Crazy Weather

Can anyone explain what is going on with the weather? I sure cannot.  It is going up to 60 degrees plus this week.  In March, in winter!

How many times have we seen the actual weather bearing little relationship to what was forecast just a bit before?  It made little sense to me to see that happening. I could not understand it since it was happening so often these days it seemed to me. 

We've had really bizarre weather in this area over the last little while haven't we. Can you remember when the weather hit high temperature records for several days as happened recently and then we've had the weather crash on us a day or so later to very cold weather. How can we have so many high record temperatures in the wintertime followed by so many cold weather temperatures?  Moreover, why was that happening? It was very disturbing to me from a weather perspective for sure. How could anyone make a plan since temperatures could change so unexpectedly. 

Don't you remember, it was predicted mere days ago that we were going to have a massive snowstorm here in the Essex County area. The forecast a few days before said the weather clouds might drop up to 8 inches of snow or more in the area where I live.  Now, we actually got a lot less in snowfall numbers so we won't be trapped and be required to dig out ourselves by all of that white stuff. However, the forecast was still pretty horrible. 

I am being kidded by my family members about how often I follow weather forecasts and sending it off to them or talking about it on a day when we are together.  I must admit that I did a lot of weather watching in the locations where we were going for a holiday. After all, I had to know what was going to happen to us didn't I because we were out of town. I had to make sure that we were completely secure. Who wanted to be caught in a rain or thunder storm when we were outside of our hotel room traveling in the area.
 

I find it interesting that weather forecasts from our media these days are rather different as they keep being changed so often. In the same way, we keep getting information from amongst them but it isn't necessarily the same at all. It well could be different for them: 

"If you put 1,000 meteorologists in a room and asked for a forecast, guess what you'd get? Yup...1,000 different forecasts and 1,000 different reasons why they'd be right! The funny thing about my profession is how many so called "experts" are out there when it comes to meteorology/weather forecasting, even those without academic degrees or formal training and experience. This has become even more rampant in the Social Media era. There are fewer "experts" in the business of long range forecasting, like we do here at Weather Trends, yet just about everyone has their favourite method for predicting the weather"  (Weathertrends360 August 27, 2014) 

How many times have we seen weather forecasters on television give us a weather forecast and then see what we were told having no relationship to the weather that we are actually experiencing. Again, in the last little while, I read a forecast on a TV Channel weather section but, in that story, the author told us that the weather might change the night before the day we had just been told about. It seemed so strange to me that it was often the reality. 

As an example, as I have seen, even days before what is going on here now with respect to snow and rain, that the weather forecast could not be determined by the weather people. It is almost to the point where they are only giving us the weather forecast not in advance but for the time when they are telling us what the forecast actually is right at that time.  They really could not tell us what the weather action would be like for a variety of reasons.  

Notwithstanding what you may think, dear reader, I'm not critical of weather people. Their job is a very difficult one because they are being asked to tell us exactly what will happen days after we first know what they believe based on information that they have at that time. We all know that such action is impossible because weather changes for a variety of reasons that may not be predictable at all. 

At the least, they are being helpful to us to allow us to take action that may be helpful to us given what they are predicting in the weather forecast for us.  Even if that bad weather being projected does not happen, we can take comfort that we prepared for it. 

Heck, if they are right very often, then it is pretty positive for them as well too.

The New House Behind Us

Wow, the amount of work being done and the speed of it for the new home being built behind our house is incredible to me.

I have posted a number of photos over the last little while showing you how quickly it is being put up.  Clearly, the good weather we are having this winter has allowed it to be built more quickly than what I would normally expect at this time of year.

It is hard for me to tell you, dear reader, how big it is in square feet but I suspect that is has to be a lot I would think.  It certainly is not a small unit as far as I am concerned.

I also don't know who the owner is.  That should be interesting to find out. 

In any event, here are some photos of the work being carried out over the past few days that show  you how quickly it is being constructed and the manner in which it is being completed.  That will give you an indication of its appearance as it is being finished on the outside.

Some Weird Odds And Ends

I guess I must have lived a very strange life before but I never experienced very much of this "strangeness" that I seem to be experiencing now.  Is it my imagination or are things not as well-built as they used to be? I find that I need to replace items more often than ever before. Maybe that is why  prices are lower too for products in many cases.  They have to be replaced much sooner.  It is quite unfortunate, but I have learned how to deal with it.

