BYE Canadian Council Policy

I hope the Foreign Vacationing Members of Council enjoyed their trips out of the country in the exotic locations over March School Break and will agree with me that this Star story is utter rot:

• "Council Buy Canada policy hits snag
  
  Coun. Ken Lewenza Jr. on Friday requested another two weeks to allow fine tuning before asking city council to again consider adopting a Buy Canadian policy.
  
  His original motion was put on hold by council because of wide-ranging implications for the city since some city-purchased goods are not produced in Canada or come at higher costs.
  
  Also, many municipal and Transit Windsor vehicles have such a mixture of parts and labour it is difficult to decipher what qualifies for the councillor's proposed 50 per cent Canadian content rule...
  
  He is asking for more time to ensure when a buy Canada policy is next put in front of council it will be "rock solid."

The matter is being delayed I assume since Junior is hoping that people will forget that a subsidiary of the German airline, Lufthansa, was hired for the airport cargo study, not a Canadian firm. Moreover, in the Environmental Assessment document produced by Mr. Estrin, another American consultant, an environmental medicine professor at New York School of Medicine, was hired not a Canadian one, this time to discuss health matters.

As I have mentioned before, clearly somebody is out to embarrass Councillor Junior. I wonder if he has been able to grasp that concept yet. Has he been able to figure out who is doing this to him yet and why? He ought to consider the questions especially if he has Senior Level political hopes, especially federally. Nothing like knocking out a potential competitor before he even starts by making him look hypocritical!

The report before Council with respect to the airport tried to keep the name of the consultant confidential. Obviously, no one was supposed to find out that the consultant was foreign, at least not before the vote on Council on the BUY CANADIAN policy. Someone leaked that information to the Windsor Star so that it was plastered on the front page of the newspaper just as the three Council world travelers were flying off to Frankfurt at taxpayer expense. I wonder who did that.

I do not understand the problems that the Councillor has with respect to vehicles. The UAW in the US posts a list of North American, union made vehicles that I posted. I am sure that the bus manufacturer can give an answer if only it was asked. In fact, if the Councillor did make a bit of an effort, he could find out what the Canadian content rules are as set out by the Ontario Government. It might be fun also for him to compare that with the US rules. He would be shocked at what he would find.

It will be interesting when this matter comes to Council again. I noticed that the CAW has a Buy Canadian - Build Communities program out there. I will let the Councillor decide if he should even speak on this subject at all at Council given where he works.

Perhaps if he believes that he is entitled to do so, instead of speaking, perhaps he could sing a song instead: Listen to the 'Buy Canadian Song' by Kevin Wrycraft

Sing along with Junior!