Once again, the map tells the story — the map accompanying yesterday’s front-page report on the East-West Highway conference in St. John, New Brunswick. On the right, the bustling Canadian Maritimes, with a modern, four-lane road pushing up against Calais. On the left, mighty Montreal, with a modern, four-lane road fast approaching Coburn Gore.

In the middle, Northern Maine. With a cow path.

Certainly, the outdated and hazardous roads running across the state’s upper tier are a serious impediment to prosperity. Sadly, it’s increasingly clear that the biggest roadblock for the creation of a trade route in the declining region isn’t Heartbreak Hill or Deadman’s Curve, but the King administration. It’s enthusiasm and commitment would have to be raised several degrees to even approach lukewarm.

Dozens of officials, business types and planners from New England, Quebec and the Maritimes met in St. John Thursday to discuss the importance of creating this vital link for commerce. Gov. King wasn’t there, though he was nearby. He was campaigning in, of all places, Calais.

Telling the locals that he has mixed feelings about an East-West Highway. That there are issues regarding routing and access. That maybe the modest improvements being made to turn Route 9 into a passable two-lane road might be good enough.

Transportation Commissioner John Melrose also found his way Downeast this week. In Ellsworth Tuesday, the commissioner described his vision of a tourism-oriented network of high-speed ferries, tour buses and excursion trains. The feasibility of an East-West Highway is being studied. There are issues. It must be evaluated and debated as just another transportation alternative.

Yes, there are issues. It’s the job of leaders to resolve them, not merely to describe them. The notion that good enough is good enough for Northern Maine is the problem, not the solution. Feasibility studies are necessary (although apparently not for visionary systems of mass tourist transport), provided they are conducted in the spirit of making something work, not of finding reasons why it shouldn’t. And modern highways are not just another transportation alternative, on par with high-speed ferries. Not in rural Maine, not anywhere on this planet.

Bangor Mayor Tim Woodcock, a fervent East-West supporter, was in the right place Thursday, in St. John, preaching the sermon the choir knows by heart: The reason the northeast corner of North America does not thrive as a region is because it is not connected as a region; that connection will never be made without organization, advocacy and political will. Organization and advocacy have grown up from the grass roots. What’s needed now is political will. That has to come from the top down.

If the opinion polls are even close to being accurate, Gov. King is well on his way to re-election. If so, it’s time be thinking legacy. It’s time to decide whether a second term will lead Maine four years closer to a new map or consign it to four more years of tepid mixed feelings.