Is Vander Doelen Henderson

Thanks to the Motion by the Mayor to try and scare CUPE, he may have hurt Council's position on the CUPE strike fatally.

There is a huge need now on his part to go on the offensive to try and recover from that strategic error. I understand it has opened up the floodgatges on a number of issues that were not considered before that are now viewed advantageously for CUPE. Or if thought about, the opinons delivered have to be seriously reconsidered.

Damage control time for the E-Machine. The big guns have to be brought out, again, to quell the possible rebellion. Too bad the Governor's hubby is not available to come in to solve the dysfunction problem for another fee.

I never believed that Gord really went away, that he "retired" and only was going to write one column on Saturdays. I always believed that a major effort was undertaken by the Star to make it appear that way.

A certain word in the Thursday Vander Doelen column in the Star, a day when the Henderson column normally appeared, gave it all away to me and to observant readers of this BLOG. I had used the word a number of times in my BLOGs deliberately as a signal!

Remember the Beatles songs that supposedly gave a subliminal message when played backwards. Try this experiment at home if you dare. Into your tape machine or PC, record the name "Chris Vander Doelen." Say it slowly and distinctly five times. When you play it backwards at a certain speed which is based on your dictation, tell me if it does not sound like:

• "I am Henderson!"

For those of you who are not audio geniuses, the column itself gives it away so you do not have to go to all of that trouble. It merely repeats what Eddie said in his CKLW interview on Tuesday. You know the one, where every week, the announcers throw the soft lobs for the Mayor to hit a grand slam every time.

Eddie is at risk at losing control of Council over the CUPE matter. When something like that happened in the past, Gord rode to his rescue. Now it is Vander Doelen:

• "It keeps putting us back," Mayor Eddie Francis says of the extra hands in the kitchen. The meddlers are "a serious impediment" to reaching a deal, he says.
  
  Some of the bad advice is coming from a few members of council.
  
  At the council table, all 10 have voted unanimously to put a cap on the unfunded liabilities of post-retirement benefits.
  
  But outside council chambers, a few councillors keep saying they think a settlement can be reached with a compromise -- which isn't what they voted for in-camera. The mixed messages sent by these councillors is what repeatedly raises CUPE's false hopes, Francis says...
  
  And finally, some of CUPE's bad advice comes from outside parties such as the CAW, which has no business inserting itself into a dispute involving another union and a sector of the economy in which it has no jurisdiction.
  
  Francis was furious last week when he returned from a business trip to Greece to discover some Windsor CAW leaders had had the effrontery to call a meeting of city council in the mayor's absence...
  
  Yet four councillors accepted the CAW's invitation. The other six declined, since council unanimously passed a resolution decreeing that none of them was authorized to discuss the negotiations outside of chambers."

Hmmm, how history repeats itself. This reminds me of the incident where Eddie as a Councillor met with several other of his colleagues after the famous supposed Council flip-flop respecting DRTP when Mike Hurst was Mayor. That raised a concern but Eddie justified his role at the time. Since there were only 4 Councillors at CAW, not a majority, it could not be viewed as a "Council meeting."

Imagine that, some foolish Councillors thinking their legal obligations under the Municipal Act may mean something so they won't be sued persoanlly if matters get ugly. Imagine, Councillors actually thinking on their own!

You see what I mean...the City was required to stop with everything on hold while Eddie was away on business and on holidays. Now the missing Element was found on his return and the City can come back to normal under his micromanagement.

• "the effrontery to call a meeting of city council in the mayor's absence."

Wasn't Drew Dilkens Acting Mayor? He was at Council.

Eddie is terribly afraid now that the Three Blind Mice might join with the other four Councillors and form a majority that wants to bring reason not bullying to arrive at a settlement with CUPE. All of Eddie's plans and ambitions would go down the toilet if that happened.

So a Star column was needed to slap them down and threaten them all. It is not clear if Eddie actually talked to Vander Doelen or if he took this Eddie quote from another source to scare the Councillors. Just like the internal witchhunt errr investigation and the demand for affidavits on the leak to terrorize them:

• "I don't even have the right to respond independently," Francis fumed this week. "I have to reflect what the majority says." It's the law."

Yea right, just like with giving information to the Feds long before he gave it to Council over the canal. On his own frolick without Council instructions or authorization that could have put needed City infrastructure projects at risk.

The concern for Eddie is that Halberstadt has no position now to oppose CUPE given his self-interest on PRBs. Marra likes building consensus, not creating confrontation. Councillor Dilkens, if he puts his "legal" mind to it, would quickly understand the futility of the City's legal posiiton and would immediately understand the $24M risk for paying CUPE backwages that he would be burdened with at the next election!

That would make votes on the strike 7-3 or 7-4 if Eddie voted against! Can you imagine what the Toronto media would do to our Mayor if his Council outvoted him on the strike. I can just imagine! They might never call him again on anything.

At least this time, no one is blaming Bloggers.

Oh what is the word: "fume" as in "Francis fumed this week."

No one used that word more often than Henderson in his columns. It was almost a trade mark of his writing.

"I am Henderson!" You tell me if I am right or not!