Naming The Unnamed Cabinet Minister

So you are a wannabe Sherlock Holmes are you. Well get your sleuthing gear on because you and I have some mysteries to solve. If we are right in what we're saying then the Press Gallery and the Opposition in Ottawa, especially our own Joe Comartin, will have some fun with the Government and who knows whether a Minister or two might fall in the process. Except if we are correct, it may be difficult to get a certain Minister to answer any questions as you shall soon see.

Of course, a big caveat. I cannot be sure that what I am saying does solve the mysteries. How can I? Unless there is a smoking gun, and there will not be, it will be difficult to find any concrete evidence that will prove beyond a reasonable doubt who the mystery party is. However, I can make a very educated guess and then let investigative journalists and the Opposition do their job to find out if what I have said is correct.

And it is absolutely essential that they do so. In my opinion what has been done by this party could jeopardize the future of Canada and our economic relations with the United States. We already have the Democrats mad at us because of the intervention over NAFTA, and now they will be furious because it appears that we are trying to endrun them by signing a deal before a Democrat might become the new President. Moreover, by embarrassing President Bush and effectively saying McCain has no chance, we are not winning any friends with the Republicans.

Now obviously, this is not the work of just one person...a committee of bureaucrats and politicians from many Departments have to be involved. Ultimately though, someone will have to take the fall for it if there is a failure just like someone would have taken the credit if it had been a success. We have to try and identify who that person is.

We have some work to do to solve some mysteries. Here they are:

1. Mystery number one: who set up the story with Radio-Canada that suggested that the United States and Canada were about to do a deal on a new bridge in the Brighton Beach area.
   


2. Mystery number two: who is the unnamed Cabinet Minister in the Windsor Star story:
   
   "Francis said he met recently with an unnamed federal cabinet minister to discuss the availability of a 110-acre property the city owns in Brighton Beach.
   
   “We look forward to working together on this,” he said. “The plaza and crossing are exactly where we would like it to be. It’s the most removed from Sandwich. We’d rather have the plaza in Brighton Beach, so we offered it (the property) up.”
   


3. I have a suspicion dear reader Watson, that we are dealing with one person only in that if we find the answer to one mystery, then we will find the answer to the other one.

Just a bit of background. Prime Minister Harper failed to convince US President Bush to go along with him at the SPP meeting to construct a new bridge in the Windsor/Detroit area. In fact, it appears that the President has no interest whatsoever.

That decision was totally unexpected by the Government of Canada since Ministers by the planeload had been flying into Washington trying to convince the Americans to go along with their plans. They must have been using Transport Canada's Deputy Minister Louis Ranger's handbook on how to lobby the Americans without them knowing it. Time to revise that literary work I think!

The Government regrouped and thought that they would pressure the President into going along with their plan. Step one was a speech by Minister Prentice at the at the 38th Conference on the Americas respecting the border. Then the coup de grace was the Radio-Canada story about Brighton Beach.

Frankly, as we know now, that was a gross miscalculation by a number of politicians and bureaucrats about what the Americans were going to do. Their finely-tuned bureaucratic business model completely failed. They had not built into their model that the President would actually say NO and mean it. They may have thought that he would be coy and might want to do a bit of bargaining, say over our oil and water, but in the end they expected him to fold.

They figured that they would soften up the President at the SPP meeting and Prentice's speech would be "much more pointed than those Prime Minister Stephen Harper" forcing the President to cave in. He did not and in fact ignored Canada in his subsequent speech.

Unfortunately for the Canadians, they had already put in place, as the culmination of their business plan, the Radio-Canada story which was really designed to put additional pressure on the Owner of the Ambassador Bridge. If he thought that the President was not going to support him, then he would be more likely to be more interested in selling out while the selling out was good. The Government people expected that they would receive a phone call from him very quickly to set up a meeting to talk about surrendering.

At the same time conversations were starting with the Mayor about the "purchase" of Brighton Beach from the City. I put purchased in quotation marks because I believe that the Government still has no intention of buying anything since they intend to build their second bridge right next to the Ambassador Bridge as was done in Sarnia. An unnamed Cabinet minister according to our Mayor has been talking to him about that purchase. In my opinion, he came down here to talk as well about the Tunnel deal with Detroit to get the price down as I have previously Blogged.

I think if we can figure out who is involved in the Radio-Canada story, then we can figure out who that Cabinet Minister was as well. Or vice versa. You see dear reader Watson the plot thickens.

Clearly there have been oodles of Federal Government politicians involved in this file that could be the one that we are looking for. Choices include the Prime Minister himself, the Canadian Ambassador to the United States Michael Wilson, Transport Minister Cannon, Industry Minister Prentice and even Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day.

There is no doubt that the plan was hatched by a number of the Senior Politicians and Deputy Ministers but there was one Minister who was the driving force behind this botched scheme. The likelihood of it being the P.M. is minimal and Ambassador Wilson is in enough trouble with the US. Stockwell Day has really not said very much on the file so I doubt if he would have had a big role. As for Mr. Prentice he has been saying too much on the file, a lot of it incorrect, so he would want to keep a low profile.

