Credit where credit is due

And the winner is ...

Democracy.

As I write this post, the mainstream news organizations have declared Obama the winner of a second term as President of the United States.  Whether this turns out to be the case or not, our neighbor to the south has exercised its right to vote, and the turnout at the polls, from what I hear, was quite high.

Believe it or not, the presidential race wasn't the highest priority in my mind.  Matty Maroun, billionaire owner of the Ambassador Bridge (the busiest land-crossing site between Canada and the U.S.) wants to stop plans to build a competing bridge across the Detroit River.

Despite the plan already being signed by representatives of Detroit, Windsor, Ontario, Michigan and Ottawa; Mr. Maroun decided he could halt the bridge construction by amending the Michigan constitution.  In order to do that, a proposal would need to be put on the ballot.  Getting the proposal on the ballot would require a relatively large number of signatures on a petition.

So, Matty Maroun set about getting the required signatures, and the proposal was added to the ballot for Michigan voters.  Not content to get the proposal on the ballot, Mr. Maroun then set about creating a massive misinformation campaign to ensure the proposal's acceptance.  By latest accounts, he spent upwards of $33 million on TV, radio and other means to convince people that the bridge construction should be stopped because it would be built with Michigan money (a statement that is blatantly false, since the Ontario government is on record as saying it would pay the entire Michigan share of the expenses).

The grass roots opposition to his proposal was outspent by nearly a 30-1 ratio.

Tonight, it appears that Maroun's proposal was soundly defeated.  I honestly thought that the masses would be bamboozled by his smoke and mirrors tactics and wouldn't be smart enough to see through the ruse.  I am happy to say I sadly underestimated the intelligence of the typical Michigan voter.

I'm not naive enough to think this is the last "stalling" tactic to be fielded by the ever-desperate Maroun.  But, at the very least, it will be one less hurdle that needs to be overcome on the way to seeing the new bridge project completed in my lifetime.