On the Canadian side, the Toronto Star calls it “The War of 1812, Part 2.” The “it” is a dispute between the American and Canadian sides of the “Peace Bridge” between Buffalo and Fort Erie.
Though we don’t today have Mohawks loyal to King George III confronting American troops on the battlefield, the spat over the bridge — which dates from 1927 — is getting uglier by the day.
The Canadian chairman of the bridge authority, Anthony Annunziata, called a New York engineer “the governor’s concubine” because she was carrying out Gov. Cuomo’s wishes. Meanwhile, the senior man on the governor’s team, Sam Hoyt, has described his Canadian counterparts as “duplicitous,” boycotted meetings and told them, “The fact that you ask for ‘mutual respect’ is nothing short of laughable.”
Post readers might recall Hoyt as the Buffalo assemblyman who had an affair with an intern — and sent her an e-mail in which he offered to be her “human lollipop.”
In sum, Cuomo is right to call the bridge a “metaphor for dysfunction.”
In the Legislature, there is already a bill that would dissolve the authority that now runs the bridge. Mostly the legislation is seen as a threat to get the Canadians to do what New York wants.
But we’d take that legislation further. By all means abolish the authority and spare us government functionaries who behave like kindergarteners. (“They started it!”) But instead of setting up another authority, why not privatize the bridge and put someone in place who can build what is needed while providing governments on both sides with revenues?
That should not be hard for a bridge that sees $40 billion in trade cross over its span every year. The governments don’t even have to give up ownership. Just come up with a lease, set down terms that will allow those who fix and run it to recoup their costs and turn it over to people who will get something done.
The sad truth is that instead of the “War of 1812” what we really have here is a farce closer to Michael Moore’s 1995 film “Canadian Bacon.” When we might have a modern crossing that makes it easier for people and goods to travel, brings in more revenue for governments on both sides — and gives a permanent “time out” to the government appointees who obviously cannot work together for the public good.