Batten Down The Hatches

Desperation!

That is the only word to describe what the E-machine must be thinking. They need to tie up any loose ends before the Mayor's May 1 State of the City speech and the major loose end is Bill Marra and whether he is running for mayor or not!

Obviously, there must be a DRAFT MARRA campaign. Perhaps friends of Bill (or, perhaps instead, it is former friends and now "foes" of the Mayor) are out there getting people together to try convince Bill that running for Council makes no sense for someone with his ability and that if he runs, that mayor is the only race that he should enter. Moreover, they are probably telling him that Windsor can no longer afford Eddie Francis as mayor for 3 (or will it be 4) more years.

From what I understand, the pressure on Bill to run is enormous. Clearly, the Henderson story in his column the other day is is a reflection of that and another attempt to force him not to run! Bill may not get to have published a Letter to the Editor forever now that Gord has again profiled him as a potential candidate. "Vigilant fairness" you know!

What has Bill Marra got to do with St. Clair College coming or not coming to the downtown that his name pops up in a Henderson column? But there was the shot, this time not with an unnamed "one of his closest supporters" as before but this time with a real name, someone who was known to support Marra in the past election, Mark Boscariol:

"Boscariol, who backed Bill Marra's failed 2003 mayoral campaign, swore he would switch sides and support Francis in 2006 if he could bring a campus downtown."

Astounded I wrote Mark about the quote and got this reply:

• "He [Henderson] must have taken that from my article 2 years ago where I said "If Francis does what he says he's going to do, I'll pound in signs for him". I'm happy to support Mayor Francis helping downtown, I don't like being used to give a shot at Bill Marra."

Oh well, the E-machine needs to get those hatches battened down. However, the real surprise might be, if Bill decides not to run, the name of the person who is hanging back to let Bill decide first so there will NOT be a three-way race! In other words, there will not be an acclamation as some have hoped.