CIBPA Action

Congratulations to the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association for their initiative to start a political action group to try to convince our City politicians to end their opposition to what is needed to be done today to end the stalemate on the border file and to provide a boost to our economy in this time of virtual economic stagnation in our City.

Why is it that everyone other than the Council Members can understand that we need some interim action taken to drop Windsor down in the standings as the City with the highest unemployment rate in Canada? Seriously, why is this idea so hard for them to grasp?

Again, I cannot believe that this is the only City in North America that is fighting its Senior Level Governments and a private investor who want to sink billions of dollars into its economy. Are we really this crazy?

I know that there is more going on than meets the eye between the City and the Senior Levels in their fight against the Ambassador Bridge Company but seriously, this is getting ridiculous already to the detrimentof thousands of people in this area. That is the human tragedy in all of this that will be uncovered one day. Our politicians seem completely unconcerned except for their continuing platitudes.

Unfortunately for the Association, our Mayor will dismiss their efforts out of hand. He will view them as merely another pressure group who are fronting the City’s “enemies.” Their efforts will be categorized as designed to hurt the Mayor and Council and the citizens of Windsor to the advantage of the enemies. He has played that card before.

He will ask at the next in camera meeting of Council, as he has done frequently before I am told by my inside moles, who has received phone calls from whom so that he can try and do damage control by badmouthing anyone who has dared speak against what he wants to do. I am not so sure that he will be as successful as in the past because some Councillors are starting to weigh whether they need support him to be re-elected at the next election.

My information is that the relationship between the Association and the Mayor is not a good one anyway. I understand that the Association kept sending him requests for him to make a speech to the group but he kept ignoring them. It got to the point that the Association just stopped sending out invitations.

In such an environment, does anyone think that the Mayor will take them seriously?

The challenge for the political action group is to figure out a way to accomplish their objectives. It really should not be very difficult for them as STOPDRTP proved conclusively as ex-Mayor Hurst was soundly defeated by the organization.

After all, the Mayor is merely one vote on Council. If that is not a good hint for the Association as to what they should do, then nothing is.

What is even more intriguing in all of this is who was the instigator. I am not going to name names but it appears that one of Eddie’s big friends who has publicly spoken out in favour of the Mayor has now turned against him. From what I have heard, he has become quite disillusioned with the Mayor and he was the one who suggested that this step be taken.

What is also interesting is the addition of the DRTP rail tunnel in the Star article even though it was not mentioned in the letter. I assume that means the doublestack rail tunnel and not the DRTP truck highway.

The significance of what is being proposed along with the meeting in Sandwich to oppose the Heritage Plan is a recognition finally by citizens of Windsor that the Mayor and Council are destroying this City. They have achieved little while Eddie Francis has been Mayor other than trying to pretend that they are dealing with issues as they are wasting taxpayer money.

We do not have the luxury of playing these silly games as the economy in this Region is tanking. Visions of Greenlink, airports and canals is something that we can no longer afford. We need jobs and we need them now.