There's A Meeting Here Tonight

I attended the Windsor Labour Council meeting for the Mayor and Council last night to try and hear what our Council had to say about the important issues of the day.

Too bad the Mayor expressed his regrets and did not come. But he never needed labour support anyway so why would he bother coming to be embarrassed by tough questions. Anyway, Councillor Junior spoke enough for both of them . [I liked too how he sat right in the middle of the table. He knows how to be well-situated for any photo-op]

Councillors Gignac and Brister did not express their regrets we were told and did not come (Hardly a surprise since the Star reported that "Windsor District Labour Council is looking at defeating certain incumbents at city hall...It's no secret," said the labour council's political education chairman Peter Pellerito before singling out Ward 1 Coun. Dave Brister and Ward 5 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac.) Councillor Halberstadt was in another meeting but was supposed to come. I was told he came later since I left before the meeting ended.

I was surprised that Councillor Zuk was there since she is not running in the November 13 election. However, if the gossip is true that she may run for a Senior Level position, she had to be there [Someone should tell her though that supporting the sale of parkland, Superior Park in this case, as a surplus asset will make her a lot of enemies!]

It was a phony meeting just like the Joint Councils meeting in Detroit was a phony one: set up supposedly for one reason but really for another. It was not designed to educate but to pressure Councillors into accepting a Union position on issues like outsourcing, fair wages policy and retirement benefits. It seemed to me that certain people were asking planted questions and reading from a typed script.

Why was it done this way? Clearly the Labour Council has decided that the likelihood of an incumbent being defeated in this election is low. Why they even refused to allow candidates for office to ask questions of the Councillors but allowed the Councillors to make what were, in effect, campaign speeches and make campaign promises. Nothing like getting the Councillors to think that they are Union votes signed up in advance so they can be pressured later. I just hope for the Labour Council's sake that some candidates do not get elected instead of incumbents. They may not like how they were treated!

I'll tell you one thing though. The Governor's hubby deserved every penny of the thousands he was paid. Why this Council is so united that I thought they were going to break out and sing "Solidarity forever!" half way through the evening.

So ask the important questions for the next round of union negotiating publicly, get a public answeer in a union environment and then hold the Councillors to their position after the election. That was what tonight was all about.

Here are a few comments on what was said:

• Gary Parent made an impassioned plea about changing the Procedural By-law so people could express their views at Council. How odd. He knew what the real answer was but did not say it!
• Try as hard as they could, I was not convinced that Windsor "had a say" on border issues. If we did, what are they moaning and groaning and threatening lawsuits
• Councillors have become a bunch of sloganeers not problem-solvers. Saying "No to trucks on City streets," "No to trucks on E C Row," "No to the Twinned Bridge," "No to DRTP" plays well to the crowd but that does not solve the border dilemma.
• It's clear they have no solution. Councillor Zuk at least had the honesty to say she did not know the answer but for how many years was she involved in the matter....so much for the millions spent on Estrin/Schwartz. In fact Councillor Lewenza confirmed the waste of taxpayer money on Schwartz when he said that Schwartz provided alternatives and was not set in stone! Geeee. I always heard the Schwartz Report was Windsor's position.
• There must be some animosity between Councillor Postma and Minister Pupatello as to who the real Diva is in the West End. Caroline took a real shot at Sandra for not "helping" since she claimed she would be prejudicing the process.
• I got so tired of Councillors saying that they would work with community groups on various issues---Yea right. Just like the help we were asked to give during all of the open and transparent border sessions we have had over the past 3 years.
• Fulvio was uncharacteristically harsh, calling the DRIC process a fraud since their agenda was Huron Church Road and E C Row right from the start.
• He also complained about 2 years of grants that Windsor did not receive for infrastructure while Tecumseh did. For Windsor, that was like NOT getting about $100 million if one used what Tecumseh received and applied the ratios to Windsor. I wonder if that would still be the case if Windsor did not "snub!"
• Councillor Lewenza confirmed my thoughts about the consequences of the widening of Manning Road----but why hasn't the Mayor issued a threat for a lawsuit about that?
• I heard so much whinging about downloading, high taxes, the need to help out in trying times but no comment that wasting up to$100 million or more on an East Side arena makes no sense.

One final note, as I was leaving, a Windsor Star reporter came up to interview me. He may not have put me in the story notwithstanding all of my fabulous quotes, or maybe his Editors took me out. Oh well, the fickle finger of fame.