DRIC: The Reality TV Show

You come to this BLOGsite because you’re hoping that someone can explain to you what is going on with this border file. It is so confusing. Or so it appears on the surface.

It really is not all that difficult to understand; you just cannot get caught up in the day-to-day machinations or you will go mad. You have to learn to stand back and keep a long range perspective on this.

I was brought to this realization by several lines written by the Star's Don McArthur in one of his BLOGs which I saw played out on television at the last Council meeting. It is something that I am too gentlemanly to mention but of course he works for the media so what can you expect. You know what those media types are like, so rude:

• “The worst of it is that Francis doesn't know any more about the global financial crisis than you or any other person on the street. He doesn't have some red phone in his office connecting him to Wall Street or Bay Street. He reads the same stories in the same newspapers at the same time that you do. He's certainly not a financial analyst. Heck, he's hardly even a lawyer. He just plays one on TV.”

What a slap in the face.

There was our Mayor, leaving the chair at the front of the Council Chambers and going to the Delegation table to make his pitch. Such drama...you would think it was the Junction file or WUC.

Nice suit that he was wearing too. He sure dresses like a lawyer and sounded like Perry Mason taking flight as he ripped to shreds DRIC’s story about jobs starting soon. They may not come for more than a year or more so do not blame him if they are lost. It is those Fiberals all over again up to and including the Premier, I guess.

Bring down your expectations, Construction Association. Forget about working you unemployed or about to be unemployed. There is no hope restauranteurs, hotel keepers and retailers. The process still has eons to go. Even if our Mayor decides to sue it really doesn’t mean anything since the matter can be dealt with supposedly during that time period. So what if it has tp start all over again if Eddie is right. We need Eddie to be our Saviour or perhaps even our representative in the halls of power of a Senior Level as a Cabinet Minister if we elect him to go there to be our champion.

And then after our Mayor finished, our legal weapon of mass destruction and his assistant and consultant all spoke. The air quality will be horrific. So many mistakes made by DRIC, almost as if they wanted the process to fail. Why oh why didn’t DRIC listen to Eddie. He is always right.

What does this mean? It’s been two weeks already of threats of lawsuits, pictures of David Estrin to scare the enemies and Council just about ready to do something. First Eddie seems afraid to sue with Council forbidding him to do so; now Council is on side, or rather the majority is, allowing him to sue if necessary but not necessarily to sue.

First Eddie loves the Province, then it is Stephen Harper who is his friend. Then back to McGuinty. He has a deal supposedly according to Gord”s provincial government insider that we can almost taste on the border file. He then slams the Province and calls them all kinds of nasty names so the deal is off.

Did Eddie snub the Premier? Was he at Dwight's pre-Budget meeting or did he snub him again? Heck, Eddie had an airport lounge to open instead. Why, the PM called him and spoke for 10 minutes to give our Mayor reassurance that Windsor would not die. Thank heavens that Eddie sent that letter.

An explanation is needed. This makes no sense. Who can keep up? The answer was staring us all right in the face, all this time: TELEVISION.

Don’t you get it, this is really a TV show, reality TV. An extravaganza. A ratings winner. The perfect combination of politics, news, comedy and soap opera. It is not supposed to make sense. How can it?

It’s not exactly Fantasy Island but closer to Survivor. At the end of the program series, there is a winner. Over the many weeks leading up to the final show we see the various contestants choosing an enemy and then uniting together to vote that person off the show. Alliances are made and broken depending on what the specific need is at the time. People will do and say anything in order to remain in the running for the big prize. Today you are my friend; tomorrow you are my foe.

Who can be believed? There are no truths. It's all a game. None of it is real.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there were videographers following our Mayor and some of the Senior Level people around like in the Kardashian show or Dog the Bounty Hunter so that some Editor can splice the videotape together for a 13 week TV series. I can just see the T-shirt being sold: I survived the border file.

That is all that is happening. There is no rhyme or reason to it that we outsiders can understand. It all depends on what the internal fight is between Eddie and the Senior Level Governments. We are merely pawns with our emotions to be played by whomever. We are on the outside watching the game being played. It is a Made-for-TV show.

Come on now, no one watched the whole Council meeting the other night or at least not after they saw Eddie’s magnificent performance. He was on there for the first few minutes and the ratings were spectacular in the relevant demographics. Once he left, the numbers dropped. It was a rerun of Estrin's previous performance or so most people thought.

It really didn't matter though. The plan was for people to read what the Windsor Star told them happened at the Council meeting.

Now you know what this is all about. Be careful, do not get wrapped up in the minutiae or the hype. Take it for what it is... West Wing Windsor style meets So You Think YOU Can Dance Canada. Tune in for the next peformance.