I had tacos with Consul General Roy Norton yesterday (details here: [link] and [link] — none of which is hyperbole: In my presence Canada pledged to pay for the NITC. These folks are legit).

And I’m very pleased with us this morning, Michigan. The Freep reports that we “crushed” Moroun’s proposals (link)–a remarkable achievement, since Moroun had poured *an additional* ~$10 million into his ad campaign *since this column was written.* He had paid workers at our polling places yesterday pushing his amendments. Meanwhile, there was virtually *no money* supporting the “No on Prop 6″ positions–and yet a clear majority of voters called bullshit on the whole mess. To my eyes, there can be no more reassuring endorsement of our unique, janky brand of democracy than this: Clearly, as individuals, we can be bought–after all, plenty of Michiganders took a paycheck to help Moroun with his scheme–but in the end, as a People, we’re not going to be gulled; we can keep each other honest. Our System itself–when we show up, when we imbue it with our own vital essence and bless it with our attention–isn’t for sale. Well played, everyone! I’m proud of Us.

In other news, we’ve all earned free sandwiches from Satchel’s: [link] I’ll personally be there between 11:30 and noon; see you there!

I am voting NO on prop 6.

For the curious, a spreadsheet of bridge traffic data for all 11 bridge crossings to Canada is available as an Excel spreadsheet on the Public Border Operators Association website: [link] (it’s pretty detailed; check out the “ANNUAL” tab for aggregated data that’s easier to look at).

Crossings on the Ambassador have been up year-to-year since 2009 (as Chris mentioned, comparing 2009 to projected 2012 show’s ~12% increase). In my humble, crossing numbers from 2000 are apples-to-oranges; 2000 is *before* an international terrorist attack that made crossing US international borders orders of magnitude more complicated. It’s also six-ish years prior to an enormous recession . You’ll note that the aggregated crossing numbers dip (with the exception of a couple of the smallest crossings in NY) from 2006–i.e., the start of the Great Recession–and then rise for *all* crossings since the nominal recovery began in 2009; if this was just a matter of truckers picking a different route to Canada, you’d expect Ambassador to fall and someone else to rise accordingly. But these are all rising.

Joe Blog: Thanks for the link! I urge everyone to read it. The article is titled “Snyder stumps against Proposal 6, confirms Canada on hook for bridge cost overruns,” which sorta says it all (J.B., I’m gonna hold off on rewriting just yet, regardless of how mercilessly you’ve pummeled that Straw Man). The Crain’s article, read in its entirety, offers solid background on this issue. But that lede paragraph is a curiosity, as a written agreement *does* exist–here it is, executed back in June: [link] It’s long, but the summary (at the bottom of page 1) is both pithy and clear:

“The Crossing Agreement provides a framework for a Crossing Authority established by Canada to design, construct, finance, operate and maintain a new International Crossing between Canada and Michigan, under the oversight of a jointly established International Authority with three members appointed by Canada and the Crossing Authority and three members appointed by the Michigan Parties, and with funding approved by Canada, but with no funding by the Michigan Parties. The Michigan Parties are not obligated to pay any of the costs of the new International Crossing.”

My baby has croup and I’m exhausted! Have a great evening, everyone!

Even if a new bridge weren’t needed (and I’m not saying that one is), amending the state constitution is a ridiculous way to prevent it from happening.

Tolls would apply equally to Canadian vehicles (I assume), so exorbitant tolls wouldn’t be likely.