CAMPAIGN KICK OFF SPEECH

The following is the word for word speech heard on todays Campaign Kickoff.

My name is Greg Baggio, and I am running for City Councillor in Ward 1.

I am running for council because I cannot stand by and watch this city slip further and further behind other Canadian cities because our present administration refuses to make decisions.

Time after time, when faced with an opportunity to move our city forward, this council has chosen to do nothing.

Time after time, when faced with an opportunity to improve our economic base, this council has chosen to do nothing.

Time after time, this council sees nothing, hears nothing, does nothing.

Our city, my city, deserves better, and I intend to be a part of a new council, a proactive council, that will spare no effort to move Windsor ahead.

Make no mistake. Windsor is not at a crossroads. We are on a path.

And we either move ahead on that path, move confidently into the future with a solid plan and an active administration, or we will fall behind, perhaps never to recover our position again.

It is time we reclaimed our position among Canadian cities as the gateway to the Canadian economy. The movers and shakers might be in Toronto or Montreal, but what they move and what they shake goes right through this city, like it or not.

Some of our fellow citizens sometimes feel that other cities get special treatment and that we get nothing. If that’s true, it’s because we have a council that is prepared always to take a back seat, never to step up and claim our status as a major component of the economic engine that drives our entire country.

In recent days, we’ve seen Ford announce the closure of the engine plant with not a peep from our council. Ford, who has made billions of dollars in profit in the more than 100 years they’ve had operations here in our city suddenly can’t find a way to keep our plant going.

Our fellow citizens didn’t design the cars that Ford can’t sell.

Our fellow citizens didn’t place the executives in Ford’s head office that made terrible business decisions, one after the other.

All our citizens are guilty of is building their engines, and we do it better than most. So now, to make up for Ford’s mistakes, our fellow citizens face unemployment, hardship, and debt.

And our council is nowhere to be seen.

For years now, there have been proposals before our Council on an arena project. Meeting after meeting goes by, and no decision gets made.

Business people spend their hard-earned dollars putting projects together, and our council completely ignores them.

Our citizens implore them to act, and our council ignores them also.

Now, we are told that one of those plans, the IceTrack proposal of the Toldo/Rosati group, has tired of waiting for Windsor to act and has made an agreement with Tecumseh – they will relocate Windsor Raceway, they’ll build a new casino, and yes, they’ll build that new arena. And yes, they’ll take something like 3,600 jobs to Tecumseh with them! Now WE are forced to pay a desperate $48Million out of our pocket for our own Arena.

nd easily the biggest issue of the last twenty years or more is the border crossing issue. We’ve had one council after another avoid this issue by demanding study after study, and still we’ve gotten nowhere.

And this council has made an art form out of ignoring the wishes of our citizens. Here’s a news flash for our council:

The people of Windsor in general, and particularly the residents of Ward 1 will not accept any proposal that includes surface routes as a means of getting to the border.

We don’t need another study to know that.

We don’t need another report to tell us that.

What we need is a council that will follow our residents’ demands and lead the way to getting this situation resolved.

Here is my position on this issue, and it is the position I will take to the residents of Ward 1. I issue a clear call to them and to all the citizens of our great city to pull together behind this cause.


The only acceptable means of moving those trucks through our city is a tunnel – from Highway 401 right to the apron of the Ambassador Bridge or beneath the Detroit River. We know we need to keep that bridge open, we need to expand it, and we know the bridge corporation is working on that now, but to get trucks to any crossing point, a tunnel is the only option. A tunnel can be built anywhere. And if we use DRTP rail lines it will can convert our rails to trails and parks. Our neighborhoods will become safer for all our families.

Some will say that’s not possible. But those who say that do not give the residents of Ward 1 and the other wards in this city enough credit – the fact is, if that’s what we want done, it will get done. We need only for our leaders to do their jobs and bring this about. Leaders are elected to serve their citizens.

Some will say it’s too expensive. But money is not an issue here – the tunnel will pay for itself many times over. And it will provide perhaps five years of employment for Windsor’s residents. But there’s another key point that I want all of Ward 1 to know, and all of our city’s residents to know. As costly as that tunnel may be, I believe the citizens of Windsor should pay NOT ONE DIME of their tax dollars to build it.

Days ago, the Federal Government announced a surplus of some $13 billions, with every likelihood that it will be closer to $17 billions when all of the accounting is done. They say they want to use that money – our tax dollars, don’t forget – to pay down our national debt, which sits today at something like 450 billion dollars.

That’s good. As a business man, I’m in favour of debt reduction. But I believe it’s time for the Federal government to step up to the plate and earmark some of that surplus, at least $5 billion dollars of it, to build our tunnel. The money is there, we know it is, and Canada needs this facility more than ever. This is an investment for our government that will pay huge dividends in the future, unlike some other projects the government has gotten involved in.

When Toronto wanted a new stadium, our tax dollars built the Skydome – half a billion dollars worth almost twenty years ago!

When the Skydome was going broke, our tax dollars picked up their debt – millions of dollars worth of debt – and turned the stadium over to private interests.

When Toronto got a few inches of snow, they called out the army, and our tax dollars paid for that.


And let’s not forget that a huge chunk of that $13 billion surplus came right out of Windsor in the first place – GST paid on goods that crossed into Canada, fuel taxes paid by all the trucks that carried those goods, and so on.

And it’s time that people realized that Windsor has paid enough!

It’s been our roads that have been torn up by thousands of trucks, roads we built with our tax dollars.

It’s been our air polluted by the exhaust fumes of thousands of trucks as they breeze right through our city on the way to someplace else.

It’s been our residents who have had to put up with the noise and congestion caused by those thousands of trucks.

We’ve paid our share. We’ve done our share. It’s time for our City to step up and claim its share!

All of this can be done. All that’s needed is strong leadership, a vision for the future, and a plan to make that vision a reality. And above all, we need a council that has the backbone to make decisions based on the needs of our citizens.

There’s an old saying that used to be popular a few years ago, but today, it’s more appropriate than ever.

That saying is, “Lead, Follow, or get out of the way!”

I say to the residents of Ward 1, with your help, I will lead.

With your help, I will see to it that your needs are met.

And with your help, Windsor will move on into this new century with all flags flying, ready to meet every challenge, and not being afraid to succeed. We are the economic future of Canada! We are Canada’s gateway!

And I say to the followers on our City Council, “It’s time. It’s way past time. Get out of the way!”

Thank you all. Please join me. Let’s get our city moving!