It seems there are a few people in the village of Navan who are pretty upset over the fact that I accepted an ad from the group behind the ALTO high speed rail initiative which ran in the last edition of the Orléans Star.

For those of you who might not know about ALTO, it’s the high speed rail project that is being proposed to link Quebec City, Montréal, Ottawa and Toronto and one of the proposed routes runs just south of the village which has upset many of the residents of Navan, and for good reason.

Of course, I have come out both editorially and personally against the proposed $90 billion project. One, because it’s way too expensive. And second because it will never pay for itself, which means it’s every taxpayers who will end up paying for it even though they will likely never use it.

But my position on the subject does not preclude me from accepting and running an ad from the group behind the project.

For one, I can’t afford to pick and choose which ads I run and which ads I don’t. And for another, running the ad in no way indicates whether I support the project or not. Just like running an election ad for a candidate is in no way indicative of whether the paper supports said candidate or not. It’s an ad. And the continued survival of this paper is 99.9 per cent dependent on ad revenue.

As for the project itself, I am extremely doubtful it will ever be built. But if ALTO wants to spend money promoting it, then I will grudgingly accept it.. As for the residents of Navan who are upset with me for running the ad, instead of taking your anger out on me, put that energy into a campaign to fight back.

I can only imagine ALTO’s one ad in this tiny paper is just the tip of the iceberg of the marketing campaign that is to come. God only knows how much money they’ve been allocated to help make people believe that a $90-billion high speed rail line is for the common good of the country.

The only way to counter that argument is by letting the people in Alberta and Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces know that their children and their grandchildren will be paying for this thing for decades to come.

If it ever does get built, the ALTO high speed rail line will be the biggest white elephant this country has seen since the Mirabel airport, or the “Big O” and 99 per cent of Canadians still have no clue about it. I’m guessing if and when they do find out about it and the fact that they will be paying for it, they’re going to be pretty doggone upset about it.

So instead of getting upset with me for running an ad which helps pay the bills, try and find a way to raise money, possibly through a crowdfunding campaign, and take out some ads of your own informing normal, everyday Canadians that they are about to get shackled with a mortgage that will never get paid of, and then wait for the outcry that will surely follow.