Every government screws up from time to time. Politicians and public service workers are only human, and mistakes will inevitably be made.
However, particularly egregious screwups have become the rule in many Canadians jurisdictions rather than the exception. Each news cycle seems to surface another mind-boggling instance of ineptitude or indifference — sometimes both.
The current fiasco in Ottawa is a perfect example of this. On Canada Day, Pimisi Station, the closest light-rail transit (LRT) station to the city’s celebrations, was closed for public safety reasons. After much public outrage, it emerged that this was because Pimisi Station isn’t designed to handle “substantial crowds” and has a dearth of emergency escape routes.
