John Bolton - October 08, 2026


The Train You Didn't Choo Choo Choose - An Expensive Slow Motion Train Wreck

Hosted by
John Bolton
Mentioned
Justin Trudeau Mark Carney Melanie Kellan McBreen Atkins Realis Peterborough McParlin Cornwall
Third Party Advertisers Need Your Help! - Livestream at 6pm Tonight Canada's Sovereignty Gone and Elon Torches Politicians and The Media

Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

174.82

Word count

1,773

Sentence count

145

Harmful content

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel 544 a.m. Thursday, October the 8th. I hope you're
00:00:09.280 having a great Thursday. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm getting going a little
00:00:13.400 later than usual and I'm taking a bit of a chance in this video today. I'm going to give you some
00:00:19.800 advice right now I've given on occasion on this channel. Please cover your electronics with
00:00:25.020 cellophane, you may see a video in a moment that's rather vomit-inducing. The chance I'm
00:00:31.060 taking is the person in that video who repels people. Generally, when I include this guy in
00:00:36.420 any of my videos, fewer people watch it. I'm not kidding. He repels people that much. So if you
00:00:43.120 would please give this video a thumbs up right now before you see him, I would appreciate it.
00:00:48.160 It would help out. So today we're going to talk about the biggest infrastructure project in
00:00:53.780 Canadian history. And we're going to talk about something we both knew. We both predicted it was
00:01:00.180 going to cost a lot more than we originally thought. And we're going to talk a little bit
00:01:04.480 about this article in the National Post written by Kelly McParland. High-speed rail, the project
00:01:09.720 that will not die. The economic returns are modest and the cost is astronomical. I have some
00:01:15.560 questions about this. One conclusion I come to in just a moment that I don't think other people
00:01:20.500 are coming to, and I think that might be rather vomit-inducing as well, including the high cost
00:01:25.580 of this project. Let's read a little bit of Mr. McParlin's article, and then we'll get to that
00:01:30.720 clip, okay? It's probably a coincidence, and I'm probably going to win the lottery,
00:01:35.720 that Thursday's gangbusters announcement of a new pipeline for Alberta came on the same day
00:01:40.340 we got an updated cost estimate for a high-speed train linking Quebec and Ontario. It was a cover-up,
00:01:45.760 right? We got this great story about a pipeline that won't happen, but we're covering up the cost
00:01:52.560 of this choo-choo train in Ontario and Quebec. While Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a
00:01:57.960 lengthy address extolling the pipeline amid a crowd of dignitaries, onlookers, and reporters
00:02:02.660 in Fort McMurray, the Parliamentary Budget Office railway estimate landed on Ottawa computer screens
00:02:08.180 with the technological equivalent of a thud. Right off the bat, it predicted the cost of
00:02:13.720 building a high-speed rail line from Toronto to Quebec City wouldn't be anywhere near the $60
00:02:19.100 billion to $90 billion government estimate. Surprise, surprise, ladies and gentlemen.
00:02:24.260 More likely, the cost would range from $75 billion to $113 billion, not including operating costs,
00:02:31.220 and a lengthy menu of such expensive add-ons as a tunnel under Montreal, and a diversion to add
00:02:37.220 a station in Kingston. By the way, they're moving into Kingston through, let me show you this,
00:02:41.640 find this for you. This is Ontario. The Ontario leg of this goes through all the blue ridings,
00:02:47.200 which are conservative. It's got to stop in Kingston because they voted liberal.
00:02:51.140 Okay. Just, just to put that into perspective. And this wasn't originally included on a stop
00:02:57.200 for this rail line. So let's go back to the article and I'll show you the clip that's going
00:03:00.840 to make you vomit, but we've got to unpack. Okay. So more likely the cost would range from 75
00:03:06.780 billion to $113 billion. Canadian governments have been pondering ways to speed up train travel
00:03:13.300 since at least 1970. It goes on to talk about the boondoggles of trains in California
00:03:18.680 and Birmingham, England. The PBO report blithely attributes the U.S. and U.K. problems to
00:03:25.660 difficulties with land acquisition, permitting, litigation, design changes, and project management
00:03:31.520 weaknesses. Such things could never happen in Canada, of course. Back over to this map. By the
00:03:36.280 way, all these conservative ridings through here and into Quebec, they might not be conservative.
00:03:40.520 They're pissed off. They're going to take their land. This is going to be a major problem,
00:03:45.320 particularly through this beautiful cottage country. As you get into Eastern Ontario,
00:03:49.580 there have been people out there protesting. They don't want this thing to go through. You
00:03:53.260 have to ask the question, why do the liberals want this project to go through? Now you're probably
00:03:57.840 thinking, John, are you stupid? You're throwing stuff at your screen right now. 1.00
00:04:02.380 money. A lot of money. A lot of your money. This money is not being put forward by businesses. A
00:04:10.000 lot of it is taxpayer money. It's going to go to liberals and liberal-friendly companies.
00:04:16.080 There's this article here. You may remember opposition MPs accused Champagne of voting
00:04:20.100 on high-speed rail despite conflict of interest. What's his conflict of interest? Here he is. He's
00:04:24.980 your finance minister. His wife was hired as an executive at Alto, which is building the high-speed
00:04:32.120 rail. And don't forget, one of the companies involved in this consortium to build this
