Eddie's Finger

Please, will someone send our Mayor a copy of Dale Carnegie's book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" or at least give him the section on "Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment."

Can you believe his arrogance? First he snubs the Senior Levels on our side, not once but twice on the border issue (and then his Councillor colleague asks why no one listens to Windsor). Then he tells the Mayor of Detroit that he knows better than Kwame what is good for that City on the border, right before the Detroit Mayoral election and then tries to circumvent him by setting up the Joint Councils meeting. Now his target is the Michigan House and Senate. (He needs the Governor's hubby to help his dysfunctional Council so she is safe, so far!) Can President Bush be far behind?

Did you read his comment in the Star yesterday about Michigan pulling the DRIC funding:

• "Given the vital economic importance of the Windsor-Detroit border corridor, which handles 25 per cent of trade between the two nations, state politicians in Michigan should not be toying with the need for more border infrastructure, said Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis.
  
  "Michigan is a 25-per-cent partner (in DRIC) and they need to put progress ahead of politics," Francis said. "It's absolutely critical."
  
  If the goal of having a new bridge open by 2013 is to be met, "you need to start acting today," he said."
  
  

That is so typical of our Mayor. Dare attack him---for sitting on $300 million BIF funding as Michigan did---and he lashes back. I am afraid that it is a sign of his immaturity a la his attack on CPOW's Alan MacKinnon at the Tecumseh meeting, not leadership. Someone needs to explain to him about the potential $3.5 billion loss to Michgian so that he will understand why the Legislators acted as they did.

Talk about "toying" and playing politics. Who tried to sell the Schwartz Report for months and then had it called a "starting point" by his trusted Colleague on Council just before Cansult Limited Report killed the concept. Who became an advocate for a tunnel for the border crossing about a year after Schwartz came out? Who has no Plan for the border that he is prepared to share with his electorate? Yup, you guessed it, the Mayor of Windsor.

Don't the Michigan Legislators understand----Eddie needs DRIC to kick around so he can be re-elected. Without DRIC, whom would he blame for his failure to do what he was elected to do. Eddie is not playing politics now...he is desperately practising it!