SkyTrain Expo Line shutdown: How will transit referendum voters react?

A citizen hoping for signs as to how to vote in the B.C. Lower Mainland's transit-funding plebiscite couldn't ask for more apocalyptic omens: a blazing bird's nest shuts down the system, sad lines of desperate commuters, the waiving of fares from on high.

But how to read this set of TransLink tea leaves?

• TransLink responds as service resumes

"If I were a political operative, you best believe that I would be hammering this hard towards my own end," says University of British Columbia political scientist David Moscrop.

"These events end up being subject to all kinds of different interpretations."

Transit fiasco cuts both ways

Lower Mainland voters have just one week left to get their ballots into Elections B.C. by next Friday's 8 p.m. deadline. To date, 42 per cent of ballots have been received.

The stakes are high: a Yes vote would give the go-ahead to a 0.5 per cent Metro Vancouver sales tax projected to raise $250 million a year toward a $7.8-billion transit and transportation plan.

Supporters pitch the choice as a vote on the region's future; the No side casts it as a referendum on TransLink.

Moscrop says catastrophic events may remind voters of the reason they should participate in the plebiscite.

But he says they also serve as shortcuts for voters to reach conclusions they were already on their way to making.

"In principle, events like this act like triggers: you can imagine it breaking one of two ways," he says. 

"'The service is poor, I just had a massively inconvenient interruption, we need better transit, I'm going to vote, and I'm going to vote Yes' — or 'These people are incompetent, nothing I do is going to fix that, they've ruined my day, I'm going to vote No.'''

Making hay out of a bird's nest

On the surface of it, you'd think a day of pandemonium sparked by a bird's nest catching fire wouldn't look good for a transit authority struggling to overcome an image of ineptitude.

But the day also gave TransLink the chance to show off what appears to be a new public relations strategy: constant apologies, promises to do better and free fares.

Don't underestimate the power of a good grovel, says Moscrop.

"I think democracy has become in large part a public relations exercise. I think it has a profound impact," he says.

"The question people are often asking themselves when they're voting isn't: 'Should I vote Yes or No for this policy or candidate?' It's: 'Do I like this policy or candidate?' It's: 'How do I feel about them,' not 'What do I think about them?'"

To that end, No TransLink Tax spokesman Jordan Bateman did his best to make hay out of the bird's nest.

He says the incident is about TransLink's priorities: funding an organization that sees fit to reward two highly paid CEOs but is apparently unable to pay someone to check the tracks for detritus.

"That's the core problem here is they've put the money into things that don't move a single person a single inch, instead of focusing on the priorities," he says.

"It should remind people that the unsexy things about running the transit system have to be focused on, because when they aren't, it makes a difference."

An ugly choice

Predictably, both camps took to Twitter and the airwaves to bolster their points of view, and to attack each other.

"Massive Skytrain delays 2X this week. I think my wife wants to change her Translink vote to "Flush the whole damn thing down the toilet," says @MarkSweeney.

"Blaming #translink for the [delay] this a.m. is ridiculous. I wonder how the lineups will look with an extra one million people here. #VoteYes" counters @brittneydawney.

​If anything, the shutdown fiasco serves to underscore the ugly choice voters on both sides of the plebiscite are being asked to make: either hold your nose and vote to fund a transit authority you despise, or punish TransLink and deny yourself infrastructure the region needs.

No wonder some say democracy's for the birds.