Laurier Economics Department's Bill Morrison Debates High-Speed Rail in Canada and Comes Home with the Win!

A decades-old tradition at the annual conference of the Canadian Transportation Research Forum, is the Buffalo Transport Debate, in which two teams of transport researchers are asked to consider a resolution and with only 24 hours notice, are assigned to argue either for or against it, in front of all the conference attendees.

At this year’s conference in Ottawa, in addition to presenting his own research on air travel and carbon offsetting, Lazaridis Economics Professor, Bill Morrison, was invited to participate in the debate on the topic of whether Canada’s recently announced decision to invest in a high-speed passenger rail service in Eastern Canada would be a “huge success.”.

Dr. Morrison and debate partner Dr. Martin Trépanier won the debate, taking home the rather unique Buffalo Transport Debate trophy. But Dr. Morrison was not content with just the win;  "In preparation, we researched both sides of the argument, but could only use one side in the debate, and I thought it was a waste of our research not to put both sides together”. So, after the debate, Bill produced a short op-ed article for publication in the Hill Times (a news platform that highlights current Canadian political and public policy issues). In the article, he argues that despite seemingly good reasons to build a high speed rail service between Toronto and Quebec City, high opportunity costs and technological developments like electronic aircraft do not make the project such a good idea after all: High-speed rail in Canada is not up for debate, or is it? - The Hill Times.

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