Border Ramblings

Are you as confused as I am about what is going on with the Border? If someone was ever honest about what was going on, and publicly to boot, then perhaps my head would not hurt as much as it does.

By the way, that's a picture of a Rambling Rose. It seemed appropriate since the border issue is all over the map!

EDDIE’S LEGACY
Did you know that Eddie has been meeting with Detroit’s Mayor as late as Monday. Now there is no need for Councillor Gignac’s meeting with Detroit Council. Eddie has out-flanked her.

I wonder what they were talking about.

Was Eddie speaking to the Detroit Mayor both as Mayor of Windsor and as Chair of the Windsor Tunnel Commission? Were they talking about Eddie’s idea of buying Detroit’s interest in the Tunnel, or a joint leasing deal to DCTC for mega-millions or some third party? Was he trying to convince Kwame to end his deal with the Bridge Co., and work with him? Or were they only talking about Windsor’s snowplowing help during Super Bowl.

Of course, life is more difficult for Eddie since he does not have the authority of Agenda item #5 to act under. But as Chair of the Commission, he can do a deal with the Detroit Mayor and then bring it to Windsor Council for rubber-stamping. The precedent was set when Eddie was on the Commission as a Councillor with the Mady parking garage. ["In April 2001, then-councillor Francis made the motion at a tunnel commission meeting to approve the partnership agreement between Mady and the city. The tunnel commission, which is an agency of the city, approved the deal before it went to city council for approval."] It seems on that deal that no one knew what the terms were to “protect” Windsor’s interests in that deal. Even the Mayor admitted that it was a bad deal.

When the deal is done, expect the Francis road-tour to take place so he can “build relationships” as he tells others how to do this kind of financial transaction. That scares me a lot since if the deal goes sour, does the City have a liability? I wondered about that in the MFP deal as an example.

Of course, if the deal blew up, as the receivership of the garage shows can happen, and the City lost millions, what would he say? Oooooopppps, he would not be around then to have to do that as Mayor since he would have gone on to bigger and better things, right! That would be something for Mayor Gignac to deal with and to blame on the previous Administration. She need only repeat the script that Eddie has used already for that and hire Cliff Sutts.

SWEETS
Speaking of betrayal, I was told to be “polite” by one of my colleagues before the last Community Consultation Group meeting held by the Bi-National Partnership. This is the “citizens’” group that the bureaucrats have used to demonstrate that they are serious about public involvement. This was right after the Michigan Governor hijacked the border issue by disclosing that the bureaucrats had already decided on the “short-listed” crossings and had eliminated the ones her constituents opposed. Only days before, the Engineers had sponsored a boat trip for our Group and our US counter-parts to show us all 15 crossings as if nothing had yet been decided.

Well I was polite at the meeting, for me anyway. And to give them credit, some others were not so nice. We were given assurances that the Engineers were again going to be studying hard and that no decisions had yet been made on the finalists.

Imagine then how much I laughed when I read the Globe and Mail story the other day that said “A short list of contenders to build a new Detroit-Windsor crossing could be released as early as this week.” Not only that, it named the corridors!

Next meeting I may get really angry. They did not have any strawberry tarts there last time. If I am going to be co-opted, I may as well get a TBQ dessert out of it.

MAYOR KWAME
I don’t get it at all. First he signs a binding deal with the Bridge Company and then he pulls it off the table.

Was it a phony deal just designed to get him some votes?

Did he think he would lose at Council and so pulled it off the table?

Was it a tactic to get Hendrix to come out publicly and say that he was in support of the DRTP? [Where is Councillor Gignac demanding a meeting with him to convince him that DRTP is a bad choice?]

Are he and Eddie doing an even bigger deal now that will be announced days before the election to guarantee him re-election and Eddie his entrepreneurial dream?

Do the polls tell Kwame that he has a good chance at being re-elected? Therefore, he pulled the Bridge deal and the Union wage concession negotiations to avoid any negative controversy so that he will not lose any crucial votes. Is his plan then to bring both matters back and shove them down the throats of the Detroit Councillors in the new term? After all he did get great coverage when the Bridge deal was first announced!

Who knows!

RUNNING FOR MAYOR
To “grandstand” means “to perform ostentatiously so as to impress an audience.”

Why am I giving you this definition? After the Council meeting the other night, I was called by a colleague of Councillor Gignac and was asked if I saw her grandstanding on the border at Council. Regretfully, I had to reply in the negative since I had forgotten that Council Night in Windsor had been moved for Hallowe’en. Perhaps I will look at the replay on Cogeco if I have nothing else better to do. The Councillor told me that I was right: Jo-anne Gignac may run for Mayor after all.

But she had better be careful. This issue could bite her.

First Councillor Gignac flipflopped on the Ambassador Bridge proposal that she had approved in secret, then she flipflopped by asking for a meeting with Detroit Council when she had agreed not to do so in camera. Her ignorance on CBC TV of the Bridge’s new proposal shocked me from someone who seems to do her homework. I still have not heard her demand a Special Council meeting on the border for citizens to speak or to ratify the secret endorsement of the Schwartz report. Did she request that a bus be chartered so Council could meet with Freman Hendrix to chastise him for supporting DRTP and to educate him?

However, her position is interesting since it means that there is a crack in the so-called Council unity on Schwartz. She must feel that the Mayor is not invincible on his billion-dollar failed short-term dream. She is taking a run at him on his most vulnerable spot, the border. She is also scooping the issue from her Council colleague, Mr. STOPDRTP to ensure that he cannot run if she chooses to do so. She doesn’t have to worry about that. He is invisible on the border, too busy playing Financial VP of the City.

Clearly, Councillor Gignac is testing to see whether she can gain some momentum for herself by staking out a position now on the border. Being out there in public supporting the public on small issues is a great tactical move but a dumb political move since everyone can see through it.

She has angered some of her colleagues, especially the Ward 2 Councillors colleagues, by playing to the crowds. The Mayor I am sure is amused and relieved as she self-destructs so that he can cross another off of his list of possible opponents.

Anyway, as the Star demonstrated by ignoring her totally, she has a long way to go if she wants to get their good buddy out of office. And it probably did not help her that CKLW interviewed Councillor Postma instead either.


LEADERSHIP
Remember when I said that I thought that Councillors Postma and Jones were our hopes for new leadership on the border issue and that they had to take some tough actions.

According to the Star, the two Councillors are trying to set up a massive rally on the border to oppose certain corridors. Great idea I thought…just like the Downriver legislators in the US who pressured the Michigan Governor to take their communities off of the list of possible border crossings.

Then I read the rally was to take place in the spring. HUH, the spring….you mean 5 or 6 months from now.

If they want to do a rally do it now, not when the tulips come out again.

Joyce where are you? It’s your turn now.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GRIDLOCK SAM
Isn’t it interesting that he seems to have disappeared. Is he on the City payroll still or rather retained by Counsel to keep his materials “confidential?”

I guess since Councillor Valentinis has said that his report was only a “starting point” there is no need to keep paying him. Has the City, in effect, “disowned” him and has no real Plan now? Or rather, have they no real Plan that they are prepared to share with the people who elected them.