Border Feud: Survey Said

Sheeeesh, I feel like the Master of Ceremonies of the game show "Family Feud." That is the show where two competing families have to answer questions about surveys taken from audience members.

It appears that a number of parties have been taking surveys in Windsor recently.

A public opinion poll is going around asking questions about which Government level would be trusted with respect to the well-being of Windsorites respecting the border road. I have no idea who is the sponsor of that poll but I would suspect that it is either a political party or a Government.

The media have also been in the game with respect to the border and the relationship between the City and the Ambassador Bridge Company. CKLW has run three polls recently and remarkably the results are very similar, within a few percentage points.

I'm quite surprised frankly that so many people believe that the Ambassador Bridge has been treated unfairly after the Mayor, Gord Henderson and the Star editorial have all been attacking them. It demonstrates pretty clearly to me that the Bridge Company story has been accepted by a considerable number of members of the Community since they have been reading BLOGs and listening to some of the non-newspaper media which have provided an alternative point of view with respect to the story to clarify the situation.

It ought to mean that a few Councillors should start jumping off of the sinking Ship "Lame-Duck Mayor" before it is too late! Eddie won't be around 3 years from now at re-election time and people have long memories.

There is also a poll from Today's Trucking where the industry basically says we don't care if it is a public bridge or not, just keep it operating properly. Hardly a ringing endorsement for a Public Authority running a bridge from people whose business lives depend on a smoothly operating facility.

Of course, one of the best indicators of public opinion in Windsor, other than the increased number of readers to the various BLOGs in town, is the Windsor Star Forums. I'm sure that the Mayor and Councillors read them. If not, they had better do so. They are brutal, no matter what the story, against the City Government in language that frankly I would be afraid to use on my BLOG.

What I also find it very amazing about all of this, when talking about the Bridge Company, is that they have not been allowed to present their proposal to the public at the lengths that Sam Schwartz has been able to do so. Nor have they been involved in spending thousands and thousands of dollars, taxpayer dollars, when it is the City that does so in a massive advertising campaign previously and getting ready to start a new advertising Blitzkrieg.

What Eddie has done and is proposing again to do clearly reminds me of what ex-Mayor Mike Hurst did with his blanketing the City with billboards promoting DRTP. That didn't work either.

So I will say what the Mayor said in a Star story about Greenlink, just changing the words slightly:

• overwhelming support for the Ambassador Bridge Company that the Mayor and Council can't ignore
• There is no doubt there is tremendous support from across the city as well as the county as well as from trucking business interests for the Ambassador Bridge Company
• This allows us to demonstrate to the Mayor and Council that there is overwhelming support for the Ambassador Bridge Company.
• Mostly everybody supports the Ambassador Bridge Company over the City and the Public Authority concept.
• You present that information to them and they have to consider it.
• Based on sheer numbers, I think this shatters any response they've received.
• I say that these surveys are just as scientific as the one that Eddie put forward.

Don't you think, dear reader, that we would be better served in Windsor if the feud game ended and all of the "families" started working together and cooperating.