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City of Windsor, Ontario sees signs of rebirth

February 5, 2010

A Star reader who moved here from Toronto a few years ago emailed a provocative suggestion after the good economic news we got last week about Samsung and Red Bull.

A retired executive in his 60s, he's still learning the basics of Windsor history -- the booms and busts, our age-old power struggles.

He loves the longer summers here, the river, the bike paths, the cheap housing. But man, he says: "What a negative bunch of people!" What will it take to cheer us the heck up?

"Have you ever seen reason for greater optimism in this community?" he wrote. "The new bridge, connector roads, airport expansion, retirement destination, new energy potential, the downtown canal ... the retreat of union influence?"

Except for that ridiculous canal boondoggle (don't get me started again) he's right. "Great optimism" in the city's future is certainly justified. Certain people send hate mail when I write this, but thousands of new jobs are coming. Bet on it.

You have to worry about the short term. Employment Insurance benefits are about to run out for many people, and others are on the verge of losing their jobs or homes. They send emails, too, and the desperation is heartbreaking.

Unfortunately, things are going to get worse for some before overall economic conditions start getting better. But the new guy is right: Things are about to improve around here in a big way.

A double handful of positive economic developments will soon create jobs and investment, and garner us valuable national and international attention. Hopefully, we'll also benefit from some new economic momentum that replaces some of the energy we lost in our sunset industry, the car business.

The Conference Board of Canada thinks so. On Wednesday, it released a report which predicts Windsor's regional economy will grow by 2.6 per cent in 2010 after our devastating slump of six per cent last year, the worst in Canada...

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