Bees, Honey, Vinegar & The Wish List

I have a very direct negotiating style. I don't like playing games, especially poker. I like to resolve problems quickly and easily and hopefully to the advantage of both sides. I learned that approach from the Senior Partner of the law firm that I first worked for.

I do not understand why we have all of this drama in Windsor with respect to the border file. I do not understand why everybody has to hold their cards so closely to their vest. I do not understand the reason for all of this bluffing especially when one does not have a good bargaining position.

A good playwright could write a play about all the twists and turns that have taken place so far that would have filled the Capitol Theatre for years. It could be written as a comedy, a tragedy or a mystery or a combination of all of them.

Why can't the Mayor simply say to be Senior Levels that Windsor is prepared to be the "host community" for the DRIC road and the Ambassador Bridge project provided that the City gets certain benefits.

There would not be the need for much negotiations especially since the value of the DRIC project would have been reduced significantly to something that would take into account the reality of the emissions issue. The difference between the price of the DRIC road and/or Greenlink and the final "cheap" road project would more than pay for the Wish List of items. It is like a Community Benefits program that could have been achieved.

Had I been the Mayor, I would have created my Wish List of items and I would have presented it to the Premier when he was in town recently and to the Minister of Finance as we were travelling in the Minister's car to Toronto Airport. Moreover, when I had the personal, 10 minute phone call with the Prime Minister, I would have asked him to stay on the line for an extra five minutes and told him about my Wish List and then faxed it to him.

I posted above what seems to be Eddie's list of items that he wants with the number of jobs created in the last column. I could have worked with that list too. The list comes from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Report which listed all of the shovel ready projects that municipalities across the country desired to have financed. We taxpayers are going to be very busy paying for all this for generations.

Just add the number of jobs that the DRIC Road and Enhancement Project would add to the Wish List and consider the prosperity that they would bring to the region at this time when we are in serious trouble. The stupidity of the City's approach is too mind-boggling to grasp.

But it's OK...I hear that the Mayor has been talking to people recently about the canal vision. We are saved!

Unfortunately, the way that the Mayor and City Council are pursuing this matter seems to me that all we are feeding to those with money at the Senior Levels is vinegar, not honey. No wonder we can't catch a few extra bucks or two down this way.

Perhaps now Council Valentinis will understand why no one is listening to Windsor and what can be done to change it. He knows as well as anyone else what is needed but refuses to act. He was one of the ring-leaders that stood up to ex-Mayor Hurst in 2003 but he won't do anything similar now.

Windsor desperately needs a new Voice of Council. It is a shame that there is no one with nerve on Council who is prepared to stand up publicly for Citizens. Want a good example: we will have unanimous approval at Council to waste $60,000 for the useless, new Greenlink ad blitz designed to save Eddie's failing political career.