Privatization is fowling cross border business

The private owners of the bridge from Windsor to Detroit have been waging a long fight to stop the development of a second bridge across the border, annoying the Conservative government of Stephen Harper and enraging Canadian business.

Perrin Beatty, head of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce (which represents tens of thousands of Canadian businesses) has called the new crossing “the single most important thing we can do to improve the functioning of the border” and complained "what you have is massive amounts of money being poured into a campaign to spread misinformation.”

The for-profit bridge owners are now collecting signatures for a referendum to get a constitutional change to prevent Michigan from supporting a second bridge without another referendum.

Privatization of what is properly a public amenity has led to the creation of a powerful vested interest opposing the expansion of the service. Other businesses are completely vexed, and even the Harper government, a rabid backer of privatization, has been set back by this privatization.

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