What Kwame's Win Means For Windsor

What a surprise when waking up this morning. We still have the same mayor in Detroit! A number of the Detroit TV stations who were predicting that Hendrix would win based on the early results had better check their polling experts' credentials.

Interestingly, Kwame received 53% of the vote...a number very close to that of our Mayor's electoral number. That may be the only thing that they have in common after the Detroit Mayor's win.

I have enough trouble understanding Windsor municipal politics without pretending to understand anything about Detroit's but a few comments can be made. The most important in my mind is what the relationship between the two Mayors will be. I wonder if Detroit's Mayor will be as cordial to Eddie when Eddie stuck his nose into Detroit's affairs by trying to kill the big deal that Kwame signed with the Bridge Co. just before the election. Windsor needs Detroit's help if we are going to have regional economic development. Has that been set back by our Mayor's actions?

There are a number of new Councillors on the Detoit Council. I must admit that I do not know where they stand on many issues. If Windsor Council truly wants to start a dialogue with their counter-parts across the river, then now is the time to do it.

We have to be grateful for one thing. If Freman Hendrix were Mayor, then DRTP was back into the game. Marge Byington gambled and gambled big. And it appears that she lost big too. She held a fundraiser for Hendrix just before the election and he came out supporting DRTP. Her attack on the Detroit Mayor in Today's Trucking magazine ought not to help the DRTP cause.

The Detroit Mayor's deal with the Bridge Co. may well mean that we see 200 booths being built for Customs that should help get the border working for many years to come and see the start of economic development for Detroit anyway. What it means for the Tunnel will be interesting as well. Will it mean joint Bridge/Tunnel Customs facilities, the Bridge Co's management of the Tunnel for the Port Authority and the end of Eddie's grand ambition to control the border.