 

I find that we also don't seem to be living in a world that is very consistent. My wife enjoys entering contests which can be fun, but also annoying at times. In the past, she has been a big winner in a number of contests, winning very substantial prizes. As an example, a couple years ago, she won a wonderful cruise to the Mediterranean. Now though she enters so many contests but does not win  anything except maybe some small, silly prize.

I decided to try my luck and here is where the inconsistency comes into play. Let me give you an example that I have had. I won a $2 prize from one of the coffee companies. It was for a free cup for coffee. Sounds easy and simple. Well, no that wasn't the case. It took 5 phone calls before I was able to get an answer as to why I couldn't redeem the prize.  The difficulty in winning the prize was due to the fact that my computer had Internet Explorer and didn't use Google Chrome. The browser was not compatible. Naturally, because I did not use it, I had no intention to put it onto my computer for just this $2 silliness on one occasion. However, it was the principle of the matter. I shouldn't have to waste my time for a crummy cup of coffee. I spoke to a supervisor who assured me I would receive my prize in the mail. We'll see if that happens or not.   

Just compare that with the article I wrote a little while ago about my positive experience regarding the mystery sound that turned out to be the flush valve in our bathroom working improperly. Do you see what I mean about different episodes being handled in completely different ways in just about the same time-frame. 

This is why I find a lot of businesses do not last long in the marketplace anymore.  Regardless of how great your product is, if you do not listen to your customers or help them when a problem arises, not only will they take their business elsewhere, but they will also tell others. Word-of-mouth is very powerful.

I understand that sometimes it takes time to solve a problem, but it is that genuine rapport which makes a lasting impression. No matter how big or small the issue, customers matter!

More Construction Work Being Carried Out

Incredible.  

That is the word that I'm using with respect to the speed of the home behind me being finished considering how quickly it is being built. Its size seems quite large but it is being built fast too.  I just wonder who the owner is.

The number of people working on that project is not that high it seems but nevertheless a lot of work seems to be being done quickly to get the outside parts finished as soon as possible. Then I guess they do the final construction work inside subsequently but protected now I assume. 

Here are some more photos I took, this time of windows being put in and also parts of the roof being finished as well including the putting on of most shingles.  It is the work being done over several days.  Some days are nice and sunny while others have been hit by snow

 

It really is a lot of work being done faster respecting this new home rather than what has been done with some other homes from what I have seen.

 

 

 

 

Lots Of Fun In Tecumseh These Days

Lots Of Fun In Tecumseh These Days 

Seriously, I'm having a good time these days at my new home in Tecumseh.  I was able to adjust to the other places within a few weeks, but after moving to my new townhouse, it feels so different, but in a very positive way. 

Quite often I feel that I just moved into this new place, even though I have been here since May.  Unlike my other moves, I have different ideas about things that should be done here or where my wife and I should go for the neighbourhood walks. Naturally, changing the interior appearance of the house is also a bit time-consuming and yet fun to do. The best thing that I am experiencing is meeting so many new people who are just so friendly to Marsha and me. It is so great to be able to say hello to so many people when we are out for a walk here in the nice weather. I rarely saw any other people in my old neighbourhood in Windsor, but I guess it was just a different atmosphere. 

Even though I don't write as many stories on items that I see in the media, I still have that desire to write articles and post them to the public. 

Accordingly, here are a few stories that interested me and I thought that I would give you my opinion on them. 

star vs. star 

What a hoot! Which Star newspaper do you think will be the winner in the big fight between them in their stories over the construction of the new bridge for the crossing between Windsor and Detroit? 

Of course, the 2 "Star" newspapers are the Toronto Star and the Windsor Star. Although their names are similar, they are part of competing newspaper chains. 

The big issue that I am talking about these days is the Toronto Star story on February 13, 2016 that was about the letter sent by the Ambassador Bridge Company to the Toronto newspaper about issues happening in Windsor. The tone of the letter seemed to be quite favourable given this comment by Matthew Moroun, who is one of the main people working for the Bridge Company on this matter: 

"I’m inspired by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s desire to take a new look and a fresh approach to fix old problems. This situation is just such a problem. 

“I’m ready to do the same.” (Linda Diebel Toronto Star Feb 13 2016)

Of course, the Toronto newspaper got the story and especially the important facts while the Windsor Star did not. All that the Windsor paper really could do was point out the Toronto story. The tone of the Windsor story was rather sharp I thought and expressed their disapproval of what was going on since it seemed that it was really a Windsor issue and they should have known what the facts were first to disclose them to the public as the first newspaper did. 

