I Am A Malcontent etc.

Gord Henderson owes me and my colleagues a huge apology. And I want it now, and publicly.

I have had enough already of his unceasing cheerleading for failed plans put forward by a Mayor who was achieved virtually nothing on the border issue while childishly threatening lawsuits against the people who would have to fund all of this stuff and who are the ultimate decision-makers.

Instead of action and solutions, we have seen failure and stalling. If we are at 11:59 p.m., as artificial a point as I have ever seen to create drama that is better played in the Capitol Theatre, it is because of the arrogance of a Mayor who squandered all of the support and goodwill that he inherited when he was first elected and the uncritical support given to him by a Columnist in the only newspaper of significance in town who has been wearing Windsor rose colored glasses for much too long.

I admit it. I am a part of the group that Gord identified. We are a “motley collection of malcontents, myopic whiners and hired saboteurs who've been doing their damnedest to stop Windsor from securing a first-rate border infrastructure solution.” First-class, in Henderson’s terms perhaps, not anybody else’s.

I admit it. I was one of the first people who slammed Schwartz’s first report within days after it was first released at the Cleary to a standing ovation. I was right and Gord and Eddie were wrong. Just reread the Cansult report.

I admit it. I was one of those against “full tunnelling” not because I was against a tunnel but because I knew it would never work as presented. I have just been proven right again while Gord and Eddie have been proven wrong again.

• "This was reality check time. Several people told me, wistfully, how in their hearts they would still like to see end-to-end tunnelling. No matter what it might cost. But they get it. They understand it's all about securing the achievable. "

I admit it. I am one of those who is skeptical of what is being proposed now because there are a lot of questions that need answering. But not Gord and Eddie. They are as right now as they were previously.

This was no engineering analysis but another sales pitch to stall the border road for a purpose that I cannot yet figure out. We have already lost five years and now we will lose more time as DRIC will be forced to put the Schwartz material through their detailed EA analysis unless they reject it right away. Garden of Eden or Paradise Lost!

I do not want you to let anybody know about this but a secret member of our group is James Brophy, executive director of the Occupational Health Clinic in Sarnia. He was said in Friday’s Star that:

• “Throwing $1.6 billion at a road solution such as GreenLink, which promises to bury border trucks in tunnels, is not the right approach to ending the environmental and health impact of diesel emissions, says the author of a six-year-old report that detailed how Windsor suffers higher rates of mortality than the rest of the province.”

Another member of our secret society is the Editorial writer of the Star that wrote the lukewarm Editorial the other day. And so is Gord’s colleague, Chris Vander Doelan, who wrote in his BLOG

• “The Inagaddavida Expressway: It's So Windsor!
  
  So they're promising us a "garden of Eden" expressway through industrial West Windsor, en route to one of the most environmentally blighted places on earth, the poisoned environs south of Michigan's Zug Island.
  
  Only members of the political liararchy could deliver such fragrant cow manure with straight faces. And deliver it they did this week -- a whole truckload of it, just coincidentally dumped on us the night before the provincial election.
  
  I guess we were supposed to think that the re-elected government might consider giving Windsor a big present if we voted for them.
  
  Now that the election is over, what do you think the chances are that senior levels of government will pay through the nose to give Windsor its grand vision for the border? If you think there's a 50-50 chance, you're dreaming.”

I'd like to know which first-rate border infrastructure solution Henderson is talking about. That's a fair question isn't it. He's raved about so many of them that would solve all of our problems but which proved to be disasters when analyzed that I have lost track.

Let me be blunt about it. I want you to understand, dear reader, and Gord Henderson better learn, that if it were not for my colleagues and I, Windsor would have been stuck with the inferior Schwartz Report #1 solution or Schwartz Report #2 or the ridiculous full tunnel scheme of the Mayor and Council. Instead, Windsor is getting closer to a proper border road that may in fact be doable but for some absurdities that Henderson and Francis don’t want to talk about.

Changes are needed to improve what is being proposed, and they're going to happen, even though Eddie has said what is being proposed is "non-negotiable." We all know by now that Eddie does not know how to negotiate properly any significant transaction and that what Schwartz is proposing is merely another "starting point. "

We all know that the advertising blitz, including the third straight day of full page ads in the Star on Saturday, is nothing more than trying to salvage Eddie's future. He can't get a good job when he stops being mayor when he shows on his resume a huge failure on the border issue, the issue why he was elected in the first place.

