By the time you read this, the prime minister will have pulled the trigger on a federal election that almost nobody outside of oxygen-deprived Parliament Hill wants.
Like most disasters that seem to come in threes, this is probably the middle of three elections that we will have to endure over the next two years that will make little difference.
Very little difference for the $300 million plus that it will cost.
Of course, events do not occur in isolation.
Although the upper tiers of government have their own areas of responsibility, the old rule of plumbing still applies: bad stuff flows downhill.
Anything that happens in Ottawa or Queen's Park has an effect upon the city.
Of course, the city can affect the senior levels of government during an election; one of the few times when our elected officials need to pay attention to us if they want our votes.
Over the past few weeks, we have seen the federal government start to bribe us with our own tax dollars and we can expect that more announcements will be coming down the pipe.
A promise to pay the city to help clean up brownfields has been good election fodder for both the feds and the province for the past five years. While the province has delivered on its promise of cash, the feds have yet to fork over their share.
True, there is an agreement in place, but the city is unable to collect the money until the official plan has been approved by Queen's Park, and that does not seem to be forthcoming.
Of course, that is a big sticking point for the city.
After years of slow, steady progress on the issue of brownfields, especially the Greenwich/Mohawk brownfield, the city is at an impasse.
Notice that you don't hear a lot about this project now. Nothing can happen until the zoning for this area is changed from industrial to something else.
That cannot happen until the province approves the city's official plan, which is held up pending "consultation" with the native community -- whatever that means.
Given the current state of affairs between the city and the two upper levels of government, one should not hold one's breath waiting for that approval.
The real problem that the city faces is that municipalities are underfunded -- period.
Senior levels of government know this, but the need is so great and the economy so uncertain that nobody wants to part with any of the lucre unless necessary. If they do part with some of this money, they want to make darned sure that they get the credit for it.
With that in mind, this election is a good opportunity to press the feds for a greater share of revenue to deal with the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be needed to fix the city's crumbling infrastructure.
The city can only hope that the federal government, in its zeal to get reelected, will spill some money our way as they try to take the riding of Brant back from the Liberals.
While there's no provincial vote on the horizon, we can still look forward to the time when it will keep its promises to upload many of the services that were downloaded to the city in the Mike Harris years.
The big one is social services. As economic hard times press closer, the city could find itself footing the bill for people who find themselves unemployed because of the decline in manufacturing.
This current election is also a time for people to press the federal government to address land claims in this area.
The city has been held hostage for too long by this issue for the feds to expect to be given a free pass on it.
City councillors, developers and ordinary citizens should be attending all-candidates meetings and pressing for answers to issues that are affecting this city.
You will never get a better chance to hold them accountable for what is happening.
Perhaps the most important thing that you can do for the city is to become informed about the issues and to vote.