen hates taking the bus?
12. Is it true that the former mayor was a busaphobe (a new word coined for the purpose of aiming absurdity in the direction of absurdity — a busaphobe being a person with an irrational fear of buses)?
13. Don't the roads we drive on contain more crack than Whitney Houston's love life?
14. Since civic officials have been overwhelmed by the mission to fill potholes, can we count on them to come up with a cutting-edge idea like a dedicated bus lane?
15. Since when is a dedicated bus lane a cutting-edge idea?
16. Don't the pro-BRT pundits keep telling us that Winnipeg needs to fly into the future, and this "cutting-edge" bus lane is the way to do it?
17. Are these guys smoking the same stuff that Whitney and Bobby have been doing?
18. Did the former mayor ever do a study on whether the majority of Winnipeggers want the BRT?
19. Did he not do it because he thought the majority was against the idea?
20. Did he refuse to consider a referendum because he would be embarrassed by the result?
21. Did he say no to democracy on this issue because he has contempt for majority opinion?
22. Didn't he once say he rejected the concept of the tyranny of the majority?
23. Did he prefer the tyranny of the minority?
24. Is that what today's pro-BRT pundits prefer?
25. Why is Sam Katz being told by the pundits that he better do things the way Glen did them?
26. If the voters wanted the Glen Murray agenda, wouldn't they have voted for his puppet, Dan Vandal?
27. How did Sam Katz get such a huge percentage of the vote, after having voiced skepticism of the BRT?
28. Is it possible that Katz is more in touch with Joe Average than his critics?
29. Is that the pro-BRT crowd's real problem? Are they envious of the new mayor who has no desire to ape the old one?
30. Is it time to tell the pro-BRT guys that Elvis (Glen Murray) has left the building?

And he didn't take the bus. He never does, chumps.