Big 4 1/2
Come on now, in spite of the nice press, you don't really think that Windsor is a full player at the Mackinac conference do you.
I wonder if Eddie missed the Big Cities Mayors Caucus session at the FCM Montreal meeting in order to speak at the Big Five session or was he able to go there and then return in time to go up north. If you did not know, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' meeting was where the BCMC group set out their position on "fiscal imbalance and its impact on big cities." It was where "Canadian Municipalities [called] for halt to U.S. border passport plan."
It was very generous of our American neighbours to the north to invite the Mayor of Windsor along (I wonder if Eddie mentioned our geographic position so that Americans would have some cocktail party chatter trivia to remember us by after the conference ended). I am sure that this invitation was considered when Windsor was viewed by the Detroit Mayor as more important to Detroit than its suburbs and when Windsor taxpayers generously agreed to spend a whole bunch of taxpayer dollars (in US funds too) to allow Eddie to hob-nob with the power brokers at Super Bowl.
I wonder if the invitation would be extended now when Windsor was viewed as no more than a snow cleaner at Super Bowl time, after Eddie's attack on Kwame before the last Detroit mayoral election and when Windsor's roads to the border became the problem that is preventing the border crossing issue from being solved.
I wonder if the Windsor Star will reprint the Bill McGraw column written in the Detroit Free Press....that is good pre-election material to try and keep others from running against Eddie. Well, maybe it is a better idea that they do not.
McGraw mentioned the Eddie Francis Mantra "Either we work together or we lose together." He did not mention the new increasingly loud Michigan Politicians mantra "Fix the road to the border Eddie!"
Respecting differences between the two, McGraw forgot to mention that while Detroit has about ten times Windsor's population, Windsor receives about ten times more income from the jointly owned Tunnel than does Detroit. The Detroit Councillors learned that fact at the Joint Councils session.
Poor Bill, while immigrant population growth seems to be a good thing, he did not know that, in fact, Eddie blamed those same immigrants in his State of the City speech for being the ones responsible for us having the highest unemployment rate in Canada. I guess auto workers who are forced to retire pre-maturely are technically not "unemployed" or our rate could sky-rocket even higher.
Bill should know that Eddie was right about Super Bowl attracting "out-of-towners." Too bad that the ones we wanted, big-spending Americans out for a good time in Sin City, were not the ones we got. Eddie still has not yet released the Super Bowl numbers he has promised us for a long time so what can we say. Unfortunately, we do know that border traffic tanked the weekend of Super Bowl and traffic volumes were down substantially.
Bill very politely barely mentions border problems in his column. The Star said "The border traffic issue was only briefly discussed, with Ficano noting how it was "ridiculous" a binational study to select the next crossing location is taking so long."
Well there was in fact another issue and I hope for Eddie's sake neither newspaper picks up on it. Eddie talked about "pre-clearance."
I was worried. I had heard that someone was trying to put together a parcel of land, around 100 acres, for a pre-clearance or staging area near the spot where DRTP hits Highway 401. It was claimed that it might be a Government body that was doing so. I heard it was MTO.
Fortunately, it does not seem to be the City of Windsor since to Eddie, pre-clearance meant "reverse customs" as he talked about it on Melanie Deveau's CKLW show about his session. As he correctly said, we do it already in airports and train stations and we've had that discussion in Canada now for some time now and discussed it at the Federal level in Canada and Washington.
The obvious benefit, he said, was to stop terrorists ie to stop them before they go through the tunnel or over the bridge.
Then we see the true Eddie, the non-decision maker: in answer to the question posed to him at the conference as to what can be done at the municipal level to move the agenda forward, he tells us that we need to look at it and that perhaps we need to look at pushing the border perimeter back as is done in Europe. More time-delaying studying! Then the ultimate cop-out: it's within the federal agenda and jurisdiction.
I guess he should have taken that same position on the passport matter but he chose not to do so. He was active on that issue probably because there were a lot of others who were out there so that he would not be alone (And I hope Bill does not know about that Friday before Memorial Day non-event Eddie was going to run for US and Canadian mayors that had to be postponed).
Eddie had the chance to get out there and take a leadership role on the reverse customs issue, to be in the forefront
I thought he supported the "reverse customs" concept when I thought he supported a Windsor Chamber of Commerce report advocating that way back in 2002.
When he had the chance to demand that "reverse customs" be implemented in Windsor in 2005 ie around the time of the Bridge Co. offer to the City of Detroit re the Tunnel, where was his voice? At that time, the Star reported that "Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan sent a letter to Mayor Eddie Francis to emphasize there are no plans to move Canada customs officers to Detroit -- as called for in the bridge proposal." Why didn't he demand that position be changed?
Hmmmmm. I wonder if that is why the Mayor/Chair of the Windsor Tunnel Commission did not speak out. His opponent, the Bridge Co., advocated it (as they have been doing for years!)
But watch, when the Feds and Province agree to spend $30 million on the Tunnel Plaza, Eddie will demand reverse customs so that Tunnel vehicles will have an advantage over Bridge patrons. Sales at the Duty Free will sky-rocket. City revenues will zoom upward. And the Tunnel will be more attractive for financiers to offer the City a leasing deal.
How else can one explaing what is being proposed at the Tunnel entrance now--$30 million for a huge parking lot when there are other and more cheaper alternatives to move traffic through. [BLOG May 04, 2006, Paving Paradise To Put Up A Tunnel Parking Lot] I am sure it is only Step #1 of a plan that few know about.
