Election Dirty Tricks

When Bill Marra ran for Mayor, he made 2 big mistakes that cost him the election.

Edgar (aka Eddie) just made a huge one that will cost him his job IF Marra decides to run. And electioneering has not even started yet.

It demonstrates how scared Edgar, and the Messenger, are of Marra because they know that Marra would beat Edgar easily whether it is a two or multi-person race. Heck he would not even have to campaign to beat Edgar:

• "Mayor's release of attendance figures called 'bad politics' by Marra
  
  “The part that most offended me was that when the information was released, there was every opportunity for the mayor and the mayor’s office to say, ‘We should tell you that in November of ‘08, Coun. Marra told us what was going on,’” Marra said Wednesday, a day after attendance was made public, while Mayor Eddie Francis was on vacation.
  
  “To sit on a beach in Mexico and lob grenades my way, and drag my family into this, is offensive. And it’s very, very bad politics.”
  
  Francis said by phone Wedesday that his office was merely responding to requests from the media and other councillors...
  
  “After the discussion that took place Monday night at council, we received a number of inquiries Tuesday morning. They wanted to know whether we could give them a sense of what the numbers may be...”
  
  Marra provided The Star an email he had sent to Francis and other councillors in November 2008, explaining that he had missed some council meetings because of his wife Rita’s health and that he would have to miss some more in the future."

Wow, when does City Hall respond this quickly!

Edgar's fingerprints are all over this one. Tell us specifically who inquired Mr. Mayor! Who were the Councillors who asked and exactly when? Did they ask your Chief of Staff? No one would dare do anything including releasing any data without Edgar's express approval.

Wasn't Edgar the one who was so upset re family during the CUPE strike:

• "Pickets target mayor's home; Move by CUPE 'crossed a line,' says Francis
  
  Mayor Eddie Francis is outraged that CUPE has "crossed a line" by sending striking workers to picket his private residence and the homes of other council members.
  
  "They can picket me all they want. They can hurl names at me. They can follow me during the entire course of the day," said the mayor with noticeable anger.
  
  "But when you take this to the family home, you've crossed a line (and) I think it's offensive to all of us."

This cheap shot was directed right at "family," Marra's family! Don't blame Edgar though, blame the media. And Councillors. Never blame Edgar.

But if the Mayor misses Council for family reasons, a vacation not health problems for a spouse, everything is ok:

• "The mayor missed council himself this week because he took a few days off to spend with his young family."

If Bill runs and Edgar loses, Edgar should remember one thing : "La famiglia sonno ogni cosa."

UPDATE:

You know that Edgar blew this one big time. Mini-Gord was assigned the task to close this down and do serious damage control BEFORE Marra gets any more sympathy and Kudos for doing three jobs well---Home, Council and Office:

• "Council truancy overblown
  
  So now Windsor voters know how many of city council's 139 regular meetings each councillor missed over the past three years -- if that's important.
  
  On Monday, fuelled by righteous indignation at the sight of seven empty council seats, some councillors harrumphed loudly about the poor attendance of those not present to defend themselves.
  
  It would have been an interesting charge had there been an important issue on the table on Monday, like, say, outsourcing garbage collection. But it was an exceptionally light week for council business, so the harrumphs were mostly grandstanding."