Why Gord Is After Sandra (And Dwight)

Honestly, it is so funny! First Gord writes a column in the morning and then the NDP goes after Sandra at Queen's Park in the afternoon. [See the last Question Period transcript at the end]. Oh my goodness, such concern by the Opposition all of a sudden about "food and clothing for poor children."

Seriously, though, wasn't one of the knocks against Project Ice Track that kids might be exposed to, shudder, gambling if the arena was close to the race track and slots but now there is an outcry because poor kids cannot get fed because of no gambling money.

Have you ever seen our famous Star columnist stay on a topic for so long and go after a politician so hard the way that Gord is after Sandra Pupatello these days? Not even Mike Hurst received the wrath of Gord this long and hard continuously that I can remember. I am surprised that the feminist movement has not yet condemned Gord since hardly a word has been mentioned about her male cabinet colleague, Dwight Duncan. After all, Sandra is also Minister responsible for women's issues. Perhaps though, there was a hint in his Saturday column that Dwight is next.

You know of course that the attacks have NOTHING whatsoever to do with the arena or slots money or food for poor children as I shall explain. Gord pretended it did when he wrote at the end of one of his columns recently:

• "The arenas aren't the issue. The real fight here is over the $2.4 million in slots revenue Tecumseh is trying to snatch from Windsor. And believe me, that fight is just beginning."

Come on...$75-100M at risk for an arena and the issue is $2.4M slot revenues. Puhhhllleeeze.

No it is a lot more than that. How can I prove it to you? Simple, here is what Gord wrote at the end of his column on Saturday, the spot where the real news is. Only politicos in town (and the Blogmeister) would have the stomach to read to the end of another anti-Sandra blast to find out what the real game is:

• "And then, oddly, she reached out to Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis for backup. She urged Prue to "call the mayor...

Prue's questions were never answered. But there's a whiff of desperation, and perhaps the calling in of an IOU, in a cabinet minister seeking confirmation she's doing a good job from the mayor of a city that's just been left twisting in the wind by that same government.

What Pupatello must surely know, and what Duncan should be learning if he weren't so busy making himself invisible on this issue, is that one unforgivable stunt can overshadow years of solid work.

I understand a couple of good news announcements are coming next week, and man, does Windsor ever need them.

But it's human nature that we never forget a shafting. It festers forever. Unless, of course, a way is found to either undo the misdeed or compensate Windsor handsomely for future losses."

Just a few points to mention in passing:

1. Now that Gord has roughed up Sandra, then Dwight may get spanky-ed by Gord unless he knuckles under too
2. Sandra was not asking Eddie for help or reaching out to him for heaven's sake. She is telling him that she knows who is behind the attacks on her and how that person did it and which NDP people locally helped out.
3. There is good news coming next week (who leaked THAT to Gord I wonder), and if it does not, guess who will get the blame---the Mayor for trying to bully the Province! Snubs and bullying don't work when the other person has the dollars and the power.
4. Do you really think the issue is breakfast programs for kids worth a few hundred thousand dollars. We're rolling in dough in Windsor! Why I expect that Councillor Postma will introduce a motion on Monday at Council to use some of the interest on the $50 million she claims we have for the arena to pay for that sum involved. It represents probably less than one month's interest on that fifty million to fund the whole breakfast program for the year. I bet that the Mayor will second the motion if Council allows him to do so.
5. The Provincial Liberals control the agenda...can you imagine if they (and the Feds) pull the $300M BIF money because of Eddie's inaction and then Sandra and Dwight get it back and more and infrastructure work is started due to their efforts.
6. If this attack is also designed to help Eddie get the Tunnel deal, for which he and his associates have been going out of town recently, then this is NOT a good way to make friends even with the diplomatic help of a good Liberal. That person won't be around much longer anyway.
   

Here is the key to all of this, the last line:

• "Unless, of course, a way is found to either undo the misdeed or compensate Windsor handsomely for future losses."

There are 2 elements there

1. Kill the Toldo/Rosati deal by not letting the Raceway go to Tecumseh and/or fund the East End arena ie the misdeed OR
2. Do what I want re the future

Now what is the future for Windsor--the border. In other words, do what Eddie wants on the border or this attack will never end, up to and including the next Provincial election on October 4, 2007. And it applies to Dwight too. After all, Gord did give it away right at the start of the attack:

• "The fix is in. If Dwight Duncan and Sandra Pupatello could abandon Windsor on the arena file, what faith can we have that they won't hang this city out to dry on a far more important issue -- fixing the border?"

Can you believe it but there is more to this than the border too.

Eddie's Eminence Grise has been courting the PCs in Ontario on behalf of the Mayor I suspect. And given Gord’s attack, and the NDP questions at Queen’s Park, it looks like the deal has been done. Notice that the PCs have NOT slammed Windsor (and they can only hope we forget about John Tory’s anti-Casino diatribe), just the NDP. That Eminence is clever. Let the NDP do the dirty work and take the fall later.