I wonder if Eddie missed the Big Cities Mayors Caucus session at the FCM Montreal meeting in order to speak at the Big Five session or was he able to go there and then return in time to go up north. If you did not know, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' meeting was where the BCMC group set out their position on "fiscal imbalance and its impact on big cities." It was where "Canadian Municipalities [called] for halt to U.S. border passport plan."
It was very generous of our American neighbours to the north to invite the Mayor of Windsor along (I wonder if Eddie mentioned our geographic position so that Americans would have some cocktail party chatter trivia to remember us by after the conference ended). I am sure that this invitation was considered when Windsor was viewed by the Detroit Mayor as more important to Detroit than its suburbs and when Windsor taxpayers generously agreed to spend a whole bunch of taxpayer dollars (in US funds too) to allow Eddie to hob-nob with the power brokers at Super Bowl.
I wonder if the invitation would be extended now when Windsor was viewed as no more than a snow cleaner at Super Bowl time, after Eddie's attack on Kwame before the last Detroit mayoral election and when Windsor's roads to the border became the problem that is preventing the border crossing issue from being solved.
I wonder if the Windsor Star will reprint the Bill McGraw column written in the Detroit Free Press....that is good pre-election material to try and keep others from running against Eddie. Well, maybe it is a better idea that they do not.
McGraw mentioned the Eddie Francis Mantra "Either we work together or we lose together." He did not mention the new increasingly loud Michigan Politicians mantra "Fix the road to the border Eddie!"
Respecting differences between the two, McGraw forgot to mention that while Detroit has about ten times Windsor's population, Windsor receives about ten times more income from the jointly owned Tunnel than does Detroit. The Detroit Councillors learned that fact at the Joint Councils session.
Poor Bill, while immigrant population growth seems to be a good thing, he did not know that, in fact, Eddie blamed those same immigrants in his State of the City speech for being the ones responsible for us having the highest unemployment rate in Canada. I guess auto workers who are forced to retire pre-maturely are technically not "unemployed" or our rate could sky-rocket even higher.
Bill should know that Eddie was right about Super Bowl attracting "out-of-towners." Too bad that the ones we wanted, big-spending Americans out for a good time in Sin City, were not the ones we got. Eddie still has not yet released the Super Bowl numbers he has promised us for a long time so what can we say. Unfortunately, we do know that border traffic tanked the weekend of Super Bowl and traffic volumes were down substantially.
Bill very politely barely mentions border problems in his column. The Star said "The border traffic issue was only briefly discussed, with Ficano noting how it was "ridiculous" a binational study to select the next crossing location is taking so long."
Well there was in fact another issue and I hope for Eddie's sake neither newspaper picks up on it. Eddie talked about "pre-clearance."
I was worried. I had heard that someone was trying to put together a parcel of land, around 100 acres, for a pre-clearance or staging area near the spot where DRTP hits Highway 401. It was claimed that it might be a Government body that was doing so. I heard it was MTO.
Fortunately, it does not seem to be the City of Windsor since to Eddie, pre-clearance meant "reverse customs" as he talked about it on Melanie Deveau's CKLW show about his session. As he correctly said, we do it already in airports and train stations and we've had that discussion in Canada now for some time now and discussed it at the Federal level in Canada and Washington.
The obvious benefit, he said, was to stop terrorists ie to stop them before they go through the tunnel or over the bridge.
Then we see the true Eddie, the non-decision maker: in answer to the question posed to him at the conference as to what can be done at the municipal level to move the agenda forward, he tells us that we need to look at it and that perhaps we need to look at pushing the border perimeter back as is done in Europe. More time-delaying studying! Then the ultimate cop-out: it's within the federal agenda and jurisdiction.
I guess he should have taken that same position on the passport matter but he chose not to do so. He was active on that issue probably because there were a lot of others who were out there so that he would not be alone (And I hope Bill does not know about that Friday before Memorial Day non-event Eddie was going to run for US and Canadian mayors that had to be postponed).
Eddie had the chance to get out there and take a leadership role on the reverse customs issue, to be in the forefront
I thought he supported the "reverse customs" concept when I thought he supported a Windsor Chamber of Commerce report advocating that way back in 2002.
When he had the chance to demand that "reverse customs" be implemented in Windsor in 2005 ie around the time of the Bridge Co. offer to the City of Detroit re the Tunnel, where was his voice? At that time, the Star reported that "Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan sent a letter to Mayor Eddie Francis to emphasize there are no plans to move Canada customs officers to Detroit -- as called for in the bridge proposal." Why didn't he demand that position be changed?
Hmmmmm. I wonder if that is why the Mayor/Chair of the Windsor Tunnel Commission did not speak out. His opponent, the Bridge Co., advocated it (as they have been doing for years!)
But watch, when the Feds and Province agree to spend $30 million on the Tunnel Plaza, Eddie will demand reverse customs so that Tunnel vehicles will have an advantage over Bridge patrons. Sales at the Duty Free will sky-rocket. City revenues will zoom upward. And the Tunnel will be more attractive for financiers to offer the City a leasing deal.
How else can one explaing what is being proposed at the Tunnel entrance now--$30 million for a huge parking lot when there are other and more cheaper alternatives to move traffic through. [BLOG May 04, 2006, Paving Paradise To Put Up A Tunnel Parking Lot] I am sure it is only Step #1 of a plan that few know about.
Let us see what happens next year at Mackinac. Will it be the Big Four and a half again? Or not?
posted by JoeBlog at 6:38 a.m.
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