The Inaugural Speech

Sorry, I must have missed it. I guess I must have been asleep. When did Windsor become a crime centre like Detroit or Toronto? I am shocked that the Mayor had to devote so much of his speech to crime.

I trust that the Mayor and Council will demand that the head of the Windsor Police Services Board be fired immediately for letting crime get out of control so badly. Wait a minute, the Mayor is the Chair of the Windsor Police Services Board. So is the Mayor saying that he as Chair has failed miserably? As he failed as Chair of the Tunnel Commission!

I looked over the Mayor's election brochure. Sure there was mention of the police but not the panic that we have just seen. Eddie's brochure talked about "Increased police presence with greater focus on community safety." There was nothing on his "Report Card" about it. He may have been "working harder for Windsor" but obviously, he did not work hard enough about crime. Did you, dear reader, hear the Mayor talk about this as an election issue? Or did it just seem to pop up out of nowhere?

What can explain this? Drugs, gangs and firearms, organized crime, cyber-stalking, cyber-bullying, marijuana grow-ops, is this something new for Windsor? We are going to see with a tremendous amount of media publicity "an unprecedented change and modernization of the Windsor police service." That is to match the honour that "Some of the prettiest police cars in the country are right here in Windsor and Essex County" that I read about some time ago.

To be frank though, if the City became so crime-infested under the Chief of Police, I am not so sure I want him telling us how to solve it. What makes anyone think he can do a better job than before? Surely Eddie's comments have to be a vote of non-confidence in him. Where is the peer review of his Department as there was with the Fire Department? The Police Department has a version of CitiStat...why did no one pick up the problems there before this time? Why wasn't it an election issue on the front page of the Star?

Do you think the real answer is that there may NOT be the problem and that there is some other reason for these scare stories? I will tell you how cynical I have become. Eddie did not even mention another family in Windsor who suffered a terrible loss due to crime, a beating, as justification for the new approach. Maybe too many others forgot the name!

The Star tells us that "The police budget will increase by $1.8 million to reorganize the force and create the major crime unit. " Isn't that sum remarkably close to what the Schwartz Report cost us, you remember the "dead" Report. We could have used the Schwartz money for the police for all the good Sam's Report did for us! So Councillor Halberstadt would not have had to worry about where the money will come from in the budget.

And speaking of the border, we see now why Councillor Halberstadt floated the conciliatory trial balloon on behalf of the Mayor. There on P17 of the 19 page speech, the Mayor finally talked about the border and let us know he is not an obstructionist. "we need the provincial and federal government to share our resolve." Even Councillor Valentinis on Face-to-Face on Cogeco talked about a meeting with Windsor, the Senior Levels AND, if you can believe it, the Ambassador Bridge Co. to solve the problems.

Oh I know Eddie threatened legal action and there was an admission that the City has "enemies" so that we need to spend $400K to fight them but Eddie was really kidding. Honest he was. He did not mean it. It was just for re-election purposes.

His first thought obviously was to link up with the Senior Levels to gang up on the big, bad Bridge Co. [When they do his bidding and help him with his Tunnel ambitions, he can do it to them again! He may assume that they will have forgotten the "snubs" when it served his purpose]. I expect that Eddie was probably going to try to co-opt the Province first since they have their own war with the Feds.

However, the Senior Councillor's suggestion means that Eddie finally learned recently and understands that there is a need for the Bridge Co. to be involved and quickly too. They have some cards to play too that Eddie might not like especially given his future ambitions. He now understands that he needs their help more than he wants to admit. After all, does he want to be the Mayor that gets the City involved in massive controversy as his legacy when he was supposed to solve the border problem?

I am going to quote the key elements of what he said about he border. Tell me what his Plan is, his Real Plan because I cannot figure it out:

• Now, there are those who will claim that I am obstructionist. That I have been preventing them from just getting it done.
  
  Let me be clear about where I stand.
  
  If pushing for a better quality of life for our residents so they don’t have to see, smell, feel, or inhale fumes from the trucks makes me obstructionist …
  
  If standing up for our residents and giving them a voice makes me difficult…
  
  If asking for a real solution that gets trucks off of city streets and out of neighbourhoods makes me a nuisance …
  
  If defending the interest of our city means asking others to pause and consider other, better, more environmentally-friendly options …
  
  Then … I am guilty as charged.
  
  There is no reason why the new border solution cannot enhance our city, improve our environment, and make Windsor an even greater city!
  
  And that is what I – and this new Council – intend for it to do!

My view----the speech was political opportunism as its cynical best. Eddie has no plan whatsoever on the border. He is merely reacting to others. It is an easy way for him to say that they "imposed" it on him even though he was standing up for Windsor. That's his "public persona."

However, the conciliatory approach, the part I marked, is a somewhat different tact for this Mayor to play. It means that he can see a disaster coming and is trying desperately to head it off. Having no plan may now be his PLAN. He will accept anything reasonable so he can claim a victory for Windsor and himself. He will play the role of the "honest broker" facilitating the settlement. I just hope that the Senior Levels and the Bridge Co. can read the signals coming from Councillors Halberstadt and Valentinis, Eddie's two closest confidants on Council, before it is too late. I also hope that they are prepared to trust the Mayor, which may be the big stumbling block.

Here is the kinder, gentler Eddie wanting to work with those nasty County people too:

• "We are not interested in competition … but cooperation.
  We are not interested in amalgamation … but collaboration."

Here is Eddie re-inventing himself. He has to be the friendly, co-operative team-player if he wants to achieve a senior position in the next PC Provincial cabinet. The election is less than a year away.

And what position is that to be? Why Attorney-General of course! Crime is a huge Toronto issue not a Windsor issue. Eddie's crime-beating accomplishments will be spread far and wide. He will be a natural for the Justice position given his extensive legal background as well. He's a lawyer don't you know. His great successes, trumpetted by the Windsor Star, will be picked up by every news service in the country.

Who will be Eddie's successor as he moves on? I bet Mayor-elect Halberstadt will take a lot of the credit for Windsor's successes too! He is being re-invented too from being the Leader of the Opposition to being a statesman leader!