LISTEN UP STEPHEN AND BARACK.

If you are a regular reader you will recognize that I am about to ride on of my favourite hobby-horses. Your indifference could be understood. But what the hell….

I read with pleasure that Bombardier has landed a huge contract to supply Zefiro high speed rail to Italy’s Trenitalia... They were in a competition with the French company Alstom SA whose TGV trains dominate France and Germany. (Incidentally, when you ride the Paris Metro you may sit on a car which is a joint production of Bombardier and Alstom SA.)

The story I read said that Sarkozy wrote to the Italian premier urging him to buy the French bid. The article also said that Stephen Harper did not write any letters. None that we know of I suppose.

It may be that the only way you can get high speed rail built is with government participation. I know I know – the old Socialist thing. But one would hardly call Germany Socialist with a centre right government that steered clear of a lot of the fiscal stimulus programs, and opted for voluntary job-sharing.

The point here is that extreme risk-taking should not be the purview of Big Business. I understand that. They go from quarter to quarter hoping to have a constantly improving bottom line. They are not big on long-term, neither are their shareholders. High speed rail does not offer instant gratification, except perhaps to the train makers, but they too are government subsidized.

I seem to be taking the long way round. I am trying to make the point that this country, and even more the United States, must become involved in the kind of public-private enterprise that will serve the whole country, not just a gang of board-room biggies.

Canada has fared better than the U.S. We were not in so deeply. But both countries are derelict in the obligation to make things work; to make things work when private enterprise can’t or won’t. The U.S. is struggling with seemingly intractable employment while they wait for private business to pick up the slack, Ain’ t gonna happen. Obama has failed almost utterly in the need to create jobs. His failure reflects the poll-watching doomsayers who say that any more of that “socialism” will doom the Democrats in November. And enough voters seem to agree.

It may be too late for a country that views deficits in the same category as child-abuse or wife-beating. America could have stepped up with grand plans to create a totally new network of rail service – new rights-of-way, new stations, big city destinations. It is not as though America has never done it before. The network of Interstate Highways was built in the 50s during the Eisenhower administration. It was done by the people for the people. Today we can quibble that it set back the future of rail travel and ruined some urban setting by slashing a four lane super high through the centre of town. But it’s over and done with.

I could say that I beseech, I implore Obama to do what I know he can’t and won’t. He has neither the political will not the backing of his own government. Add in the machinations of the semi-nuts in the Tea Party movement, and you have a formula for economic inertia.

David Axel rod – read this. Make your guy the best thing to happen since the New Deal.

P.S. Sadly, the revisionists are out in force these days, saying the Roosevelt’s New Deal deepened the Great Depression.