I thought these lines were rather interesting in the Windsor story published on February 14, 2016 which was written by Dave Battagello:
 

"Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said he has also been subject to having an “olive branch” extended to him by the Morouns.
 

“But three weeks ago, they sued us again,” he said. “It’s hard to believe the offer is genuine based on their behaviour and history.” (Dave Battagello Windsor Star February 14, 2016)
 

Nice smash back to the Bridge Company don't you think. It is a quite a story that now seems to be being projected by the Windsor newspaper.  Presumably, that means not to believe very much about what the Bridge Company is trying to do. The story has a comparable tone to the lines in the story that were also posted based on what was said by the Ferry Company's Gregg Ward and MP Brian Masse (NDP—Windsor-West).
 

Anyway, let's see what happens down the road with respect to a possible settlement of the border file between the Ambassador Bridge Company and the Governments both in Canada and the United States. If the talks are going to happen, I would expect something to happen fairly soon.

I wonder if someone from the Windsor Star will have the sense to meet with the Ambassador Bridge Company people and try to re-establish their relationship with them so it can get the leading stories for publication. I must admit that I do not expect it to happen.

Which Premier Has A Real Future Politically NOW

Oh my, is any Premier in Canada going to survive?  Take a look at this quote with respect to most of them:

"Most premiers just aren’t very popular in their provinces, according to a new poll showing seven of Canada’s first ministers get more negative ratings than positive ones.
 

Most premiers had approval ratings stuck in the 30s, with Quebec Liberal Premier Philippe Couillard and Nova Scotia Liberal Premier Stephen McNeil both at 36 per cent approval, Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley and New Brunswick Liberal Premier Brian Gallant both at 33 per cent, and B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark at 31 per cent. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, a Liberal, had the approval of 27 per cent of respondents and Manitoba’s NDP Premier Greg Selinger, who is about to face a tough re-election fight, had the approval of just 19 per cent.
 

Ms. Kurl attributed the lack of popularity to the fact that the shine comes off most governments once the hard task of governing actually begins, plus the “collateral damage” to political leaders of a depressed economy.

“It’s common for the political honeymoon to not last in Canada."  (Chris Hannay Globe and Mail

Feb. 18, 2016)

 

Childhood tooth decay

 

The Windsor Star story on the subject written by Dave Battagello was an interesting one to me, as it is important to take care of our citizens.
 

"Windsor’s city council voted in 2013 to remove fluoride from drinking water after community groups voiced concerns and presented evidence the chemical causes weaker joints and more broken bones over time.

But concerns over its removal were triggered again Wednesday after a study was released by a University of Calgary research group which showed tooth decay troubles have more than doubled among youngsters in that city since removing fluoride from the drinking water in 2011." (Dave Battagello Windsor Star on February 17, 2016) 

Could the situation be the same thing Windsor? Are we willing to listen and make changes?

Here is what Dr. Ed Sacilotto, president of the Essex County Dental Society said:

"Kids we are seeing in the last little while are having cavities. Before you never saw that at all until the last few years. It’s been a big change.”

There are 270 dentists across Windsor and Essex County who largely “believe kids have to have (fluoride in the water) growing up,” he said."

 

AMALGAMATION

Nice to see that Lloyd Brown-John agrees with me now to expect that we're going to have a "Metro Windsor – Essex County" as our future. I'm not sure that he is in high expectations that it is going to happen relatively easily but he did make this comment:
 

"Nonetheless, the province does have a role and a potential big stick and with a little courage, money and impetus at Queen’s Park, a new round of intelligent municipal amalgamations could and, perhaps, should be on the horizon.

Essex County and the rural municipalities and mayors might consider that, just perhaps, the days of an unamalgamated Essex County and City of Windsor are numbered. In this region it is highly probable that in the long-run municipal amalgamation will occur."
 

There is no doubt in my mind given all of the stories recently in the news media that the system of an amalgamation of all of the various governments in this area is being worked up.

What is interesting is to try and guess is which politicians around now could have a big role in setting up the amalgamation of the new municipal Government and perhaps have a key role in its future.