The only one left therefore is Transport Minister Cannon. At first blush, he is the likely candidate. Why do I say this... the reporter who broke the story was from the French network of the CBC, Radio-Canada, not the English network. Minister Cannon has responsibility for the Conservatives in Québec. He is after all be Minister of the Department that has carriage for this file, Transport Canada with its Corridors and Gateways policy.

Next, I am advised that the reporter involved is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery and probably would have gone with the Prime Minister to the SPP meeting as part of the press pool. He therefore would have known about the new bridge in Windsor since it would have been made a big deal for the Canadian reporters since the Government was expecting success. It is likely as well that this is when the arrangements were made to have him come to Windsor to do his story.

Like any spy novel, the Reporter must have had a cover story about why he came down here. The obvious one was that US Secretary of Transportation, The Honorable Mary E. Peters, was being hosted by the Detroit Economic Club for a speech she was going to deliver in Detroit on Monday, May 5, 2008. That would be something about which Transport Canada would be well aware.

It was all set up then that the reporter would come down here to look around and to do a few interviews but would be really here to do a story on the big deal between Canada and the United States. The only problem was that there was no deal but no one had the nerve to tell that to the reporter because then the Canadian Government would look foolish. I have to assume that the decision was made to let him come expecting that the story would only be played in Québec. It would be buried and no one would hear about it.

Another bad decision. These people are ridiculous if they think a $5 billion infrastructure transaction, supposedly the largest between Canada and the United States, that would create 25,000 jobs for a bridge to be built alongside the Ambassador Bridge could be kept quiet. (In passing, another indication that a bridge will not be built downriver. The word "alongside" must have been a Freudian slip.)

The story broke and was covered unexpectedly by the English language press across Canada and obviously made it to the White House since the NSA, CIA and State Department know everything instantaneously.

Now it is damage control time and who is to be sacrificed. I expect that the Opposition will start hammering at the Government once they realize the incredible stupidity of the Government's actions that jeopardize the future of our relationship with our biggest trading partner, the United States. The Transport Minister will be put on the defensive won't he.

The problem is he is not the one who is at fault. He is not that foolish to risk killing the DRIC Environmental Assessment process by making a statement at this time that undercuts the entire five-year effort to date at a cost of millions of dollars on both sides of the river. Moreover, he really has no interest in this file, since it is being run by the Deputy Minister, Louis Ranger, since his real job is to elect Conservatives in Québec. Oh sure, he was interviewed in the news story but that is another reason why he would not be involved. That would just be asking for trouble if something blew up. He would not put himself personally at risk.

Moreover, Transport Canada spokesperson in Windsor, Mark Butler saved his Minister's neck by saying:

• "We still have not made a decision for a site or plaza," said spokesman Mark Butler.
  
  "We anticipate making an announcement over the next few weeks -- certainly between now and July."

Well, have you figured it out yet, dear reader Watson. Who seems to be the responsible party?

Probably not. It is not that obvious I am afraid. You will need a few hints.

Obviously, he must have a Quebec connection to have Radio-Canada involved. Otherwise it would have been CBC breaking the story. So much for Mike Duffy's importance!

Another hint. Whoever the person is has to be well versed in finance because he was talking with our Mayor about the purchase of Brighton Beach. He would not have come down here just for one single purchase transaction but rather he would have to be down here for the financing of the entire project, a public-private partnership that the Government is trying to force down the throats of taxpayers.

He is probably also down here as I said before to talk about the Tunnel. The Federal Government expects to scoop it up at a very low price because there's no one else interested in taking it off the hands of the Cities of Detroit and Windsor. He will use the City of Windsor as his front so that the American Government will not get upset about Canada controlling the Tunnel and probably the new bridge crossing as well.

Accordingly, he would also have to be someone who is very experienced in the Government in contracting and would be knowledgeable in P3's.

Another clue. Which Government department "buys more goods and services than any other public organization in the country — buying everything from the flu vaccine to security systems to aircraft. "

Finally, here is the Radio-Canada news clip. Even if you do not speak French, you will hear the name of the Minister. Just listen carefully.

Now you know who it is. Put everything together.

He is a Minister from Québec given the Radio-Canada story who would not have to answer any questions in the House. It will be extremely difficult to pin him down. How can that be...he has never been elected as an MP but is a Senator and became a Minister through that route. He has worked in the legal and banking fields with a major Montréal law firm and with a major investment firm and bank. His Ministry is the one that does most of the contracting for the Federal Government and he would be very familiar with sophisticated financial transactions.

The clincher... his name was mentioned right at the end of the news story, right out of the blue! I do not recall him being involved publicly in this file before.

Accordingly, by a process of deductive reasoning, I believe it is elementary, dear reader Watson, that the person whom I believe is the one responsible for what could turn out to be a disastrous situation for Canada is Senator and Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Michael Fortier!

Remember my caveat at the beginning. We cannot know the real answer, at least not yet. By a process of elimination and by making certain deductions we have arrived at a solution. It is now up to others to discover the true answer with the leads that we have given to them.

Remember, I told you that these bureaucrats are brilliant in devising their plans. They think about everything don't they! Oh why couldn't the President of the United States just have done what they expected him to do and agreed with the Prime Minister. Then everything would have been just absolutely perfect.