Can you believe this stupid comment by the Mayor. The Parks Department cannot even afford to cut the grass that we have now properly since it doesn’t have the budget or the manpower to do so and the Mayor has the nerve to say:

• “Francis agrees costs are not an issue -- even upkeep costs for cutting the grass or replacing tunnel lights if the Schwartz plan is constructed.
  
  "Everybody is talking about maintenance costs, cutting the lawn," the mayor said. "But what will it cost me if Huron Church remains the way it is today? That's the issue. Cutting lawns, brush, whatever, that's nothing."

Of course Francis can say maintenance is not an issue. He won’t be Mayor when it comes time to pay the bills. The Schwartz Road would take about 4-5 years to build. He will be long gone and will leave it to his his successor to be stuck and to be abused by taxpayers as taxes skyrocket to handle all the maintenance costs that have to be dealt with when you’re dealing with a Central Park in Windsor. Sam should know of course, because didn't he say he was involved with the Hudson Trust. However did he tell us in his sales Pitch of the problems? Here is what I wrote before:

• "The man [SAM] is going to "deserve" us into bankruptcy for heaven's sake! Look at the "tennis courts, ice rinks, bike trails and gardens." Let's assume that the Senior levels go along with it. Who is going to be responsible for the annual maintenance costs. Not the Senior Levels. It's the Windsor taxpayers. We are going to be left holding the bag forever.
  
  The Buskers was cancelled since
  
  "Officials explained the department was stretched thin planning other things, such as the new Windsor arena."
  
  How can the Department possibly look after this new park addition. Why even with all of the summer students, grass on City lots grew to over a meter high at an "unkempt city-owned lot" in South Windsor.
  
  I found this remark about the NYC park:
  
  "But along with the increased park area comes the growing demand for maintenance requirements of all kinds: gardening, trash removal, policing, plumbing, carpentry, etc. Those responsibilities are undertaken by the Trust's Operations & Maintenance department."
  
  I wrote about this extra cost to Windsorites when I BLOGGED about DRTP's gift to taxpayers: Rails to Trails. Thanks but no thanks.”

You see the way that the City operates. Secret behind closed doors deals. Hammering anyone who dares think, speak, and, heaven forbid, criticize. Smear and innuendo.

That there has to be a deal between Francis and Pupatello and Francis and Duncan and that it was done behind closed doors seems clear to me now. Why else would DRIC under pressure from the Premier’s office talk about short tunnels before the election? Why else would Dwight Duncan take slams at WeACT so that the Province can undertake what apparently seems to be a whitewash audit since no one will tell us what the Terms of Reference are or who the auditor will be? Why else would Eddie send out a letter of support at Sandra’s nomination meeting? Which person who helped Eddie greatly on some of his Detroit extravaganzas worked for Sandra during her election campaign?

Agree with Eddie or Henderson slams you. I guess he likes the role of being Eddie’s muscle. Juvenile name-calling is the preferred approach it seems.

If you are not on Eddie’s side, blindly, then you are demonized and pulverized. We saw that with Sandra as she was attacked viciously in Henderson’s column and then on the floor at Queen’s Park. She became nothing more than an abused politician who got scared that she was going to lose her seat and so knuckled under while Dwight Duncan was treated with kid gloves. If you’re not on Eddie’s side then you are an enemy or an implacable foe. If you are not on Eddie’s side then you’re open to be smeared in a column by the Windsor Star’s main Columnist.

But you know what, I don’t care. My colleagues and I will keep on doing what we're doing. We are not intimidated or not scared. We are a danger precisely because we cannot be controlled. We have a point of view and we are not afraid to express it. We can see the obvious faults and are prepared to point them out. We are prepared to say that "The Emperor is wearing no clothes."

We are doing what we are doing because we love Windsor and what it can be. We are not going to remain silent and see this City suffer now and in the future. That is precisely why a number of Windsorites started up WeACT and suffered the smears from Ken Lewenza and Dwight Duncan. But that has not stopped We.ACT either but has actually helped it grow in strength.

Whether Eddie and Gord like it or not, and no matter what they do, we malcontents, whiners and saboteurs will offer positive suggestions for improvement. We will make criticisms. We will point out weaknesses. We’ll keep doing the kind of things we’ve been doing for the last five years to stop first one Mayor who who was doing the wrong thing for our City and we will stop another if necessary.

Today Gord calls me and my friends "A tiny, myopic minority." That makes me proud, it is a badge of honour.

Just as we were before, we are right in what we are saying. Just as we did before, this minority will make this City the best in North America in spite of the Mayor, the Councillors and their team of highly-paid, out-of-town lawyers and consultants along with their local cheer-leaders, sycophants, hangers-on and yes-men.