Given his role as Mayor of a very small town where I live now, Tecumseh, and being President of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario as well as a good contact with the Provincial Liberal Government, he has to have a very good opportunity to be deeply involved in all of this. Perhaps Windsor's Mayor is looking more to this function for his future as well rather than to be re-elected as Mayor. Who knows who else could be involved to get a better position down the road.

The Michigan Governor's future looks better now

Rick Snyder still has several years that he remains as Governor before he needs to take action for his future.  He supposedly is in a tough position now BUT it may be starting to get a lot better for  him so that he can capitalize on it to be a big hero.  Take a  look at this:

"Edwards: Water testing shows Flint is healing  Chad Livengood and Jim Lynch, The Detroit News February 18, 2016

New state testing data released this week shows 7 percent of about 10,000 Flint homes tested since September were above the federal safety standard for lead — a measure considered by a leading water quality expert to be progress.

“These values are much, much better than what we measured last August,” Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards said Wednesday. “At a minimum, the system is healing.”

 

The Mysterious Sound And Helping Others

Don't ask me why it is happening, but it is.

Since literally being brought back to life from being within days of dying because of the illness that I was experiencing just over a year ago, my life has been unbelievable to me. I am recovering well and I am very thankful to those who continue to support me in so many different ways.

I want to share a story with you.

After getting a thorough home inspection, we were advised that before moving into our new home in Tecumseh, a new furnace should be considered. It wasn't a question of if the furnace would go, but more of a question of when it would stop working properly. Calling him in, a Reliance Home Comfort employee concurred that one of the first major things that we should do in our new house was to replace the furnace completely in our basement and to add other small features during that process to improve our townhouse for the future. Frankly, to me anyway, it really wasn't such a big deal because this was an expense that usually came up.

We decided to go ahead with the purchase. For others it may have worked out well when they made the changes in their basement with the new unit being installed. However, for us, it was quite a crazy experience to deal with! Unfortunately, because of my health condition at the time in May of last year, I could not be involved in watching the new unit being put in. That task went to my daughter, Melissa, and to her boyfriend, Bill. Fortunately for her, Bill had some experience in dealing with home heating systems and knew the right questions to ask. Nevertheless, the person putting it in, who was an employee of the Reliance subcontractor to whom the task was given, must have done something wrong because installation was a mess and the furnace did not work properly.

According to my daughter, a number of things happened that seemed to be improperly done during the installation. I need not bore you with all of those details but when I heard about it I contacted Reliance and spoke to some senior officials there. My tone was not exactly friendly either. I warned them that, if I had to call them one more time after supposedly everything had been fixed up, I would require them to take out every piece of equipment that they put in and reinstall everything again properly or else! I also told them that I did not want their subcontractor involved in the unit replacement because of the mess they had made and how bad our phone conversation was.

Reliance performed beautifully to satisfy us. They literally sent us a team of employees to check out everything that was done initially, fixed it all up and the system worked perfectly. They fixed the outstanding problems that their employees spent hours trying to figure out, but had difficulty in doing so. They had various people checking the different pieces of equipment. Now that is service for just a plain customer with no other connection with the Company. It cost us zero dollars as well!

Everything worked well for months and months until a short time ago when I started to hear a noise that was coming from somewhere in the house. My guess when I first heard the noise, in the middle of the night naturally, was that it probably came from the basement because of the cold weather. It was just some expansion and/or contraction of some parts I felt. I had experienced a similar issue in a previous household where I lived. As time went on, the noise increased from a few times a night to several times during the evening and then throughout the day. My wife and I could not figure out from where the noise was coming or what the problem was.

After spending too long hearing these peculiar sounds, we asked my daughter's boyfriend, Bill, to come over and try to fix up whatever was going wrong. By this time, I had fortunately lucked out I thought. The noise seemed to come from the bathroom beside my bedroom. In fact, the noise seemed to come from the toilet, believe it or not. Bill made the decision that even though the time period was so short from installation, the problem probably came from the toilet itself with a flush valve not suctioning properly and so it was causing air bubbles to form and it may not necessarily be a problem that Reliance can help. He went to a local hardware store nearby and purchased a new flush valve to potentially alleviate the problem.

It took a fair bit of time for Bill to get the rubber part of the valve on properly. It would not seal flat and what a frustrating process! He finally did it and replaced the old part with the new one. Hallelujah, success! The sound disappeared.

