Mireille Enos, William Jackson Harper join John Hamm show shooting in city

There’s an object lesson playing out to the south of us, and not exactly the one you may be thinking about.

It’s not the obvious one of “don’t elect a federal leader who has a clear history of caring about his own grievances before he thinks about the needs of his citizens,” or more simply, “don’t elect someone who is less an agent of change than he is an agent of chaos.”

No, the lesson playing out to the south of us — one likely to have an impact on U.S. midterm elections later this fall as well as the last U.S. presidential election — is that there is a clear danger in allowing dark money to fuel political campaigns.

There are estimates that political action campaigns — or PACs — will once again dump billions of U.S. dollars into the mix, funding advertising campaigns and other political campaign efforts, and steamrolling less-funded efforts.

Transit troubles and passes

Re: Growing pains? Maybe, but it’s worth it, Think Tank, Sept. 10.

Worth it for who? Our transit system has been undergoing growing pains for the past year, ever since city staff completely messed up the system with their redesign.

The net result of those changes is reduced ridership, leading to a projected deficit of $18 million in revenues this year (not including the capital costs of those changes). Add that to the annual $126-million subsidy to operate Winnipeg Transit and that’s $144 million being paid annually by Winnipeg taxpayers.