The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Doug Ford is toying with another loopy idea -- buying the private Highway 407 which runs north of the 401, and running roughly parallel on an east-west track. The Globe's Marcus Gee writes that the Conservative government of Mike Harris sold the 407 for $3-billion to investors including SNC (now Atkinsrealis). Buying it back could cost around $35-billion. The gargantuan cost is not the only reason Ontario should reject this notion. There is nothing wrong with tolled highways. They work perfectly well all over Europe and Asia. Many are private. The operators use part of the money they make to maintain and improve the roads, which in most cases are far better than the deteriorating public highways Ontarians are accustomed to driving. Those who choose to pay to use the broad, well-kept 407 usually get where they are going in a hurry. If it were smart, the Ford government would build more toll highways. That is how New York built most of its network of bridges, tunnels and expressways decades ago. It is how many countries build their infrastructure to this day. That way, the burden lies at least partly on the drivers who use them, rather than on the public at large.