My wife and I had a great night of sleeping the first evening. On the 2nd night however, everything broke down. It was a mess. I heard a sound at about a quarter to midnight that night and that sound came back every 10 minutes or so thereafter. My wife and I spent time trying to get that sound to stop. We achieved nothing. The decision was made by us that we were going to call up Reliance to have a worker come out that night under their repair service to have someone take a look further into what the problem may be, so we could finally get to sleep.

I spoke to a lady by the name of Patty who was in Reliance's Services group. She seemed to be nice. Obviously, I have no idea what she looks like but she seemed to be a bit older and she knew how to talk to a person who had a problem. She had a very friendly personality so late at night, which was comforting. Patty was very knowledgeable and our discussion lasted almost 45 minutes.

Yes, it was that detailed because I felt first that it was necessary for me to disclose our problem in our house because I couldn't figure it out. Also I did explain to her my medical situation and so sometimes I may get words wrong or it may take me longer to explain. She was very understanding and handled this complex situation in a professional manner, mentioning she would call back and let me know if someone could come and check out the issue.

Patty called back within a half an hour and told me about how many people she had spoken with already. I was shocked by how many to be honest and how senior they were even so late at night. I was told not to expect anyone coming in until around 8 o'clock that morning. I accepted what she said and we ended up chatting on the phone for a while more. I thanked her for her time and great efforts and said goodnight. I have never received such great customer service before in the middle of the night!

It was probably about 2:30 in the morning when we were all finished and Marsha and I went back to bed. I normally do not sleep very well in a difficult situation. However that night I fell asleep right away and got up a few hours later feeling quite relaxed. At around 7:30 AM, Patty called me again with a bit of bad news. Regretfully, I was told that the person that they wanted to come to take a look at the furnace equipment who was experienced would not be able to come until later in the morning because he was attending a conference for which he had been scheduled before. I accepted that because I wanted a senior employee to come over and we had settled the problem temporarily.

It was around 10 AM, the time when I was told that his conference would end, that I received a call from him, Ian, who told me that he was coming over immediately. It wasn't very pleasant outside because of snow and he told me that it would take a bit longer to get here than normal. He told me not to worry because he was going to remain at my house until he solved the problem. Another phone call came. Ian said that there was a problem with his daughter's car and he needed to tend to the situation right now. I understand that family is important and so I told him to come when he was ready. Fortunately, it worked out and his daughter was able to get the issue dealt with and Ian was heading over to fix this mysterious sound.

We spent a good amount of time when Ian arrived here talking about the system that I had arranged to be put into our house and the problems that we had experienced initially. I was afraid that one of them either was coming back or had not been identified before because of the mess of the system originally. He wanted to know everything that might be wrong with it now so that he could fix it up. It did not matter how long it took because he was there to solve any problem that I possibly had.

To be direct about it, as we were speaking, one of the situations that I discussed was that I heard a lot of noise directly from our toilet in the bathroom. That made him think that it was actually a toilet issue itself that caused the problem. In fact, it turned out that the work my daughter's boyfriend had struggled with was due to the fact that even the new flush valve was poorly manufactured and was not sealing properly again!

Ian had to go out and buy another piece of equipment to install. He went to one of the big Hardware stores in town to get something that was better quality. He did not accept what they had in stock, so off he went to another outfit where he was able to get a good piece of equipment with which he was very comfortable to install.

If you think that Ian stopped there just to repair that unit, then you are wrong. He went into the basement and took a look at all of the equipment down there. In fact, he organized changes for some of it even though it was probably earlier than it needed to be done because he told me that he did not want another issue a short time later. There were several actions that he took to change equipment to make sure that I was not going to have to solve another problem shortly thereafter. Thank goodness for that!

When Ian finished all his work after about 4 to 5 hours being in our house, I was thrilled. I could not believe how long he stayed here and how much work he did to help us out so much. I must say that I was a bit nervous in case I heard another noise that evening coming from the water system telling me that the problem still had not been solved but I heard nothing. Everything that Ian had done was perfect!

I was not finished after Ian left. I had a very important job that I had to do as a result of this situation. I spoke with Ian's supervisor, John, and expressed my gratitude about the great work that he had done. I also spoke with John's supervisor, Ghislaine, and then all of their supervisors, including Amanda, who lives out of town, to express how happy I was with what happened.

