The Mayor** Holds The Key For Harper On The Windsor Border Issue

**No, not that Mayor silly, the REAL Mayor, the one from Detroit.

Kwame Kilpatrick, the Mayor of Detroit, and Stephen Harper, Canada's Prime Minister, may be talking a lot to each other over the next few months. The subject: how to fix the Windsor border. They both have an interest in seeing that road to the border is fixed now and not be delayed by some so-called threatened litigation by Windsor's Mayor. [I am sure that our legal technocrat knows about Provincial uploading powers and Federal constitutional paramountcy, specifically what Bill C-3 says]

Big changes may be coming to Windsor federally and that is why Stephen will listen to Kwame-he's the real powerbroker on the border. It should now be obvious that the NDP in Windsor are in big trouble. Yes that is right, Brian Masse and Joe Comartin may be the last of the NDP members to hold office in Windsor for generations to come.

Clearly the Conservative election machine is gearing up and the 2 Windsor seats in South West Ontario are being targetted. Obviously, a ton of money will be poured into this area now by the Harper Conservatives to win the 2 seats on their way to a national majority Government. Transport Minister Cannon will not only focus his attention in Quebec to win seats, and in BC, but will now direct his troops to deal with the border after the Municipal election is over. No point becoming an election issue.

OK, Ok, you are laughing yourself silly thinking I may have eaten US spinach and something is wrong with my brain. Oh ye of little faith. In a major speech, Prime Minister Harper mentioned Windsor and, more particularly, the Ambassador Bridge. On September 20, in a speech to the prestigious Economic Club of New York, the PM said:

• "But our partnership on all of these issues depends vitally on our maintaining a secure and efficient border...
  
  We are operating the largest commercial relationship in the history of the planet.
  
  Think of how closely linked our economies are - the Detroit-Windsor corridor, for example, the heart of our integrated auto industry and the busiest border in the world -10,000 trucks a day crossing the Ambassador Bridge."

I read that and it took my breath away. Imagine, Stephen Harper knows where Windsor is and has heard about the Ambassador Bridge too! There was no reason for him to put in that reference, yet he did just like Governor Granholm did in her Labour Day speech.

Does this mean that something will actually get done soon? No, not really if Canadians have to make a decision. We cannot figure out on our side what to do yet, where the border route should go and who should own the new crossing.

We need someone to threaten us, to push us, to tell us what to do. Like a big brother does with his small brother.

There is only one person who can solve this problem for us. The only man with the wisdom to know what the correct answer is. The King (or perhaps in this case, the Queen) maker in Michigan, the next US Senator from Michgian, the most powerful person in the State of Michigan right now and in the foreseeable future, the ultimate powerbroker, the political genius because he won: Kwame Kilpatrick, the Mayor of Detroit.

I know that some people have written off the City of Detroit and think that power really resides in Lansing. Some may even have written off Kwame as a significant political force as our Mayor may have thought incorrectly. How foolish. They do not understand the US mayoral system. There are still a lot of voters in Detroit and politicians do not live in a vacuum. They understand power and as one Detroit councillor stated, as I have related before, more people voted for the Governor from Detroit than in all of the combined Downriver communities.

Kwame will determine who the next Governor of Michigan is either by working actively for the Governor or sitting on his hands so that the Republican Devos wins. Now remember that the Governor is term-limited too. This is her last term. Kwame does not have such a restriction. He can run again and again and again. What it means also is that the Democratic Party still has to listen to him as does the Governor, even though she is lame-duck. He has a tremendous influence on the next Democratic choice for Governor.

Just so you, dear reader, understand where he comes from, you need to know a bit about his Mother, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick. Most of what follows comes from The Congressional Black Caucus website (she is on its Board too):

• she is in her fifth term as a Congresswoman running for her sixth with no real challenge
• she is the only Michigan Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which authorizes spending for all levels of the federal government
• as a member of the Transportation Subcommittee and the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee Congresswoman Kilpatrick plays an integral role in determining the funding of important programs such as highway projects and transportation programs throughout the United States
• She has been selected to serve as the first chairwomen of the Congressional Black Caucus' Political Action Committee, a national platform.
• The Capitol Hill newspaper "Roll Call" named Kilpatrick to its list of future Capitol Hill leaders.
• She is a former City Councilwoman and a long-standing State Rep so she knows her constituents and the border issue.

That is a nice political heritage. It will help Detroit that the City has such a powerful person as its advocate in Washington.

Kwame is no slouch either. After all he won the last Detroit Mayoral election after just about everyone, including DRTP's Marge Byington, wrote him off. He was won a seat in the State House in 1996, became Michigan’s youngest-ever and first African-American House Democratic Leader and in 2001 was elected Mayor of the City of Detroit. In winning, Kwame drew into his camp a whole new generation of voters who will support him and will be his new power base.

He knows how to play power politics too. As an example, the Governor's nominee for Attorney General was not selected but his was! The secretary of state was endorsed by the Labor Caucus and by Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick who the News described as "a major player at the [Democratic] convention." Right after Kwame was re-elected, former Detroit Mayor "Dennis Archer has stepped down as head of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's re-election campaign to make it easier for her to work with Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick." He received a great deal of the credit for solving the recent Teachers' strike.

