Eddie's Marra Motion Manoeuvre

For his sake, I hope that Eddie never plays poker. You can tell when he has something good going. There is that certain look that he gets that says that he is outhinking you. He justs sits there seemingly unconcerned but you know he is waiting to catch his victim with a good poker hand.

Poor Councillor Marra. He got caught by Eddie on the Tunnel motion. He got outmanoeuvred by Eddie's amendment so that his Motion is now totally meaningless. You have to remember though that Eddie had a long time to think about his wording change while Bill had to react immediately so it is understandable.

Not only that, the Three Blind Mice and any one else who wanted to join their ranks are finished!

Dealing with the Marra Motion first, the key part originally said:

• "DRIC must have a tunnelled solution as the design of the highway through the selected corridor."

Now I don't know about you but to me that seems to be very simple and straight-forward. No solution unless tunnelled anywhere in Windsor. Not to the Mayor it wasn't. He suggested an amendment and then Councillor Lewenza suggested a slight variation so it now reads I think:

• "DRIC must have a tunnelled solution as the design of the highway through the corridor as determined by the final DRIC process."

Now I don't think it is that big a change to be honest, and that is the beauty of the Mayor's amendment, but what it does is restrict the concept of tunnelling to one road only: "the corridor as determined by the final DRIC process." No longer any corridor, which was wide-open, but now just one.

See how clever this is... If it had passed in the original broader wording, it might have caught Eddie's preferred road, whatever that is, since that road would have been the "selected corridor by Eddie." Now it only covers a specific corridor. With the new wording, as an example, there would NOT be the need for a tunnel on Lauzon/E C Row since it would be Eddie's road and not DRIC's!

So everyone is seemingly thrilled we have a tunnel but it is really irrelevant to what Eddie wants. What a legal technocrat our Mayor is!

Of course there was no debate by members of the public at Council because of the game played by not posting the Order of Busines in a timely fashion. The fact that not one member of Council raised this issue leads me into my second point:

THE THREE BLIND MICE ARE DEAD!

Eddie asked for and received endorsement in "public" by Council unanimously in a Motion that he was the negotiator for the City. That really means that no one on Council better talk to a proponent, DRIC or THE AMBASSADOR BRIDGE or they may violate what Council voted on, including what they voted on too. Only Eddie can wheel and deal.

Can you really believe that the people that we elected can act in this fashion!

Anyway, the Mayor is too smart for his own good. He stated that the reason for the first amendment is so ensure that no proponent could "shop the Motion around" saying it supports their position.

The only problem for Eddie is that it allows DRIC, the Senior Levels and the Ambassador Bridge to take that exact action.

We all know that "the corridor as determined by the final DRIC process" is similar to the City's WALTS road and is similar to what Gridlock Sam said as well. This now allows the Bridge Co. to say that the City is not opposed to a road to the bridge which is built using the City's WALTS route. Since the road to the Ambassador Bridge is NOT exactly the DRIC road, then it need not be tunnelled.

Heck, if DRIC were smart, they would suggest to the Senior Levels to build the road to the Ambassador Bridge now using BIF money---that makes the road a BIF road not a DRIC Road--and then if ever necessary, complete the DRIC road by adding a spur to a new crossing.

What a nice Easter Egg to receive from the Mayor!