That's it, dear reader. I wanted to set out in great detail what took place so that not only would you understand the great relationship that I have developed with Reliance, but more importantly with many of its employees who made it their job to make sure that everything worked for our family so well. If I would have encountered a negative experience, I would share that too, so you are aware of how to deal with these situations. If you're looking for a furnace or any other equipment for your house, I would highly recommend booking an appointment with a rep from Reliance. It makes me happy that they offer live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week service to their customers. I intend to be a life-long customer.  Go here to contact them: http://www.reliancehomecomfort.com/Pages/default.aspx

So that's the end of the story. I enjoy letting people know the good and the bad of anything that takes place in my life because maybe a similar situation has happened to you, or may occur in the future and so reading my blog will help you know what steps to take.

Deleting Lots Of Material

 

I have been downloading lots of material on my computer for a very long period of time so that I can use it later on. When I downloaded a specific news story, I expected to be able to use it fairly soon thereafter as the basis of an article that I was going to write on a certain subject for my website.  

That plan failed miserably. Unfortunately, there was so much material that I downloaded and did not use because other more important events or items arose which I had to write about first. Accordingly, I started plugging up storage capacity on my hard disk drive with all this old material. However, in doing so, I found some interesting articles that I thought that you, dear reader, might be interested in taking a look at. Here are some of those articles that interested me so much that you might want to consider.

WHAT IS OUR NEXT BORDER CROSSING 

I wish I knew what the answer to that was. How will our new border crossing between Canada and United States finally be set out? 

You know from what I have written previously what I think will happen. My belief is that it is not going to be a new bridge a couple of miles away from where the Ambassador Bridge is located now. Rather, it will be a 2nd bridge right beside the existing one for a whole bunch of practical reasons. 

I'm sure that many people believe that senior politicians can tell us exactly what is going to happen although it is being kept secret publicly as it has for years and years and years. However, I am not one of them. I always believed that many senior politicians may not be giving us that information. Heck, they may not know what is really going to happen either! 

Here is just one example. This Story in the fall is what Dwight Duncan said in a Windsor Star story by Dave Battagello on October 20, 2015 http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/gordie-howe-bridge-project-should-remain-on-track : 

"Construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor and Detroit will remain a Canadian government priority under Justin Trudeau and the newly elected Liberals, says a longtime party insider. 

“The bridge project is significant enough in national scale it shouldn’t be affected,” said Dwight Duncan, Ontario’s former finance minister, who represented Windsor provincially from 1995 until 2013. 

Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper never shied away from declaring the new border crossing over the Detroit River a top infrastructure priority for his Conservative government. 

It’s too important to the nation’s economy for that to change under the new Liberal leadership in Ottawa, Duncan said." 

Then, what Dwight said a few days ago is remarkably different to me based on the new story that I saw published which might really be what the new Liberal Government wants to do. Naturally, he does not accept what is being proposed but he also has not rejected it completely right away: 

"Former Windsor MPP and Liberal government insider Dwight Duncan was recently named WDBA’s interim chairman. 

He said Saturday he has not seen the email or spoken with the Morouns, but called it a “significant development.” 

“It is the decision of government how to respond to this and determine if it is real — or whether to even respond at all,” Duncan said. “It certainly is a change in tone, but my advice is to be cautious about this.”  http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/ambassador-bridges-moroun-wants-to-talk-toronto-star-reports

 

Who knows now what is going to happen. Frankly, whatever the final decision is needs to be made already. We cannot afford in this region to continue being one of the worst ones in the country as we have been for so many years. We need a project started right away to help build up our region's economy so that we are no longer the worst one in Canada!

 

ANNE AND THE MAYOR'S RELATIONSHIP STARTS TO END 

It appears that the end of the relationship between the Star's Anne Jarvis and Windsor's Mayor may have started publicly in November, 2015. Here's what she wrote in her column that suggests this: 

"Two months ago, I praised Mayor Drew Dilkens for listening to councillors. Then came a string of controversial issues and heated, marathon meetings. And behaviour at the top deteriorated. 

Dilkens needs a handler. He needs a manual: How to be a successful politician. Frankly, he needs sensitivity training. 

But we can’t afford a handler because council has to freeze taxes for the eighth straight year and pay for a new sports tourism office, new city hall, aquatic centre that’s always over budget, etc." (Anne Jarvis Windsor Star November 22, 2015 http://windsorstar.com/opinion/columnists/jarvis-sunny-ways-mr-mayor).   

It may well be that Drew Dilkens' career could be hurt because of the comments of Ms. Jarvis in her columns after that date.  

