Wynne was only one election from pulling a Bob Rae and throttling back her spending. Not by ideology, but by necessity... and she's just slippery enough to have made the reversal without the slightest regret. With Ford leading the PC's, that's now a hypothetical.
My bet is that Doug does win the election, based on a) the area beyond Toronto taking the populist tack and b) the Libs and the NDP splitting the centrist/liberal vote in enough 'pink' ridings to give Ford the edge.
What PC's did in the past is no measure of what Ford will do. His politics are different. He will encourage the 905 to remain auto dependent (and likely encourage further in this direction). For transit, he will allow enough growth to GO to make the 905 feel it's being supported. He will be brutal with the 416 (it's his old turf, after all). Overall he will impose economies - transit subsidies will face across the board cuts and then growth below the rate of inflation. He owes Tory nothing, and now whatever support Tory has is not a concern to him.
My fear is not so much that RER is dead - that seems certain - but that GO will not be able to maintain SOGR.
- Paul