Eddie's Political Advisor

Mayor Francis said "I don't know where our federal government is on this issue [legislation requiring Canadian travellers to carry a passport or other secure travel documents when entering the U.S] They need to take a more active role on this."

Who the heck is Mayor Francis using as his political advisor? I wonder if it was the political genius who scheduled Eddie's "binational summit involving mayors from both sides of the border" right before a US holiday. If so, no wonder Windsor has problems with the Senior Levels.

I am sure you read the story about that summit in the Star. The Star failed to talk about the holiday mix-up but said the meeting was postponed because "The session was originally planned for early June but was cancelled because of scheduling conflicts with national municipal conventions in both Canada and the U.S. around the same time."

Duh, I guess the political advisor not only failed to look at the calendar but failed to look at meetings involving mayors.

Poor Eddie must be feeling foolish this morning when he reads the Star headline: "PM seeks travel plan delay. Border ID lone hot issue during Bush meeting." I guess Eddie knows what the PM is doing now.

All Eddie had to do before opening his mouth was do an internet search and he could have read the transcript of the session involving the President and Prime Minister to see what Canada's position was. I am sure that Canadian Ambassador to the US, Michael Wilson, will not be too happy with Eddie either after all of the work that he has done.

Insulting comments like the one Eddie made and his snubs of the Senior Levels really don't help Windsor much. Perhaps his political advisor should do his /her job to prevent the Mayor from putting his foot in his mouth again.

Oh and if you want to know what the PM and President said about Eddie's major issue, the Windsor/Detroit border crossing, here it is. This should demonstrate how little influence our Mayor has:

• President Bush
  
  We talked about trade. We have a lot of trade with Canada. It's in this nation's interest to trade with Canada. It's in, I think, the Canadian interest to trade with the United States. I'll let the Prime Minister speak to that. But it's important when you have trade to have goods and services and people flow as smoothly as possible between our two countries.
  
  PM Harper
  
  The United States and Canada have a strong relationship, strong and firm relationship based on the largest commerce and social interaction in the history of any two countries of the world, and we were able to discuss a wide range of bilateral and international matters where we, more often than not, share common values and common objectives.

You'd have to ask, who is doing more for Canada and the people of Windsor in raising crucial matters with the US. It should be obvious that this Mayor has no say whatsover!