If certain interests get their way, the scale of ships mooring in Toronto and other financially troubled Great Lakes ports may be growing orders of magnitude. According to the Globe and Mail, there is a growing lobby in Canada and the United States to open the Great Lakes to oceangoing freight by spending billions to dredge the St Lawrence Seaway system and upgrade the locks system. Transportation officials have launched a multiyear feasibility study to assess the costs involved, with many citing the considerable economic benefits this new scale of trade would bring. An associated item in the Detroit News poses some hesitations in the plan: Ocean freight might bring economic growth, but with an almost certain ecological impact:

"(More shipping) could be good for the economy and that could mean more people to go fishing," said Tom Arlington, 52, of Anchor Bay. "On the bad side, we could get a lot more trash and exotic species in the lakes. I don't think I'll advocate one way or the other."

and then it occurred to me ... isn't Paul Martin's background in ocean freight? Pure co-incidence I'm sure.