When Matty wins, we all lose.

When supporters of the proposed Detroit River International Crossing gathered for a press conference in downtown Detroit this past April, a startling array of often discordant voices were singing in sweet-sounding harmony.

There were Democrats and Republicans. There were a number of trade unionists as well as business interests ranging from the local Chamber of Commerce to Ford Motor Co. There was the African-American mayor of Detroit and white political power brokers from the other side of the Eight Mile divide. There were Canadians and Americans. All standing shoulder to shoulder as they joined in unison to praise the proposed bridge they said needs to be built between the Motor City and Windsor.

The current governor, Democrat Jennifer Granholm, and a few conservative members of the Legislature were there. Jim Doer, the Canadian Ambassador to the United States, was there as part as a far-ranging coalition that also includes the Michigan Association of Counties, the Canadian Auto Workers and the Ohio Senate. It was indeed, as one business publication covering the event reported, an "all-star lineup."

But the fact that they had come together spoke volumes, not just about the importance of the issue but also about the power and influence emanating from one octogenarian billionaire — Manuel "Matty" Moroun, whose privately controlled Detroit International Bridge Company owns the Ambassador Bridge.

That bridge provides a crucial link in the chain of international commerce, a key point in the corridor that accounts for 25 percent of all the trade that flows between Canada and the United States. As a conduit for semis carrying freight, it is a near-monopoly that, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, generates $60 million a year in toll revenue.

The bridge, however, is only one piece of Moroun's empire, which includes trucking and insurance businesses, as well as real estate and duty-free shops. So, even without the Ambassador, the Moroun clan wouldn't be reduced to collecting aluminum cans in order to make ends meet.

But it is the bridge that he is most associated with, and competition from the DRIC — which would be publicly owned and privately operated — is portrayed as a cataclysmic threat to all things Moroun. The scope of DRIC's perceived menace to Moroun and his family was made clear at the April press conference when Matty's wife Nora made what the trade publication Toll Roads News described as a surprise appearance at the event.

"You have somebody who operates a crossing that has retained a No. 1 ranking since we owned and operated it. Now the state of Michigan and Canada want to take 70 percent of our business," Nora Moroun is reported to have said. Making the most important border crossing in North America sound like a vulnerable mom-and-pop grocery, she added, "They want to destroy our family business."

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