Windsor Myths

It is so tedious already. Trying to make an Eddie purse out of a sow's ear. Gord sure tries hard though, and often.

Perhaps Minister of Finance and our local MPP, Dwight Duncan, might be get lucky. What is this now, the third time that our Columnist friend has written that Eddie and Dwight have buried the hatchet over Greenlink only to have Eddie pull the rug out twice from under Dwight and make him look like a fool!

This time the story did not come for a provincial government insider at least so we can assume that it did not come from Dwight's camp.

Why should it? Dwight has crushed the attempt by the Mayor to be Numero UNO in Windsor. Dwight is still the King! That is what the column was all about. A failing Mayor trying to put the best face forward on his defeat.

I was told in no uncertain terms by my Government insiders quite some time ago that Eddie was told by a certain Provincial Government Official that the border road war was over whether he liked it or not. How else to explain the recent Government action re the road without City comment? I was also told that Eddie learned he would be allowed to save face and to share in the glory provided that he backed off.

It is a myth that:

• "it appears Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis have laid to rest their vicious little spat and are busy forging ties...
  
  The relationship between Francis and Duncan, which had been frigid...began to thaw when they worked as a team to bring the Red Bull air races to Windsor...
  
  Spanky and Hizzoner came out of it looking like heroes, and recognizing that both stood to gain by shelving the feud and working together to address the city's rapidly worsening economy."

Dwight won. Eddie lost. Simple.

Complete capitulation was signalled when CKLW reported:

• "Windsor Council will let the DRIC process move forward without a challenge for now. Mayor Eddie Francis says council feels it is the wrong time to launch a judicial review. The Mayor and council want to meet with Cabinet Ministers Sandra Pupatello and Dwight Duncan to discuss things first. Council wants the Greenway Project, DRIC is pushing the Parkway proposal."

Eddie stated:

• "Francis said council's request for mediation on the parkway was to "show the willingness" to reach a compromise.
  
  The battle to win more changes to the parkway plan will continue despite Gerretson's decision, the mayor said.
  
  "The process is still ongoing," Francis said.
  
  "Just because they rejected mediation doesn't mean we are going to give up.
  
  "We will try to reach out to the provincial government and DRIC team to see if we can arrive at a better solution. We have options available to us under the process."

Again, the explanation I heard re the jail is much different than:

• "That might help explain why the City of Windsor...why it capitulated so quickly on another hot-button issue for the province, the location of a new jail."

Other than the fact that the jail was used merely as a bargaining chip re Brighton Beach, again I was told that it would be more fruitful to look at the connection between the Provincial $3.2M sponsorship money to save Eddie's hide for Red Bull and the end of the rhetoric re the jail location.

As for Greenlink, again I have heard that there will be no major changes to the road other than a few tweaks to help Eddie save face. Even Gord writes:

• "Some relatively modest fixes, directed by cabinet, could bring the city on board and transform Duncan and Pupatello into civic champions."

Hold on there Columnist friend. What about death and destruction with the DRIC road?

How can you and Eddie sell out Windsorites that easily! Remeber the cancer, the asthma, the children. All of the reasons why Eddie has threatened the use our weapon of mass litigation destruction, David Estrin. How can Gord forget so quickly:

• "Sadly, given the damning environmental evidence we heard this week, it would be unconscionable for the city to do anything less than fight for the health and safety of its constituents, even if it means seeking a judicial review.”

What mere tweaking could solve that concern?

IT IS UNCONSCIONABLE DAMMIT. WHERE ARE YOUR PRINCIPLES GORD?

Unless we have the complete version of Greenlink, how can the disaster to the health of Windsorites and our environment be brushed away so easily?

If it happens, then is it not absolute proof that the DRIC road/Greenlink war was a fraud designed for some other purpose ie part of the anti-Bridge Company battle that the Governments are waging and that all three levels of Government are in it together. Millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted that could have paid for PRBs for years for new CUPE hires!

I can hardly wait until proposals come in showing that the cost of the road is grossly excessive and that, as an interim step, we will only get a cheap solution. We will then learn that we have been "Delrayed" for years! By then, who will care!

• "But Dwight and Sandra are not fools. They want the biggest highway infrastructure project in Ontario's history to be welcomed here with open arms, not viewed as an act of aggression by everyone except the special interests hoping to turn a buck."

Moreover, they want it as the next election campaign starts, not now. As I told you, dear reader, a long time ago with the Duncan Gong show fiasco and former Transport Minister Cansfield's revelation, nothing could start until after the next provincial election. That was the budgetted period.

Eddie did a good job stalling everything off until then didn't he with Schwartz, full tunnelling, Greenlink and its next generations.

Let's get real. Dwight beat Eddie on Greenlink. Dwight beat Eddie on the jail.

Heck, Dwight beat Eddie on Red Bull too:

• "The popular race will return to the riverfront this summer after the provincial government, led by Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, pledged $3.2 million to sponsor the event.
  
  "Without Dwight's involvement this event would not be coming back -- period," said Mayor Eddie Francis, who turned to Duncan when Red Bull made it clear it required millions in sponsor money to return."
  
  "Estimating that the event generated $100 million in economic activity, Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan added that he's already planned to meet with Red Bull officials in Toronto in the coming days to discuss that possibility. [lobbying for the city to repeat as the host of a stop on the 2010 international schedule.]"

Dwight again not Eddie calls the shots on the civic strike. He could end it tomorrow if he wanted but he does not. Just reread my previous BLOG re the CUPE strike:

• "Don't expect Ont. to end civic strike, Duncan says
  
  The Ontario legislature will not force striking municipal employees in Windsor or Toronto back to work any time soon, says MPP Dwight Duncan.
  
  "You know, we haven't even discussed that. The legislature is not scheduled to be back for awhile," he said Tuesday.
  
  Duncan, Ontario's minister of finance and revenue, said it's clear that the city doesn't support binding arbitration, which local CUPE leaders Jean Fox and Jim Wood have been urging."

Finally Gord wrote:

• "It could still fall apart. But my gut feeling, and something more, tells me a compromise settlement is in the works."

It is the "something more" that requires another Integrity Commissioner investigation. Who is leaking again? This time around, do not expect Members of Council to be asked to swear an affidavit that they did not do it! This is a good column for the Mayor.

Oh, I almost forgot, this last myth is a doozie. I first heard Eddie talk about it at the CIBPA meeting to really make him look like a winner rather than the loser he became and could not believe it. Now Gord is spreading it around too:

• "It wouldn't take much. In his state-of-the-city speech, Francis all but declared victory, pointing out that council's firm stand has produced a $1.4 billion gain for the city over the original $300-million plan to turn the E.C. Row into a truck route."

Eddie better be careful that he does not rub it in Dwight's face too much.

Remember Dwight's famous saying:

"THE MAYOR IS WRONG. THE MAYOR IS WRONG."

The $300M was for the short-term BIF road. It had nothing to do with the long-term DRIC road. They are two separate and distinct projects. To say otherwise is rewriting history. There is no connection between the 2 sums. To continue to make a link is false.

The only one who can complain is the Bridge Company. Most of the $300M was to be spent on improving the connection to their bridge. Of course, not a penny was spent to do so. One day, we might find out why.

Gee, perhaps Gord is trying to make an Eddie purse for the next election. For which level, only time will tell!

What a myth-take that would be for us.