Frankly, prioritizing another corridor (Finch West, or Eglinton - Kingston Rd - UTSC) would be a much better peace offering.
I came up with a Table showing how much of the recent transit money was spent in each former borough, and what the percentage of population each borough represents. I think you can easily make an arguement that transit funding should be distributed more based on origins and destinations (in which case Toronto may be about 50% and not 29%) - but this will do for now. (sorry for the appearance of the Table, I have not figured out a way of doing a nice Table).
......Eg.....SRT.....SE.....FW.....Sp....Sh.....Tot
......$4.8...$1.4...$1.1..$1.1.....................$8.4
TO...$1.6.............................................$1.6
EY...$0.7.............................................$0.7
.Y....$1.6.............................................$1.6
NY...$0.4...........$0.4..$0.8...$1.7...$1.0....$4.3
SC...$0.5..$1.4...$0.7.............................$2.6
ET...........................$0.3.....................$0.3
.....TC..Excluding......Including
...Spadina/Sheppard
.....(%$)..(%pop).....(%$)...(%pop)
TO....20.....29...........14.....29
EY......9......4.............6......4
Y......20......6...........14.......6
NY....20.....25...........39.....25
SC....33.....23...........23.....23
ET......4.....13............3.....13
This shows that North York, with 25% of the population, has recieved 20% of the Transit City Phase 1 funding, but if you include the Spadina (Toronto portion) and Sheppard, they have recieved 39% of the funding. Scarborough with 23% of the population, has roughly recieved their share of funding, while Etobicoke is about 3 or 4%, while their population is 13%. If you look at the old city of Toronto, their funding is about half of what it should be.
Toronto not getting their "fare share" of funding should make the DRL and easy sell. The DRL also help improve the service for those in the suburbs.
However, the transit debates over the last few years shows that Scarborough is not happy with what they got - even though dollar wise it is about right. So it seems that spending over $2.5B on Scarborough has not yielded any positive results. Is this because they are ingrateful, or is it because the money was spent on something they did not want. I think spending a few hundred million to elevate the Eglinton line would have made them a happier. A small extension of Sheppard subway, the option of an elevated Sheppard subway, or even deferring the whole thing, probably would have made them happier. (Maybe building the far eastern portion of the SELRT to allow the Conlins yard to be used).
It would have been a lot easier to sell the DRL if the boroughs were happy. The decisions that have been made in the past 2 months probably make the fight for the DRL that much harder.