Think I am kidding about this? Eddie's favourite local newspaper in an editorial said "Tory has embraced sensible platforms on other fronts and scored points on issues where the Liberals are lacking." Why even Gord has said

• "Now I understand why John Tory emerged from nowhere in the polls to come within a hair's breadth of becoming mayor of Toronto and why the Dalton McGuinty Liberals have recurrent nightmares about him. The Progressive Conservative leader is a smoothie, a self- assured corporate charmer who can laugh at himself and admit mistakes while conducting damage control with a surgeon's deft touch... Tory wants Windsor to know he has nothing against the city or the casino expansion and that it's "absolutely not true" his party has written this area off in the next election.

And who could deliver that message better than Eddie the Mayor a year from now? As Tory said "But nothing lasts forever, not even the tenure of the current members (Dwight Duncan and Sandra Pupatello)."

Why is there this PC courting---Eddie desperately wants to get out of Windsor after being re-elected Mayor but before his fiascos come home to roost. He would run as the successful Mayor but before some of his Plans crash! If he won in the NDP/Liberal stronghold, he would be guaranteed a senior Cabinet Position. The Liberals won't have him, there is no future with the NDP, running federally is out so the only alternative is the PCs in Ontario if Eddie wants a political career.

Why wouldn’t he run against Dwight in the east of Windsor since that is his home base in Ward 5? Now you will learn a lesson in electoral readjustment: the Town of Tecumseh will be located within Dwight’s riding in the next election. How many votes do you think Eddie will get from Tecumseh!

So Eddie thinks he is a no-lose situation with Sandra. If she helps him out on the border, he takes the credit. If she does not help him out and lets the DRIC get what it wants, Sandra (and Dwight?) get the hit!

You read it here first. The next provincial election campaign has begun. What a Plan, what genius, what scheming. Too bad it could not have been devoted for good: the good of Windsor!

That is what Gord's attacks are all about.


Ontario Hansard--WINDSOR ECONOMY

Mr. Michael Prue (Beaches-East York): My question is for the Minister of Economic Development. Madam Minister, you have failed to stand up for Windsor, yet again, in its fight to keep its casino and the $3 million that that city uses in revenues. Windsor council takes and uses at least $200,000 of that money every year for food and clothing for poor children. They do that because your government has abysmally failed to increase welfare rates to at least the cost of living. They do that because you have reneged on your promise to end the clawback and they do that because you now refuse to be involved in the only program that actually delivers food to poor children in Windsor. If you won't stand up for Windsor and its council, what will you do to ensure that these children are actually fed?

Hon. Sandra Pupatello (Minister of Economic Development and Trade, minister responsible for women's issues): I very much appreciate this opportunity to once again say very loudly and clearly that this Ontario Liberal government has spent an inordinate amount of time working for the citizens of the city of Windsor, and we will continue to do that like no government before.

If you should choose to ask another question, I will start giving you the litany, not just of announcements, but actual construction. I welcome this member to come to my riding and count the number of cranes that are up and working in my city right now; the number of new lanes down highways because we have invested like never before in basic infrastructure in my city. No other Ontario government has come to shore up the work that is desperately needed in my city -- none -- except for this one under the leadership of Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Mr. Prue: I don't think I can give a better retort than did the Windsor Star in the article by Gord Henderson today, when he writes, "I wonder how our Liberal cabinet ministers, Dwight Duncan and Sandra Pupatello, can look themselves in the mirror after green-lighting this outrage perpetrated on their most defenceless constituents."

Minister, you were a former Minister of Community and Social Services. You must know there are 7,359 active cases in your city. You must know that a great many of those involve poor children in the thousands who don't have enough food and decent clothing. You failed to stand up for your most vulnerable citizens formerly as the Minister of Community and Social Services, and now you're failing to stand up for the Windsor economy as Minister of Economic Development.

Madam Minister, why can't you stand up for Windsor and its most vulnerable constituents: the children of your community, the kids who will lose their breakfast program because of your inaction?

Hon. Ms. Pupatello: Only the NDP would characterize that kind of action going on in my city right now as inaction. There has never been so much action between our government and the city of Windsor.

Perhaps this member opposite would like to call the mayor of the city of Windsor and ask him how he feels the provincial government has worked with the city of Windsor; about the idea that for the first time in many years the city residents have seen a property tax decrease because of our investments in that city.

Perhaps you would like to call the mayor of my city and ask what kind of support that we, the cabinet ministers and our member from Essex, have been to our city residents, for the first time in 12 years investing in children's services. The last time they had any action on funding, it was your government that cut money to those same agencies, followed by the last government once again cutting funding to those agencies. Instead, this government, for the city of Windsor alone, a $1.2-billion investment --

The Speaker (Hon. Michael A. Brown): Thank you. New question.