Kwame was praised for his actions at the Rosa Parks funeral, an event that may have helped him win the election. "Kilpatrick's classy hosting of such names as former President Bill CLINTON, the Rev. Jesse JACKSON, the Rev. Al SHARPTON and Louis FARRAKAN not only made the incumbent look mayoral, but it dominated news stations." He was viewed "At the end of the election, [as] largely positive, talking about an optimism for the city and it resonated. He did a better job focusing on this...He got his political machine to run when he needed it to run."

A truly important fact to consider though is who helped him this time around get re-elected. As the Detroit News pointed out:

• "The Rev. Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, author Michael Eric Dyson and the Nation of Islam's Minister Louis Farrakhan ...came to Detroit to campaign for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's re-election, and they all say that with his surprise victory, Kilpatrick could become the next big thing on the national African-American political scene."
• Jackson went door-to-door with Kilpatrick and did 20 radio spots for him before the election.
• National Urban League President Marc Morial made a couple of appearances with the mayor
• Most surprisingly, Farrakhan held a rally in Detroit for the mayor, and the minister's son, Mustafa, campaigned for Kilpatrick. Farrakhan rarely gets involved in political campaigns, but came from Chicago to rally votes for Kilpatrick.

I tell you all of this since it is clear to me at least that the big winner on the US side after Kwame's February letter to the Governor, the Michigan Republican Legislator's budget amendments with the Governor not daring to veto them and her Labour Day speech is the Ambassador Bridge Co. And my suspicion is that it has finally sunk in with the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan that Eddie's recent threats to litigate to stall off the DRIC road to the border could impact negatively the economies of Detroit and Michigan for many years! They cannot and will not tolerate that.

The Windsor Star must believe that the Bridge Co. and Kwame have started up their Tunnel talks. Why else the series of articles culminating in Kwame's Tunnel Vision. Kwame is a lot smarter than they are. Kwame is not going to wait, if true, for Eddie to run the Tunnel into the ground any more than he has already thereby diluting its value to Detroit. He may as well partner, if true, with the most successful border operator in North America, not some Windsor wannabe! Do you think he is going to deal with the Windsor Mayor who almost cost him his job on something big like this? He won't be pushed around by some Canadian politicians and bureaucrats as they tried last time either.

The Governor's Labour Day speech was the answer to the Letter that Kwame had sent 6 months before. She had to make amends and publicly. In it, if you will recall, Kwame said "Together, we need to call upon Windsor and Ontario to do what Detroit and Michigan have long ago accomplished: fix the roads to the current border." That was a wake-up call and the Michigan Legislators picked up on that in Lansing as well. (Remember also the foolish Joint Councils meeting where Eddie admitted he was sitting on $300M of border road money. That did not play well in the US)

Kwame will force Michigan to demand action on the border directly and indirectly through Washington, the family connection being the obvious one as well as his Democratic friends (Kwame is one of the "100 To Watch" of the Democratic Leadership Council, a national network of elected officials and community leaders.). If you think that Stephen Harper's reference to Windsor and the Ambassador Bridge was not important and deliberate, then you are mistaken. Something significant has happened and it was NOT by chance.

It is a signal just like the Governor's speech. It has to mean that things are happening that we do not about, as usual. It may well be that Transport Canada has taken Matthew Moroun's comment in the Bill C-3 hearings to heart and are saying to the Bridge Co. too that they are prepared to talk:

• "We are asking this committee, and especially Transport Canada, to please put down your sword, set this legislation aside, and instead engage in meaningful dialogue, not just at a very formal hearing to discuss the legalese of this legislation, but rather to discuss and brainstorm and cooperate with one another toward an even more successful Ambassador Bridge for the advantage of the operation, the government, and the public."

It may mean that someone has finally recognized that litigating won't work and that the Bridge Co. has a vested interest in a business that it built up that has to be dealt with. When one analyzes the differences between Canada and the Bridge Co. on Bill c-3, they really are not that far apart.

Why is there the need to fight with a party that has taken on the Canadian (and US) Government before on the ownership issue and won in a dozen year litigation war. [I guess "ownership" mean more to prideful bureaucrats, some of whom are still angry that they lost out on FIRA, than actually running the most efficient border crossing in North America. Doesn't it scare you if they want to use Eddie and his Tunnel as their operational model!]

It does nothing for the border or Windsor to be involved in the litigation process so people are chased away from investing here. I am afraid that if some bureaucrat thinks that the Government can force the Bridge Co. to the table using Bill C-3 or environmental laws or zoning or whatever, then he/she has been living in La-la land too long. He/she needs to understand the real world of business and what can be done if someone threatens the financial viability of a Company. And when it involves a bridge linking two countries, then it is a litigation lawyer's retirement plan dream file.

I trust that the Feds can learn from Eddie’s experience and mistakes. We had the chance to partner with the Bridge Co. on the border and on economic development and we blew it. Now we are irrelevant to them. Kwame chose to work with them and Detroit will share in the gains with jobs and new developments.

It does not matter what we want if the Detroit Mayor is opposed. The new crossing has two sides to it. And one of them happens to land in Kwame's backyard. Kwame will choose where that backyard is located. Kwame has said he wants the new bridge in Detroit but not in a location that will cause more pain. At least he has a postion unlike our Mayor who has lost his Schwartz guru and who now can only sloganeer. The roads to the Interstate system in Detroit are being fixed. Our connection has not yet even been started, never mind even picked during Eddie's term in office.

The Bridge Co. offers a solution that Kwame wants and will get. Kwame will explain the benefits to Stephen and help him make the right decision. Now that is the ultimate YIMBY!