MarlboroD,

Your rant is perfectly fine. I do that sometimes just to get it off my chest.

You expressed: "My feeling, as an outsider, is that it is probably the province that is mostly deficient in this situation. Many aspects of the Ring projects are being drawn out, but it looks to me like more of these are provincial responsibilities than federal."

That line could be an excellent starting paragraph for an e-mail to Minister Gravelle (ah, have it addressed to the top person, i.e. Premier Wynne, with cc to Gravelle instead). Perhaps, an e-mail from you as an outsider would carry a lot more weight than from us inside the province. She already has a mandate to govern Ontario for another 4-year term.

From what you said: "when I say this, I am not regularly a fan of our federal Conservatives.", I'm guessing that you are located somewhere at other end of the country, the Pacific side of the country? So, by "regularly" as underlined above, you are hinting that you could be a fan of the Fed (i.e. the Con) when the Fed, on its own initiative, decides to throw in $1B, or so, to develop the RoF, without even consulting the Ont Lib? lol.

You know what, the Fed might do just that to expand its grip on Norther Ontario in the next fed election (less than 1 year). One influential MP is Minister Rickford (Kenora riding) who is FedNor Minister (responsible for the RoF). He has been telling the Prov that Fed money is available, but the Prov will need to come with specific proposals for the RoF complete with details and costing before the Fed would provide matching funding,... not a cheque of $1B for some vague and general indication, e.g. something that says

"Yah, we want $1B for the RoF, it does not have to be a money order, a cheque from the Treasury Board President, or the Minister of Finance, would do".

goldhunter