The Most Powerful Politician In Windsor

Who is the most powerful politician in Windsor today? I was going to run a contest about this to see what my readers thought but I decided that there was no point in doing so since the choice is so obvious.

Many of you might have picked a Senior Level politician. You would have been wrong.

Most of you probably would have said the Mayor. Wrong.

A few of you contrarians might have said Caroline Postma since why else would she have been quoted saying she shopped in Detroit. In other words, someone set her up to let her destroy herself right away for some reason. Wrong again.

Clearly, if you were a person from Mars, and had been looking at the political scene in Windsor, you would have to say that Councillor Alan Halberstadt is the one.

He's here. He's there. He's everywhere. He is truly Windsor's Scarlet Pimpernel except that he is not elusive but accessible!

He's talking about everything, grabbing the headlines, having a Henderson column written about his ideas, he writes a Blog and a magazine column. He has had more coverage than the Mayor, more than all of the Councillors combined recently. You cannot go anywhere without seeing the Halberstadt name!

Look at what he has discussed in the last month as an example for which he has received media coverage:

• looking after skunks and supporting an "educational program, with the provision that humane trappings be allowed in emergencies."
  
• supporting SOCS and blaming the Province for our charities' ills
  
• information on the secret, in camera meetings being disclosed because of his "Sunshine Bylaw"
  
• forced some disclosure on legal fees on the border file
  
• graffiti removal, more funding for sidewalk and alley paving and a greener Windsor, with more bike lanes and support of the rails to trails project
  
• restrict overnight truck traffic along Wyandotte Street East
  
• being quite upset because the street beautification, running from Pitt to Wyandotte streets, may end up costing almost double the city's 1998 estimate
  
• Got big play in Henderson columns about secrecy and Ontario's smoking ban
  
• improving the regional delivery of services, shifting voting power on county council or some minor boundary changes
• new city council take a more conciliatory approach to the border issue and try to work with senior levels of government
  
• Schwartz is dead by saying he will move to officially trash the report so the city can develop a new strategy on the border file.
  
• open and tranpartent government in light of the Privacy Commission's ruling on the Keg garage parking deal
  
• Ontario's smoking ban is devastating some Windsor charities and businesses
  
• the city's two LIBERAL provincial cabinet ministers
  
• Windsor's sewer system as outdated and in need of improvement.

I am truly worn out writing about all that he has done. But the real question is, for what purpose?

Loyal readers should be able to guess the answer. Let's just wait a bit for it to play itself out more publicly. All I can say is I bet that Alan has not thrown away his sign list from the last municipal election.