THE MAYOR IS WRONG. THE MAYOR IS WRONG.

Get out of the way. It is going to get very ugly politically in the Windsor area. The attack and the defense the other night on the A-Channel news was so bitter. The Melanie Deveau interview. Now it hits the Star's pages. My only fear is that Windsor loses.

Councillor Valentinis should know exactly what I mean by now.

Perhaps now that Gord has written about it, Fulvio will understand what I have been saying for so long and will understand why I have been begging him to take a leadership stance:

• "First Stephen Harper. Now Dwight Duncan. I must have missed the memo about this being declared "Whack A Downtrodden Border City Week" in Ottawa and Toronto, because it seems hardly a day goes by without a senior politician putting the boots to Windsor.

When political historians look back, the moment in time when A-Channel News ran the story on their six and 11 p.m. news broadcasts is the moment when the political career of Eddie Francis as Mayor of the City of Windsor ended. Of course, he has three more years to remain as Mayor but he became truly lame duck after the Minister of Finances, Windsor's own Dwight Duncan, uttered these eight words on television:

"THE MAYOR IS WRONG. THE MAYOR IS WRONG."

I was shocked by the outburst and its directness. I am sure many others were as well. This is not the norm in Windsor politics. When have you heard one politician locally say something that strong about another except in the heat of an election campaign or some other nasty battle? But at Queen's Park and during Question Period in Ottawa, this kind of remark is standard form. It's just that our Mayor hasn't played in the big leagues before. He may not be used to people saying things negatively about him after years of being handled with kid gloves by his colleagues and our Media.

Do you think that polling was done before the outburst? There was no need to do so. Think I am tough on the Mayor. The Mayor and Councillors should go and see what Star Forum readers have to say about the Dwight/Eddie war. I am very tame by comparison. Go to the Forum page http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/features/soundoff/story.html?id=6fa8a870-0a24-4095-a16f-318cbe059322&k=95423

Eddie has lost support of the people in such a short time. They obviously voted for him to give him the benefit of the doubt, to allow him a chance to complete what he said he started. Instead he has lost their trust. He is doing nothing but hurting the region now and people have clearly had enough. They have seen though him to what he really is.

I thought Gord's column was interesting since there was no strong endorsement of Eddie personally. There was one cheap shot though at Dwight:

• "Was it mere coincidence that Duncan launched his tirade on the same day as he was getting a corporate earful in budget consultations? Was it coincidence that he went on the offensive knowing his nemesis, Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis, was away in Germany and would be hobbled in responding?"

Gord should have said was it mere coincidence that Eddie ran to Germany (heck, why overseas in these tough economic times except to grandstand) when Dwight came to town? Why wasn't Eddie there fighting for Windsor rather than buying a pair of Lederhosen!

Are the gloves off now between our Provincial and Municipal leaders? It sure seems likely. Whatever the political deal was before the Provincial and Municipal elections amongst Eddie, Sandra and Dwight, that interview signified that it was over.

There is more though. This last week or so has been a fascinating view of how quickly things can change in this City. The viewpoint of lonely Bloggers seems to have been picked up by Windsorites in general and now by senior politicians. All of us have had enough of stalling and inaction as Windsor falls deeper and deeper into economic despair. And the finger of blame is being pointed directly at the Mayor of Windsor, Eddie Francis. Nothing that he will do will be able to redirect that finger to his Councillor colleagues. Not when the Minister of Finance says that

• "THE MAYOR IS WRONG. THE MAYOR IS WRONG."

The prize for the funniest Letter to the Editor of the year I am sure will have to go to the letter writer who said

• "...I campaigned with Eddie Francis in his first campaign...Eddie Francis is smart, savvy and relentless in his pursuit of doing the right thing. If he goes, we lose."

Interestingly, the letter writer was from Carstairs, Alberta! I wonder if he was one of the refugees who left Windsor for greener pastures during the term of this Mayor.

I am glad that Dwight has finally picked up on something that I have been saying in this BLOG for a very long time:

• "We have got to get on with it. We don't need high-priced Toronto lawyers threatening each other down in this way.
  
  The time for dilly- dallying, the time for lawsuits and the time for that kind of nonsense is over. We've got to get on and fix the border."

I am so confused by our Mayor. He said I thought on Face-to-Face a mere few weeks ago that his relationship with the Senior Levels was good. Please explain to me how that can be when in his "rebuttal" to Dwight during the phone interview, Eddie said that he has “known it all along” that there are plans in place by the Senior Government that instead of doing the right thing—by that he means HIS Greenlink plan—they are going to choose to offer the cheap solution.

I must admit that, if that was me, I would be pretty upset at the Senior Levels and my relationship with them would not be very good. Why didn't he just tell the truth? Why didn't he try to rally us on his side? I remember asking those same questions with respect to Schwartz #1 also and never got an answer. Clearly, it is history repeating itself with Eddie and the electorate. He just does not trust us to let us in on the truth.

The Mayor seems to think that when he snaps his fingers we will do what he wants us to do just because he tells us so. That just doesn't work for me; I don't know if works for you. It has worked with him with Council but perhaps that is changing too.

Something is going on behind the scenes. I wish I knew it was. The united front of the three Canadian Government levels seems to be falling completely apart right now. Even their desire to defeat the Bridge Company no longer can keep them together. There is obviously no love lost between the Province and the Feds either.

Wouldn't this be funny... which level of Government will soon go courting the Ambassador Bridge Company? Eddie needs a friend. The Province needs someone with power to help them against the Federal Government. And the Feds, they are so confused over whether they need a new DRIC bridge or not that it is ridiculous already. They need someone to teach them the facts of life.

Congratulations finally to Minister Duncan when he said:

• "You know what we've got to get on with all of these projects

It has only taken him about five years to figure that out. Better late than never Mr. Minister.

I just want you to know that Dwight is the ultimate politician and there is no doubt that he could jump to the federal field and be successful. As you may have forgotten, Dwight's riding not only includes Windsor but the town of Tecumseh as well. As well, you may not know that the Mayor McNamara is also a very good Liberal.

Do you think that Dwight is giving Mayor McNamara a bit of a payback over Manning Road given that Project Ice Track died? One Liberal helping another? Yet, the Minister of Finance cannot afford to make the City angry at him. So what does Dwight do: he gives everybody something!

• "Manning Road is completely appropriate and I would urge the City to get on with the Lauzon Parkway extension. If they want the airport to be viable and competitive they need that."

What a politician!