It's been 40 years since Japan unveiled its first high-speed rail systems, but Canada is languishing with a rail system from the 1950s that one rail activist calls a national "embarrassment."
"Who can defend what we have? The public has to say ‘Enough is enough' and tell our government that we need . . . modern passenger rail like the rest of the world has," Paul Langan of the group High-Speed Rail Canada told CTV.ca.Which nation should be embarrassed?
Japan: Resource poor, high-density land use, the Lost (Two) Decade(s).
Canada: Resource rich, massive landmass with small population, good fundamentals for economic growth despite drag of welfare programs.
Of course, Canada has an deplorable nanny-state, just like other Western countries. But its people still enjoy a relative high level of freedom. And it boasts the lowest public sector debt among the G8.
Canadian taxpayers should count themselves fortunate that they don't "enjoy" the credit-addicted societies which can travel about the countryside at 250 km/hr in phallic-shaped trains built by companies like Siemens ("the global leader in high speed rail")...because public debt size does matter.
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