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The Canadian-backed international bridge project between Detroit and Windsor is closer to reality after Michigan voters defeated a motion requiring a statewide vote to approve money on for the project.

With 62% of the vote reporting, Michigan voters rejected the proposal 61-39.

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Manuel (Matty) Moroun, the billionaire owner of the competing Detroit-Windsor Ambassador Bridge, spent over $30-million fighting against the project, blanketing the region with thousands of ads calling for voters to approve the initiative and block the new bridge.

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“It’s unprecedented,” Rich Robinson, executive director of Michigan Campaign Finance Network told the Windsor Star before the vote. “It’s beyond my comprehension. This is so far beyond anything we have ever seen.”

Canada had agreed to pay for the bridge in full, including liabilities — and potential cost overruns — under an agreement that was about a decade-in-the-making and officially announced to much fanfare, at least on the Canadian side of the border, by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder in Windsor-Detroit in mid-June, making opposition on the U.S. side of the border confounding to some.

The 85-year-old self-made billionaire who owns the 83-year-old Ambassador Bridge, is Cynic-in-Chief. The Ambassador is currently the only transport truck-bearing bridge in town. Twenty-five percent of Canadian-American trade, representing about $120-billion, flows across it each year.

It’s a monopoly for the Moroun family, putting upwards of $80-million a year in tolls, duty free gas and shopping sales in their pockets. Allowing a Canadian-financed competitor into the ring could cost Moroun millions of dollars.

With files from Joe O’Connor, National Post