The other interesting part of what is going on between Ms. Jarvis and the Mayor is that the other major Star columnist can write a good story about the Mayor as this recent one shows:  "Dilkens' excellent Indian adventure." http://windsorstar.com/opinion/columnists/vander-doelen-dilkens-excellent-indian-adventure It was by Chris Vander Doelen on February 12, 2016  . 

WINDSOR MAYOR TRAVEL EXPENSES 

Wow, fascinating stories about Windsor Mayor's travel expenses. I saw this one which was written in the Windsor Star much earlier in 2015. It is much more different now when the entire 2015 expenses were disclosed. Here's the earlier story that did not seem to get much of a reaction compared with today's story. 

"$11,648 tab: Dilkens posts second-quarter travel expenses online

 Craig Pearson Windsor  Star Jul 29, 2015 

Mayor Drew Dilkens wants the public to know exactly what he spends on travel, so he’s posting the information online every three months... 

“I wanted to be as transparent as possible,” Dilkens said Wednesday after his expenses appeared on the City of Windsor website. “So I voluntarily decided to post all my travel expenses every quarter online so the public can see where I’ve gone and what I’m doing on their behalf...” 

“I go where I have to go to do the job,” Dilkens said. “And that’s what I said in my inaugural speech as mayor, that there’s nowhere I wouldn’t go to bring jobs to Windsor.”  (http://windsorstar.com/news/11648-tab-dilkens-posts-second-quarter-travel-expenses-online) 

As I am sure that you are aware, the whole situation involving travel expenses changed very rapidly considering Dilkens' costs recently disclosed. Those costs were over $41,000 for 2015 as set out in this article "Windsor mayor's travel bill among the highest in the province" by the Star's Carolyn Thompson published on February 19, 2016: 

"Windsor taxpayers spent $41,230 last year on travel for Mayor Drew Dilkens — including a trip to South Korea that cost $7,358 — making him one of the most-travelled mayors in the province. 

He was out of the city for a total of 65 days, flying to Germany, Russia, China, South Korea, South Carolina, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Ottawa and seven other Canadian cities. 

Dilkens spent twice as much on travel in 2015 as the mayors of Toronto, London and Ottawa combined." (http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/windsor-mayors-travel-bill-among-the-highest-in-the-province)

Interestingly, the Star article disclosed the expenses of the previous Mayor, Edgar Francis, while Francis was Mayor. In fact, some of those expenses in one year were higher than what Dilkens spent and in another was close to it. However, his name was not mentioned in the recent Star article because perhaps someone might want to know how he spent that money: over $52,000 in 2011 and almost $40,000 in 2012. 

How successful are these trips taken by Mayors around the country? As reported in the Star article: 

"In a 2010 report, University of British Columbia business professors John Ries and Keith Head studied trade missions, primarily at the federal level. They found no increase in trade despite governments touting the benefits of their costly trips abroad. 

“There is no evidence that they actually pay off,” Ries said in a telephone interview. Participants might hold back deals to sign during the trip and some agreements never come to fruition, he added." 

OUR EMPLOYMENT STORY 

This story was done quite some time ago in the Windsor Star. I'm sure that you expect, as I do, that its subject-matter will become a major issue for Windsor as time goes on especially as the lead-up to the next City election: 

"Windsor has been Canada’s most unemployed city for more than five years

Carolyn Thompson Jul 10, 2015  

Windsor has had the highest unemployment rate in the country on and off for more than five and a half years since 2006 — longer than any other city in the country. 

Since 2001, Windsor’s jobless rate has been the highest in the country for 69 months. We came in second 18 times. 

That a total of almost eight years with the highest or second highest unemployment rate in the country. 

It’s unusual for a city to stagnate economically for a decade, said Mike Moffatt, assistant professor of business, economics and public policy with the Richard Ivey School of Business in London. 

“You have seen historically some cities just not get out of this,” he said. “Like a Buffalo, New York, which shrunk economically for decades. That is a concern that we’ve seen in the rust belt.” 

Windsor is still the city with the highest jobless rate in the country, according to the Statistics Canada labour force survey, released Friday morning." (http://windsorstar.com/business/windsor-unemployment-rate-falls-to-8-9-per-cent?__lsa=bb83-3f90)

Now that should be a challenge for a whole bunch of people on Council and also outside of it, especially if they were elected representatives previously.