Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau speaks at a press conference in the Old Port of Montreal on Feb. 19.ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images

“This is real now,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “for the first time in a long time.”

He was talking about high-speed rail between Quebec City and Toronto, and from his words you might guess the Prime Minister had conjured up a thousand kilometres of track from thin air and ultra-fast trains are now speeding between central Canada’s cities.

But no, it is not real.

Even allowing for the special branch of bureaucratic metaphysics that might see as “real” the thing that happened Wednesday – the naming of the consortium that will “co-develop” the high-speed rail plan – this was nothing like real. It was the glow of a mirage, one that is real only because of dollars devoted and fresh ink on a press release.

If Mr. Trudeau’s government were at another stage in its life, the choice of consortium might be seen as a firm go-ahead that places high-speed rail irreversibly (cough) on track.

But the Trudeau ministry is in its last weeks and the twilight........

© The Globe and Mail