Mayor Dilkens has evolved into a strong leader
I chuckle now to think how some of us once fretted over how long it might take Mayor Drew Dilkens to emerge from under the shadow of his larger-than-life predecessor and become his own man.
Four years of exponential growth later, Dilkens has evolved into a commanding figure who takes a back seat to no one — not even Eddie Francis — when it comes to strong, effective leadership.
The a-ha moment came in the late summer of 2016 when Windsor was clobbered by twin tornadoes, followed a month later by a monstrous flood-producing rainfall.
We knew Dilkens was a quick study. But those wild-card events revealed him to be a calm, take-charge individual who could be counted on to provide effective leadership in a crisis. His evolution over four years has been remarkable, even more so given the chronic hostility of four councillors and the continual cold shoulder from senior governments. Windsor, with a hot economy and a streamlined, cost-effective government, has benefitted enormously from this strong leadership. And the good news just keeps rolling in: Swiss automotive electronics firm APAG Electronic Corp. announcing a North American headquarters and 148 jobs; German parts making Kauth revealing plans for a North American headquarters and plant with 350 jobs.
The cherry on the cake is the commitment from the billionaire architect of Detroit’s astonishing comeback, Dan Gilbert, to open a hightech office in the former Fish Market building. The usual naysayers sneered when Windsor, with Dilkens leading the way, joined the Gilbert-led crusade to bring Amazon’s second headquarters to the Detroit-Windsor area. Total waste of time and energy, they snickered Yet here’s Quicken Loans, the engine of Detroit’s recovery, jumping the border to make what could become a transformative tech investment in downtown Windsor. The silly daydream of last year is now reason to dream big. That’s more than I can say for this mayoral race. It has been a dismal exercise from Day 1, with former chamber president Matt Marchand stumbling out of the gate and then failing to gain any momentum.
His performance in last week’s mayoral debate left me wondering if he really wants the job. Where’s the fire in his belly? Where’s the willingness to go for the jugular in pursuit of the prize?
I’ve always liked Marchand. Nice, congenial guy. But he sounded to me like someone auditioning for a job as a mediator or conciliator, not someone prepared to lead his city through thick and thin.
The problem, I suspect, is that he’s your classic smart backroom operative accustomed to whispering advice in the boss’s ear. Is that the best mayoral training ground? Surely it’s more than coincidence that all, or nearly all, of Windsor’s mayors over the past half-century served on council before becoming mayor. The job doesn’t come with training wheels.
It was disappointing to see Marchand lobbing out simplistic chew toys: No children’s Christmas lights. No heritage streetcar preservation. No pedestrian underpasses, even one that remains just an entry on a long-term wish list. Those are easy to grasp. Much harder to wrap one’s head around is the staggering improvement in Windsor’s finances since Marchand’s former boss left office at the end of 2003. Windsor, the former fiscal basket case, is the poster child for fiscal sanity in this debt-ridden province and nation, with reserves totalling $180 million, more than twice the city’s current debt. If we stay on the current track, Windsor will be debt-free by 2031 and will boast a huge rainy-day fund.
The mind-boggling thing is that Windsor is achieving all its fiscal goals while holding the line on taxes and spending record amounts on roads and sewers and flood mitigation measures. So what’s not to like? Plenty, if you’re one of the special interests looking to restore CUPE to a position of payroll-padding influence at city hall. Good grief. They even want to bring back the parking enforcement folks who had to be coaxed and cajoled into coming to work once in a while.
Turning back the clock Monday, back to the days when the city dog-paddled in red ink and nobody in charge gave a damn because there was plenty more where that came from, would be a gross betrayal of Windsor taxpayers.