History professor John Bukowczyk is quoted in Bill McGraw's column dealing with the mayor of Windsor 's more visible role as a player on the political and economic scene of southeast Michigan . Mayor Eddie Francis was invited to participate in the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual policy conference on Mackinac Island this week. Bukowczyk, director of the Canadian Studies program here and one of four authors of a book about the U.S.-Canada border, points out that "given the proximity of southwestern Ontario and southeastern Michigan , there are natural economic connections that neither we Detroiters nor our counterparts in Canada have exploited as much as we could and should have."