This is a poor bill, and I…

This is a poor bill, and I must speak out against it.

The cycling component, with which I am most familiar, shows a misunderstanding of traffic. People using alternative, more space-efficient vehicles like bikes over cars reduces traffic overall. Besides, bikes being forced to use a vehicle lane is awful for everyone involved. It's stressful, its dangerous, and its slower than if each type of vehicle were given its own space.

Toronto's bike lanes have made great strides in the past decade, and I use them regularly - the Younge route in particular - to get to and from work, run errands and visit my partner and friends. They're great, and more and more people get use out of them every year. Even more people will be more included to use those lanes if they're safe and sufficiently developed to actually reach the places those people need to get to. This bill stands in opposition to that, and will just clog our roads with more traffic and more needless traffic deaths. Besides, isn't this more Mayor Chow's jurisdiction? This feels like Premier Ford throwing his weight around, just to feel tough as he smashes things he simply doesn't like. We should expect more from our leaders.

His highway 413 proposal is something I have less personal experience with, being a Torontonian cyclist and not a Bolton-area driver. Still, I know that eating toward our Greenbelt and mistreating our protesting workers like this is no way forward for Ontario. Furthermore, the position of this highway seems impractical for anything else that serving as the backbone of further housing developments that would serve only to enrich property developers. I am dubious that this is meant to help the people of Ontario, and quite certain that it won't.

I implore the people of Ontario to vote, to make our voices heard. The 2022 general election saw a turnout of less that 44%, which isn't even a majority of our people. Apathy is dangerous, and leads to bills like Bill 212 - policy that will only darken our future.