Short Star Shorts

Help I cannot keep up.

The Star had a few interesting stories over the last few days so let me comment on them:

EDDIE AS A PROVINCIAL LIBERAL

My Liberal friends in town are abusing me verbally over my assertions that he is running for the PCs against Sandra. He is a Liberal they keep telling me.

Perhaps they are right. Why else would Eddie be meeting only with the Provincial Liberal Government over "federal" matters like the border, airports and railways. No Federal "Conservative" presence so they can be continued to be painted as the "bad guys." And why else are people telling me that Eddie and Dwight are so "friendly."

Want more proof. Eddie says in the Star frontpage story

• "Significant decisions" must be made quickly because a final decision on route and crossing locations is to be announced this summer by the binational team, he said. "

And what he did not say is that there is a fall Provincial election. What could be better than Son of Schwartz-- a gigantic vision for all of Windsor with all of the transportation modes tied in together. Instead of Gridlock Sam, expect a big name Canadian engineering firm to be used as the front.

Gord will really have something again to gush over as he did before with Schwartz that will also allow him to back-off gracefully from his tunnel support.

So for my Liberal friends: Sandra runs federally against Brian Masse and Eddie runs for the Liberals provincially. (Sorry Brian and Joyce, you are both expendable. Politics you know)

There are you happy now!

BLOGGERS DO HAVE POWER IN WINDSOR

If you want evidence of the collective power of Bloggers in this City, Thursday's Star should provide the definitive proof.

Don't you find it interesting that Marra's pulling back of his City Hall Motion on a tunnel solution was not reported by the City Hall reporter on Tuesday? A non-story perhaps in the view of the Editor?

Yet on Thursday a front-page story by the Star's border reporter and headline that "Tunnelling among Grit border plan possibilities; Marra defers council motion"

Then Gord's column with perhaps his newest outdoorsy canoeing buddy now that Alan may have been harpooned (Wait until the anti-baby seal hunting community reads this column!):

• "He's had it with the inexplicable myth that's been spreading around Windsor like a cancer since December that building a tunnel on Talbot-Huron Church Road would be a waste of money because it wouldn't reduce air pollution and might even make it worse.
  
  "There's been a communications failure and it's had an enormous impact. Somewhere along the way the interpretation (of test results) became absolutely ass-backwards," said Weis, shaking his head. "I held my tongue for a long time. I thought this would get fixed. But it's misinterpretation that has spread widely, and when it becomes that ingrained, someone needed to call in," he said, explaining why he contacted me. "It was time to put my foot down and open my big mouth."

Now, dear reader, we know who raised the issue about Marra's motion, who has attacked the "tunnel myth," who suggested that the Ambassador Bridge may know what it is talking about and was "blind-sided" and who called Council an ostrich. WINDSOR BLOGGERS!

It's time that you circulated the addresses of the different BLOGs in town to your friends and colleagues to let them in on why you know so much about what is really going on in Windsor:
My BLOG please http://windsorcityon.blogspot.com/
Chris Schnurr http://chrisschnurr.wordpress.com/
Paul Synnott http://windsormunicipal.blogspot.com/
Councillor Alan Halberstadt http://www.alanhalberstadt.com/

And this one too but don't tell anyone since her bosses may find out:
Roseann Danese http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/features/blogs/danese.html

IS THE CHRYSLER HQ IN CANDEREL CLOSING DOWN TOO?

Don't you remember the story about a year before the last election on 11-24-2005?

• "A story by Star columnist Gord Henderson published Wednesday quoted DaimlerChrysler Canada president Steven Landry saying the company has been studying the possibility of transferring its Canadian headquarters from Windsor to the greater-Toronto area.
  
  Landry said the issue will be on the back burner for at least another year and the company plans to focus all its attention on operations for 2006. But he did not rule out a move in the future."

Clearly the object then was to prevent Chrysler moving out so that Eddie would not have their HQ moved under his watch and before his election. Why else run the "rumour" story. You know, where there is smoke, there is fire!

Well hellooooo, it's the future, just over a year later. And the Star is softening us up for a big blow. "Hargrove warns DCX cuts may hit home" on Wednesday:

• "This is a major restructuring, much more so than we had anticipated, and Canada isn't going to escape the knife," Hargrove said."

On Thursday, "Fewer cars, jobs for DCX" with Ken Sr. admitting

• "The only thing I will be looking for next Wednesday is ... how much money will there be to make sure the human part of the restructuring gets taken care of?" Lewenza said. "These jobs are gone forever."
  
• Lewenza said he had already started negotiations with the company this week for early-retirement packages and hoped something similar could be found to the last offer of about $70,000 for each worker eligible for retirement.
  
  "We've been talking all day."

Of course IF the announcement is made, then Eddie will have his built-in excuse won't he so we won't treat him too badly.

However, an interesting side-effect....What happens to the the several floors of space in Canderel when they become empty if HQ moves to Toronto? Does Chrysler keep on paying the rent or is there a term in their lease that allows them to move out?

