A Funny Thing Happened on the Way FROM Council

Did you watch the Council meeting on Cogeco last night? I did. Wait a minute you are saying, I thought you were at the Council session. I was...the problem was that the Council chambers were absolutely full by the time I got there, about 30 minutes before the session started, and were full most the night too. Standing room only by the way inside. Someone conveniently set up several TV sets and chairs in the hallway for people to watch so I sat there instead.

No image today. It's not the time to be amusing. Perhaps later tomorrow if I get my sense of humour back.

You didn't really think that I was going to stay up all hours of the night to write a BLOG after attending the comedy that took place at City Hall last night did you? You have to be there to feel the adrenalin pumping to know that you need to stand back a bit and get your thoughts together on something like this after watching the farce play itself out.

Am I upset about it....you better believe it. As I said in my speech to Council:

• "I don't think that I have ever been more disgusted at this Council since February, 2003 when, in secret, Council supposedly reversed their public decision and supported DRTP North.
  
  In the last minute, you update your Recommendation and totally changed what Administraion presented only 2 weeks. You will do anything to prove how tough you are."

You will guess why I want more time to reflect so I do not say anything too untoward! But so you will understand, Administration 2 weeks ago did NOT recommend signing an agreement with PCR but rather said it would spend ninety days reviewing their offer and then report back to Council. Last night at some time in the afternoon (I heard about it at 5 PM and it appeared that several of the Councillors did not hear about it all) Administration totally changed and recommended approval of the PCR deal! Wow fastest this Adminstration ever acted. (You'd think they could undertake due diligence of the new two proposals in that time too wouldn't you if they could do it for PCR that quickly. Hmmmm I wonder why it took them so long for Project Ice Track?)

Do you understand why I have little respect for this Mayor and Council except for David Cassivi who had the guts to stand up for what was right! He was the only one to oppose what seemed to have been agreed to in advance.

A couple of other comments. Did you like the Mayor's 10 minute or so campaign speech at the end? Doesn't he know that the Procedural By-law applies to him too and that he is supposed to stay on topic? Councillors Jones and Wilson can interupt delegations, Eddie's Mayoral candidate David Wonham for one, for supposedly going off topic, but I did not see them or their colleagues raising a Point of Order to quiet the Mayor down! I thought the Chair makes those types of rulings not individual Councillors. Of course, trying to throw one off of his/her speech is an old political trick but heaven forbid that our nice guy Mayor be accused of that! Oddly enough, in both cases that it happened, the Mayor allowed the delegations to continue talking, overruling the Councillors.

When I saw a Councillor in the hallway before I made my speech, I smart-alekly asked who the designated hit man or woman was whose job it was to interupt me. Unfortunately no one did. I had some good lines worked out too if someone did. I guess I must have stayed on topic since no one tried.

I remember Mayors cutting off applause by the public in the Chambers, but not last night. It was rally time for the Mayor and incumbents for the election. Those people who sat in the Chambers for about 6 hours needed to do something after all. Their arms and legs were probably getting stiff from all of that sitting and listening

Interestingly no delegation was asked a question who opposed the Recommendation. No the Councillor East End cheerleaders merely called people who were in favour and asked leading questions about how well the complex would serve everyone's interests.

And don't worry, we have money in the bank to pay for building this $50 million PLUS project. Hold Councillor Postma to her word that taxes will NOT be impacted negatively by the building of this go-it-alone complex. That is assuming her Ward will re-elect her after she and her Ward-mate failed to get the Arena built at the Western Super Anchor site.

Anyway, more to come such as how the price can be so low when the so-called Port Huron components may never be used or perhaps some unknown as yet percentage. Or why the CAO cannot tell us an approximate price for the land or why we can have proposals for land sites sales but not for building an arena or....well, you get my drift.

PS. I just read the start of Gord Henderson's column today "The fix is in. If Dwight Duncan and Sandra Pupatello could abandon Windsor on the arena file, what faith can we have that they won't hang this city out to dry on a far more important issue -- fixing the border?"

Oh now I understand why Councilor Valentinis made his allegations about Provincial Cabient Ministers. Eddie has decided to go after the Province too.

I think that Dalton McGuinty may have to fire Michael Kergin. Obviously Eddie has learned nothing from his sage advice. "Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is enlisting former Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Kergin to accelerate improvements along the gateway to the Windsor-Detroit border." Some Improvements. Eddie has just declared war on the Senior Levels.

I trust that now, Councillor Valentinis can stop asking why no one listens to Windsor! And now I know why he did not apply for a Judicial Inquiry last night.