00:04:37.220 really expensive high-speed rail line is a company called Atkins Realis, formerly known as
00:04:43.940 SNC-Lavalin. You can't write this stuff. Remember the SNC-Lavalin affair, Justin Trudeau? Remember
00:04:50.380 that? And the liberals think they can get away with this. And ladies and gentlemen, they will.
00:04:57.220 So here's the guy, the vomit-inducing clip.
00:04:59.760 We need to unpack this.
00:05:01.600 So here is Justin Trudeau announcing this.
00:05:04.340 By the way, he announced this after he had announced he was stepping down.
00:05:07.820 He was a lame duck prime minister at this point, but he says a few things in here we're going to question in just a moment.
00:05:15.240 Today, I'm announcing the launch of ALTO, the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history.
00:05:21.940 A high-speed rail network between Quebec City and Toronto, with stops in Trois-Rivières, Laval, Montreal, Ottawa, and Peterborough.
00:05:31.640 It'll span 1,000 kilometres with 100% electric trains that will reach speeds of 300 kilometres an hour.
00:05:40.500 A reliable, efficient high-speed rail network will be a game-changer for Canadians,
00:05:46.740 slashing travel times by half, getting you from Toronto to Montreal in three hours.
00:05:53.380 If you're still here, thank you very much for sitting through that. Now, let me just use one
00:06:00.020 of the lines he said. He said, this will be a game changer for Canadians. Let me ask you,
00:06:04.480 if you're living in the Maritimes, is this a game changer for you? If you're living in British 1.00
00:06:10.160 Columbia, is this a game changer for you? I live in Calgary, Alberta. It's certainly not a game
00:06:15.220 changer for me. Here's one of the conclusions I came to, and I wrote this down this morning,
00:06:20.320 and I typed at the top of my notes on my left screen here, and I wrote this down, and this is
00:06:25.200 one of the grievances we have here in Alberta, one of the reasons why we want to leave.
00:06:30.160 Ontario and Quebec get a $115 billion high-speed rail line no one asked for. Alberta has to beg
00:06:38.480 and grovel for a pipeline that is desperately needed. This is the relationship Alberta has
00:06:44.260 with the rest of the country. But back in April, I came across a tweet from Melanie in Saskatchewan
00:06:51.280 and I talked about it. I'm going to play a short clip here. It's 39 seconds long. And is this a
00:06:57.620 game changer for Canadians? Well, it's not for me. It's probably not for you. And it certainly wasn't
00:07:02.120 for Melanie in Saskatchewan. To Mark Carney and those applauding him, I am a Canadian paying
00:07:08.800 for a country that doesn't include me. I live in the part of the country your map forgets,
00:07:14.600 about 2,600 kilometers from the nearest stop on your proposed $90 billion train. I am an
00:07:21.440 overtaxed, underserved Canadian. I heat my home with rising costs. I fill my vehicle at almost
00:07:28.120 $2 a liter, depending on the day and my luck. I watch a country with 163 billion barrels of oil
00:07:35.700 behave like it's on a meager allowance. And you want me to pay for a train I will never use?
00:07:42.820 How thoughtful. It is so well written and it is so thoughtful. And she actually writes in that tweet,
00:07:49.960 from where I sit in Saskatchewan, your high-speed rail corridor might as well be interstellar
00:07:55.340 travel. Is this a game changer for you as a Canadian? Other than the fact you're going to
00:08:00.660 be spending a lot of your money on it. You'll probably never set foot on this train. And the
00:08:05.760 other thing that came to mind when he talked during his clip, he talks about it saving a
00:08:11.900 couple of hours, two hours of travel time between Toronto and Montreal. Now, I don't know how many
00:08:17.320 of you have traveled along this stretch of highway in Ontario. I used to live here in Cornwall,
00:08:22.080 right here. And I used to go down to my hometown, which is Sarnia, way down here. I was born right
00:08:29.360 here in Petrolia. I used to have to go down here to visit my family. So I know this stretch of
00:08:33.500 road very, very well. Cornwall to Toronto is about a four and a half hour drive if you're
00:08:39.520 going the speed limit and who does. And it's five hours and 44 minutes from downtown Toronto to
00:08:46.100 downtown Montreal, which isn't very long. There's actually a train that can do it. And it's a via
00:08:50.920 rail train right here that can do it in five hours and eight minutes. You're going to save
00:08:55.440 two hours of time, is that worth $115 billion and counting for a choo-choo train across Ontario? 1.00
00:09:03.180 Really? Now, here's the conclusion I've come to. I don't think anybody else has thought of this. 0.99
00:09:12.340 And this might make you a little bit sick, but I've been thinking this. Justin Trudeau was a
00:09:16.320 lame duck prime minister when he announced this in February of 2025. As I said, he'd already 0.87
00:09:21.940 pretty much resigned in early January. And Carney was in the leadership race at this point
00:09:27.060 when he made this announcement. Is this some kind of a political legacy
00:09:31.040 for Justin Trudeau? The liberals are holding onto this to create some kind of a permanent
00:09:37.300 monument to Justin Trudeau. I mean, his legacy isn't very good. A lot of scandal, including
00:09:44.820 the aforementioned SNC-Lavalin, Atkins Realis, that is building this train. But is that what
00:09:51.320 this is about as well? Because this just doesn't make any sense. This is no game changer for
00:09:56.560 Canadians. It's a lot of wasted money. It just doesn't make any sense. What do you think? If
00:10:02.780 you like this video, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, ring the bell for
00:10:06.260 notifications. I'll see you in the next one.