Fighting Like Cats And Dogs

I rarely watch Council "live" anymore. To be honest, I can't stomach it. It just makes me so angry. The games-playing, the posturing, the lack of discussion about key issues in the City, and the lack of respect and civility. You can almost feel the tension in that Council Chamber every Monday now, even watching it at home.

What I do is tape it and playback any interesting parts. This also allows me to play a specific portion of the tape several times if there is something that I need to Blog about.

So imagine my surprise last night when I played the tape and saw the bickering between the Mayor and Councillor Halberstadt. It got quite bitter actually when the Mayor interrupted the Councillor's speech with another one of his "clarifications." He especially likes to "clarify" when he might be blamed for something. I guess the Mayor just cannot hold himself back but must butt in right away. Of course that also breaks the train of thought of the speaker and also doesn't allow the listener to hear the complete message in one complete statement. Is that a debating trick learned too?

I must admit that in going through the tape quickly I could not find a reason for the animosity between the two last night. I thought maybe it had to do something with the proposed Pet Shop issue. Then I read Councillor Halberstadt's BLOG this morning. No wonder there were fireworks.

Councillor Halberstadt revealed that the Mayor and all of his Council colleagues are prepared to spend $900,000 as part of the Capital Budget for a branding exercise. You read it correctly. At a time when we are pennypinching every dollar, we're going to rebrand the City. According to the Councillor

• "$900,000 off the 2008 capital budgetcould lower our tax rate, now at around three percent, by one-quarter of a percentage point."

I am not sure if this is meant to be a sick joke or not but it is certainly not something that I'm laughing about. Is this another of the issues that the Mayor wants to throw out like cutting the school crossing guards to see if anyone is listening? I know that he has not yet been able I believe to get his $250,000 to hire a bunch of PR flacks but is this another way to do it?

Now I personally am tired of being criticized for what I say about Windsor. Councillor Halberstadt added a new negative term in his BLOG "Windsor basher." I certainly do not want to be categorized in this fashion so I am going to do something positive to help out the Mayor. I'm going to suggest a slogan for the City, will prepare a speech for him to publicize it and do it all at no cost to taxpayers. In fact, I will even suggest bringing in a private enterprise partner to help out and an event whwere the public can be involved. Now if that is not being positive, then I don't know what is. Here goes:

• "I want the spirit that we showed during the Super Bowl … to live on.
  
  It was about us discovering ourselves.
  
  Believing in ourselves.
  
  And proudly showing off our city.
  
  Attitude matters. The way people talk and act is contagious. People’s attitudes impact the way cities thrive and grow, or wither and stagnate.
  
  You can feel a new attitude walking the streets of Windsor today. You can feel it.
  
  We felt it during SuperBowl week.
  
  That attitude is making a tangible difference to the quality of life in our city.
  
  The time has come, to embrace this new attitude. To show it. To live it.
  
  To love it.
  
  That’s why tonight, I’m sharing a new idea that captures our new attitude.
  
  We’ve been calling it … “Love this place”.
  
  “Love this place” is about Windsor’s new attitude. It is about the better future we’re building together. It is about the positive, roll-up-your sleeves approach that is seeing things get done in this city.
  
  And it is about all the reasons why we love Windsor.
  
  Like our symphony.
  
  Our downtown.
  
  Our parks.
  
  And our art gallery.
  
  Our neighbourhoods.
  
  Our friends.
  
  And for those of us who are here at the Cleary tonight, I need your help.
  
  I need you to sign the “Love this Place” banner we have outside this room and write down the things that you love about Windsor.
  
  Now, “Love this Place” and the new attitude we’ve got in this city, deserves to be celebrated.
  
  As does our City.
  
  A century ago, Windsor’s birthday was an important event that brought the whole town – as it was – together.
  
  Yet over the years, the celebration of our birthday was forgotten.
  
  It’s time to bring it back.
  
  And tonight, I want to invite everybody to come together – as we did during the SuperBowl. This time, we’re celebrating our birthday – just like it was years ago.
  
  We will be holding a birthday party for the City of Windsor on May 24th weekend.
  
  I want everyone to come down to the riverfront, and have a good time. Meet new people. And enjoy what our city has to offer.
  
  There is one other exciting new way we can celebrate Windsor.
  
  For years, Roots clothing has symbolized what’s great about being Canadian.
  
  The spirit of outdoor adventure. The beauty of our land. And the effort and perseverance that it takes … to be an Olympic champion.
  
  And now … Windsor has its own line of clothing designed by Roots.
  
  It is cool … modern … and proud – and so is Windsor.
  
  We will be the first city associated with the Roots brand.
  
  Those of us at the Cleary tonight will be able to see the new Roots wear in the Canadian Club room during the reception after this speech.
  
  Let us know what you think before it goes to Council for final approval."

Oh you caught me, dear reader. You are a lot smarter than I give you credit for. I should know never to underestimate my readers. I did not plagiarize this language. I took it and copied it right from the Mayor's 2006 State of the City speech.

You see we already spent a ton of money on branding in Windsor for the "Love This Place" slogan. Whatever happened to it? Didn't anyone love us? Did we put the slogan into the trash bin? Does anyone remember actually seeing a branding campaign based on that slogan?

What I find interesting is that the Mayor gave us this positive message in 2006 and he still giving it to us. Don't you find it strange that nothing has happened to make things better? In fact all we get is slamming of those who aren't looking at the world through Rose City-coloured glasses.

So there you have it... being positive... doing all of this work for the City for free to save capital dollars on sloganeers who create logos that do nothing for us.

Okay, if the City wants a new slogan and logo I'll give you one. It's one that my son created a long time ago as an idea for the Downtown business group:

Windsor is Electri-City