We believe in Winnport

A holy trinity for a godless city--Ss. Doer, Toews, and Harper (who may or may not let Cardinal Katz tag along...) are set to take a break from sand-bagging today and pay a visit to the airport this afternoon. That wouldn't be for an announcement regarding the creation of a world-class intermodal transportation hub that Doer, the Mayor, and their underlings in big-government capitalism like to talk about, would it?

We here at the Rise and Sprawl are short on details, but what we have learned about the transportation development at Richardson International will create more than 6,000 new jobs in Manitoba, 4,300 elsewhere in Canada, will handle 590 million kilograms of international freight, and an increase of almost $600 million in gross domestic product. It will be part of the plan to develop international air cargo handling facilities, and incorporate facilities capable of efficiently handling air, truck and rail cargo. The plan is sure to be a success because Winnipeg has a 24-hour airport (I mean it ain't just any city that has one of those), is in the centre of North America, has lower land and operating costs, and a talented, hard-working workforce. Best of all, the three levels of government and the local business community will strongly support it...

Wait a second, that's not from tomorrow's announcement, that's from the Winnipeg Development Agreement from 13 years ago--the last time the government tried to get into the transportation industry and turn Winnipeg into a transportation hub.

But that was then, this is now. That was Winnport, this is Centreport. That was multi-modal, this is intermodal. That was me wearing army-green corderoys and spending my evenings taping songs off the radio and slow-dancing to Toni Braxton at Portage la Prairie high school dances, this is me growing old and listening to Fleet Foxes on iTunes. It will work this time, you'll see... these guys have a plan, power, and a triple scoop of other people's money. It's gotta work this time, it's just gotta.