If they can go, then who would pick up the tab for the empty floors?

OH NO......do you think, not it could not possibly be, could anyone have been that dumb, could it be the taxpayers again?

And if so, when did the Mayor and Council know that and why have they never told us!

DIDN'T HENDERSON GET THE MEMO: THE TUNNEL IS DEAD

Chris Schnurr has done a good job demonstrating to us why the Mayor has totally backed off tunnelling. http://chrisschnurr.wordpress.com/ I don't have to repeat his analysis.

Clearly, Bill Marra's action was very similar to Project Ice Track moving to Tecumseh. It forced the Mayor to show his true colours and made him act before he intended to do so.

I, for one, and perhaps Councillors, for 10, would like to know what the Mayor's newest border Plan is. Will it be approved in camera again? How will he sell it to us?

I wonder if he will try to use Gridlock Sam again? Or why not keep it in Canada and use Stantec (they are doing the Sandwich Heritage job) Isn't Sam's former assistant working there now?

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THOSE LETTERS

There was an interesting exchange at Council the other week between the Mayor and Councillor Halberstadt about letters sent to the Transport Minister and to the Premier. They were to be released. Since I have not seen them yet, I wrote this email. Want to bet that they will be covered by solicitor-client privilege so the public cannot see them!

• To: Brenda Andreatta
  Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 5:04 PM
  Subject: Border letters
  
  The City recently sent letters to Transport Minister Cannon and to Premier Dalton McGuinty and other provincial government leaders requesting their support to dismiss the Ambassador Bridge's application to twin its span.
  
  I believe that the Mayor at Council said that he would make them available to Councillor Halberstadt and that they were to be placed on the public agenda.
  
  Since I have not yet seen them produced, please provide me with a copy.

WHAT DID EDDIE TELL COUNCILLORS IN CAMERA ABOUT HIS LUNCH

Obviously, Eddie must have fully briefed Councillors about what he and Minister Cansfield talked about as they so quickly "gave its approval for Francis to be the leader on border discussions with Cansfield and other provincial government authorities."

Is it true that Alan was appointed as leader on border discussions with the Ambassador Bridge and that Fulvio was appointed as leader on border discussions with DRIC if anyone would listen to him. Who is the leader with the Feds?

Now I wanted to know if the Province agreed with the Star article since a lot seemed to have been discussed but the Province was never quoted. As an "accredited journalist" by the Province, I sent this email:

• I would appreciate if you would provide me with the details of the Cansfield/Francis meeting as reported in the Star today. I noted that no one from the Ministry was quoted.
  
  I would appreciate if you would advise in particular:
  
• what are the "broader discussions" that are being dealt with
  
• Does the Federal Government have any interest in the feeder road since they would pay a good part of the cost and since Bill C-3 could make this completely a federal matter
  
• I note only the City and Province were involved. Was the Federal Government asked to attend the lunch and/or meeting. If not, why not
  
• Borders, airports and railroads are all federal responsibilities---why is the Province discussing these matters with the City alone and not in combination with the Federal Government
  
• Does the Province intend to discuss these "federal" matters with the Federal Government and if so when
  
• Does the Province know why the public session for the Tunnel Plaza Improvements was cancelled
  
• Is it true that the cost of the improvements has increased over the initial $30 million and if so, will the Province increase its contribution
  
• I intend to do a story on this matter at noon for my BLOG today and would appreciate your prompt reply

And here is the prompt response I received:

• Mr. Arditti:
  
  Thank you for your email regarding Minister Cansfield's lunch with Mayor Francis.
  
  Minister Cansfield had not had the opportunity to meet with Mayor Francis since his re-election and she wanted to meet with him as a courtesy call as part of her monthly visits to the Windsor area.
  
  This was simply an informal, friendly lunch to renew acquantainces and discuss transportation and other provincial issues.
  
  Minister Cansfield also met with the Mayors of Techumseh and Lakeshore as well as the County Warden on this trip. She will continue to meet with municipal officials, and businesses as part of her continuing visits to the Windsor-Essex area. She feels that meeting face-to-face and personally touring the area are the best way to find solutions.
  
  Feel free to contact me should you have any questions."

None of my questions were answered but that was ok. Do you think there were 2 separate lunches since the Star story and the Ministry response seem so completely different!

WHO ADVOCATED A ROAD OVER HURON CHURCH FIRST

There seems to be a controversy over who suggested this first publicly. Joe Tessier had a letter published on February 1 and then he was answered by Russell Martin who said

• "I really think your idea is wonderful. Unfortunately you're about a year late. I proposed a second level road from the end of the 401 to the bridge with reverse customs booths on each side."

However, here is a letter from SINAN KHALAF published on 05-10-2003

• "Build truck-only route above Huron Church
  
  The DRTP highway had many people opposing it, so I have decided to suggest a better use of the millions of dollars put out for this highway.
  
  People are always complaining about the trucks on Huron Church, so why not use the money to build a highway directly above Huron Church made only for trucks? The stores on that street won't lose business and residential areas won't be disturbed."